Oakland Apartments for Rent

Oakland isn’t the Bay Area’s second city anymore. With its stunning location on the shores of Lake Merritt and proximity to Silicon Valley employers, it’s come into its own. The ethnically diverse population makes it a cultural playground for food, art, music, and more. While the city still struggles with its crime issues, it’s also working hard at remodeling itself around sustainable development principals. The NRDC ranked Oakland as a sustainable city, recognizing Fruitvale as an icon of walkable and transit friendly living.

Oakland is just six miles across the Bay from San Francisco and it’s close to academic Berkeley, the waterfront city of Emeryville where Pixar makes its home. Oakland was the end of the line for the Transcontinental Railway and remains a busy hub for shipping via land and sea – it’s the fifth most active port city in the United States.

Oakland’s international airport is a great alternative to SFO – flights often leave Oakland with no problem while SFO is cloaked in fog. BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and a well connected bus line make Oakland accessible from San Francisco, Fremont, Richmond, and points East. BART allows bicycles on their trains, so a bike and public transit commute is very doable. BikeLink, a service that provides secure bike lockers, has services at most of the regional BART stations if you don’t want to take your bike with you. The region is hilly, so you’ll need strong legs to be a bike commuter. Oakland plans to lay down over 200 miles of designated bike lanes, so they’re serious about making it a good place for cyclists.

Downtown Oakland is connected to everything you want – you can walk everywhere, you’re never far from transit, and there’s good street life – restaurants and cafes, shopping – here. You’ll find some nice condos in new buildings – studios up to two bedrooms, some of them in gated complexes or security buildings.

Close to downtown, surrounding Lake Merritt, you can find attractive remodeled apartments in smaller buildings, places with bay windows, hardwood floors, some of them with nice city views.

The award winning Fruitvale Village has one and two bedroom apartments in this intentionally developed community that’s right on the BART line. The area was developed with street level business and residential units from the second floor up.

Piedmont Avenue, Temescal, and Rockridge are becoming Oakland’s hipster magnets, the kind of neighborhoods where you’ll find artisanal sandwiches next to organic coffee bars next to independent galleries next to comic book shops. Piedmont will cost you more than downtown, but you might find that perfect studio in an apartment with Spanish style tile detailing. There are dozens of restaurants, bars, and cafes in Temescal, all easy to walk to. Rockridge, in North Oakland, claims that the main drag, College Avenue, is home to the cities finest dining and wine bars. Rockridge is also one Oakland’s wealthier neighborhoods.

Understanding Oakland neighborhoods is, well, it’s complicated. There are beautiful historic mansions in the Oakland hills, warehouses converted into super chic new lofts along the water, and a gritty but exciting downtown. There are some tradeoffs around walkablity – some of the most walkable neighborhoods are those with the highest crime rates. But Oakland is evolving and those who choose to live there now may find they’re investing in the future of California’s next great city.