San Francisco Business Times
From the article:
Last January, ten units in the Artesia Townlofts in Oakland’s Temescal district went on the market and sold out in less than four months — about half the time the seller expected it would take.
Very few new condos have hit the market in Oakland and Emeryville, but burgeoning demand is pushing prices up — including a whopping 88 percent increase during the past two years in some of the best-selling areas, including West Oakland, Emeryville, Temescal, downtown Oakland and Uptown.
During the first quarter of 2012, Oakland condo buyers in those neighborhoods paid an average of $234,000 for a unit whereas for the same period in 2014, the average is $442,000 per unit, according to MLS data.
Meanwhile, condos priced above $1 million, while still rare, are no longer unheard of. A penthouse unit in the Bond, a 101-unit building at 311 2nd St. in Jack London Square, recently sold for $1.1 million or about $888 per square — a high mark for an Oakland condo. Warriors basketball star Stephen Curry recently sold his three-level, 2,084-square-foot penthouse in the Ellington, also in Jack London Square, for $1.5 million or about $720 per square foot.
“It’s amazing how high the market has gone in response to what’s happening in San Francisco,” said Paul Zeger, a principal with Polaris Pacific, a condo marketing and research firm. “Instead of paying $1.2 million for the entry level in San Francisco, you can get that for $750,000 in Oakland.”