InBerkeley

Walking around town, a scooter or skateboard with a 150 pound kid is coming your way.

Best thing to do is step aside, if you see him (or her, rarely).

And if you have the time time and an iPhone, take a picture!

General

“So how’s the real estate market doing in Berkeley?” It’s a question I get asked a lot because I run a local housing blog, and I’m therefore expected to be in the know.

The answer, of course, is not straightforward.

Yes, real estate in Berkeley has been hit hard — as it has across the nation. The average price per square foot of a sold home so far this month is $404 compared to $495 in 2007, according to Redfin (see graph. left).

So unless you absolutely have to put your house on the market right now, don’t. It’s without a doubt a buyers’ market. Then again, many potential buyers are remaining renters while they ride out the uncertain economy.

But, like most cities, Berkeley is made up of many micro-neighborhoods, and some of them are holding up relatively well, despite the recession.  Homes in parts of north Berkeley, and the Claremont and Elmwood areas, are seeing a steady turnover, at prices that aren’t necessarily frighteningly low. (Certainly compared to parts of neighboring Oakland where houses are going for as little as $37,000 these days.)

And if a house ticks all the boxes — in particular location and price –  it can still sell in a flash. Take the 3-bedroom Craftsman-style home  at 2915 Forest Ave (pictured left), which sold last month just nine days after hitting the Multiple Listing Service with a $1,350,000 asking price.

A third of listed homes, however, are still struggling to secure buyers and are enduring one or many price cuts. A case in point is 19 Alvarado Rd, a 4-bedroom traditional home, which just last year changed hands for $1,803,000. This week its price was reduced from $1,450,000 to $1,295,000 after 66 days on the market.

Also worth noting: the average price of a home in Berkeley today is $737,000; homes in walkable locations, rather than high up in the hills, are more sought after these days (hopefully a sign people want to rely less on cars); and some homes are re-appearing on the market very quickly after being  bought (tales of lost jobs or changing fortunes perhaps).

Property

Streetsblog reports that the bike station at the Downtown Berkeley BART station will be expanded. The new bike station, in the now-vacant Shoe Pavilion store on Shattuck, will have room for 200 bikes. It will replace the current station, which is inside the BART station.

[gmap]

According to Streetsblog:

The new bike station is at least partially the result of successful lobbying from the East Bay bicycle community, including the EBBC and Bicycle Friendly Berkeley, which saved the proposal after it neared the brink of losing funding late last year.

The new station will be paid for by a mixture of a Safe Routes to Transit (SR2T) grant, a program funded by Regional Measure 2, and contributions from BART ($53,000 per year) and the city of Berkeley ($60,000 per year). BART is also paying the utilities, estimated at $24,000 per year.

The SR2T grant, which is managed by TransForm and EBBC, was in serious danger of being forfeited last December, when its three-year term was set to expire if Berkeley didn’t contribute its portion of the funding. Advocates showed up in force to the December 8 meeting of the Berkeley City Council [see photo above], concerned that the Council would not provide the funding, or would support a stripped-down proposal for a less visible station located in an existing auto parking garage. District 3 BART Director Bob Franklin also strongly urged the council to take action at the meeting.

These efforts paid off, as the Council unanimously approved providing $60,000 annually in funding for the expanded station, and TransForm consequently extended the grant’s term.

The new bike station will also include bicycle repair, bicycle rentals, showers and lockers, and community bike education classes.

[gmap]

Photo from EBBC

Downtown, Green

I was speaking this morning to a distinguished scientist who spent last week at the PV America conference in Philadelphia. Photovoltaics is one of the world’s fastest growing industries, and 4,000 buoyant participants crowded the convention center. According to my informant, one of the big buzzes at this event was the Berkeley FIRST financing initiative.

Berkeley FIRST enables property owners to borrow money from the city’s Sustainable Energy Financing District to install solar PV electric systems. The cost is repaid over 20 years through an annual charge on the property owner’s tax bill. Slots for the first 38 homes in the pilot project were sold out within nine minutes of applications going live in November.

Photo by Solares from Flickr

Green