I just found out today that single family in SF are exempt from rent control. So, I started browsing and came across a few in bernal heights, nice neighborhood close to highways bart etc selling for $1100-$1200 psf - around the same price range as redwood city or sunnyvale
I would have expected a SFH in the land scarce city to be way more than sunnyvalue or RWC !
This is why I’m bullish in sf. Many neighborhood (decent ones too) in sf are cheaper than rwc / san carlos / sunnyvale etc. With millenials mostly preferring city life, it’s just emplyers that need to wake up & open more shops here… Hey, even Facebook is opening an office in sf. 
good to know !
But gosh even oakland has topped 1000psf, I’m not even talking Rockridge with bart convenience and has always commanded premium
These are houses near piedmont ave (not to be confused with piedmont, ca)
Makes SF look like a bargain, especially when it is considered a destination for international investors
Imagine if Oakland actually got its sheet together with lower crime in the flatlands and better schools!!! Boom!!! The weather in Oakland is fairly ideal…
I’m still not convinced about comparing oakland and SF in terms of long term investment and this is coming from someone who would actually prefer to live in Oakland!
SF is after all an international city attracting foreign investors from Russia/Asia/Brazil…so there is always that edge. Oakland seems to me more of a domestic buyers market.
And SF is more central in terms of bart/caltrain/freeway connections eg works if you have a couple working in east bay/city or peninsula/city
Well, how about using the comparison of Manhattan and Brooklyn for SF vs Oakland to a certain extent? No one honestly believes Oakland can hold a candle to SF but the proximity to the Fab 7x7 just reeks of money to be made. Just look at the developments planned for Oakland. The Oakland A’s are building their own stadium down by Laney College, so that area could go booming soon. All that building in downtown too. The rise of the Temescal and Uptown districts as hip, foody districts. It goes on and on…
Brooklyn, IMO, happened because of NYC. People were priced out of Manhattan completely, and looked the close by boroughs. To make Oakland happen, I feel SF needs to be completely gentrified (yes that includes Bayview, Hunter’s point).
For a while, I was also bullish on Oakland (I like the downtown + proximity to Berkeley) until all these startups started going bust. Case in point: Uber cancelling the Oakland campus impacted the prices somewhat. That’s how sensitive that market is towards tech companies here.
I’m still hopeful though. I’d like all those tech startups in SF would stay here forever. Honestly, commute from San Mateo is much harder than taking a ferry form Jack London square in to FiDi.
Yes thats exactly what I would have thought in terms of manhattan vs brookyln…but in this case if I can buy a SFH in san francisco for 1100-1200psf on a 2500 sqft lot and oakland is almost there, its a different dynamic compared to manhattan vs brookyln.
No way to buy a SFH in manhattan other than maybe upper side past Harlem.
I should add that from an investment perspective, most SFH in Oakland is still rent controlled while in SF no rent control for SFH, although still a lot of eviction rules.
Come on, @notabene, my wife and I are complaining about the commute to just downtown! It is taking us 45 min to an hour now. I take my bus from about 6:30 and get into the office about 7:30. That is crazy. Wifey drives later…
Ha! so commuting from oakland to SF is apparently faster than from other parts of SF to downtown! now that’s starting to make sense.
Still I’m wrapping my head around $1100psf in temescal and south berkeley!
Yes, a lot of people have been saying this for a long time. If you lived in Manch rental country (West Oakland) I imagine door to door would be quite fast.