by Debra Lobel

Created on: April 26, 2009   Last Updated: May 14, 2009

Oakland is the eighth largest city in Californiaand is part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is eight miles east of San Francisco, separated by the San Francisco Bay. It is a major West Coast port. Many people in San Francisco would go to Oakland for the summer and live bungalows to get away from the cold San Francisco weather. These bungalows are now the permanent residences. After the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, Oakland's population doubled in size as people who lost their homes to the fire in San Francisco looked for a place to live. Oakland is a very ethnically diverse community with over 150 languages spoken.

There are many attractions in Oakland including Jack London Square, Lake Merritt, the Oakland Zoo, two museums, and many parks. It is home to the Oakland Athletics baseball team, Oakland Raiders football team and the Golden State Warriors basketball team. The weather is temperate with a climate similar to that of the Mediterranean. Summers are usually dry and warm and winters are usually cool and wet.

Major businesses in Oaklandinclude Kaiser Permanente, Clorox, Dryer's Ice Cream and Cost Plus World Markets. Many Oakland residents work in San Francisco which is easily accessible by car, bus and BART (train). Oakland also has an international airport which makes flying very convenient.

Oakland is made up of more than fifty neighborhoods which are parts of large divisions known as Downtown Oakland, Central Business District, East Oakland (which is more than half of Oakland), North Oakland, and West Oakland. There is also a geographical division between "the hills" where many upper-class families live and "the flatlands" where most of the working-class families live.

As of this writing, there are 302 existing homes for sale, 4,044 foreclosures. Existing home prices range from $4, 3888,000 in "the hills" down to $250,000 in "the flats". There are foreclosures in every part of Oakland. These foreclosures range from $150,000 to $4,923,873. Most of the foreclosures are in the East Oakland area. The "hills" area has not been hit as hard by foreclosures. Home values have depreciated by 12% in the last year due to the recession.

My favorite area is North Oakland. It is an upper-middle class neighborhood comprised mostly of single-family homes that used to be bungalows. The weather is very pleasant, with temperatures ranging between 40 and 70 degrees year round. Occasionally, temperatures are in the 90's in the summer and fall, but it is rare. Very few homes have central air-conditioning.

After the 1991 fire that burned over 3000 homes in the hills, many homes were rebuilt using a more modern architecture. There are many restaurants in the area and BART connects this area to other parts of the Bay Area. North Oakland is very close to the University of California at Berkeley and Lake Merritt, which is a beautiful area to walk around and have picnics. Homes prices are high, even during the recession. A typical three bedroom two bath homes goes for over $800,000. Before the recession, these homes were priced between $900,000 and over $1,000,000.

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