Neighborhood pride gives Bernal Heights cachet in the real estate market
This week’s Surreal Estate column has Carol Lloyd expounding the virtues of her neighborhood, Bernal Heights. “A few years ago when we bought our home in Bernal Heights, a hill of mostly little worker cottages, topped by an undeveloped park space with a giant radio antenna, I knew many things about the neighborhood. I knew I was within walking distance of two friends’ houses, a cafe and a grocery store. That there was a library nearby and a lot of sleepy-eyed parents pushing strollers. I even knew that spring was marked by winds howling in from the Pacific. What I didn’t know was that we’d joined a cult.”
“Since the beginning of the boom starting in 1997, the average price per square foot of a two-bedroom family home in Bernal Heights has gone up far more — from just over $200/sf to nearly $700/sf — than similar houses in the nearby but swankier neighborhoods of Noe Valley and Potrero Hill.”
“Once the price of homes here was slightly below the city average. Now they are above. So what changed? All of San Francisco — like much of the globe — has been visited by real estate mania, and Bernal is no different. Gentrification doesn’t fully explain the phenomena here, because there are many other Bay Area neighborhoods that are similarly in transition. So why would Bernal — which has virtually no new construction to pump up its numbers and lot sizes that typically prohibit any expansion — exceed the average? I would wager it’s that Bernal Heights cultivates something nearly as elusive and comforting as God’s good graces: the promise of a “real community.”"
“Indeed, Bernal Heights — except for the limited public transit — is something of an urban planner’s dream. The relative walkability, high density and narrow streets and even the isolation from other neighborhoods force a sense of community in the middle of a metropolitan area. Even some people who don’t live here identify as Bernal residents, suggesting that it’s not just a place but a state of mind.”
That “state of mind” is a better deal until rents and home prices come into better alignment.
It won’t cost you $700 s.f.
sf jack at January 24th, 2006 at 1:06 am ( )