There was another large turnout of 42 walkers but only one K-9 best friend this Wednesday at the Exedra for our Piedmont Recreation Department's Walking on Wednesdays weekly walk on a lovely, clear morning.
It was noted during the previous week's walk that the unofficial start of the home buying season was the Presidents Day holiday weekend. Mortgage rates are over 7%. This strains housing affordability and should reduce buying demand. However, the supply of homes on the market is so limited it is changing dynamics and prices.
This seems especially true in Piedmont. Last week there were only six Piedmont homes listed for sale. We walked to three of them, as well as four others that had sold recently. At the start of this week the offerings were even less. One home had gone pending and no new ones had come on the market. We could see two of the remaining ones on the north and west sides of
Piedmont by taking a roundabout route.
To get to our first house we went down Highland Avenue, up Park Way, left on Mesa Avenue, and right on Moraga Avenue to its corner with Monte. 2 Monte was right there with a For Sale sign in front. It's a three bedroom/four bath, 2,799 square foot home, built in 1925. In Zillow's realtor special language, "The spacious living room features soaring ceilings, large windows and a stylish European fireplace, the timeless beauty of matchstick hardwood floors in this classic traditional home located in the ever sought after City of Piedmont." It's listed at $2,457K. The home's front steps provided tiers for us to take the attached group photo.
Then it was down Monte to Pala and Highland Avenues, up Blair Avenue, and down Hardwick Avenue to 20 Langdon Court. This three bedroom/2.5 bath, 1,806 square footer was built in 1952. Zillow says this "stylish mid-century gem is a rare opportunity . it welcomes you with fantastic Bay views from the front veranda. The dramatic living room/dining room features soaring
ceilings, original wood paneling and clerestory windows for a hip mid-century modern vibe." It was listed at a Piedmont-reasonable $1,650K, but was the one that went pending last week. We thought it probably would sell for more.
We walked back to Hardwick and to Oakland Avenue for a long walk down to Jerome Avenue. Along Oakland there was a big PG&E crew with eight trucks replacing poles and a transformer at San Carlos Avenue. We also checked out the progress on two bulb-out/sidewalk extenders on Oakland, at El Cerrito and Jerome Avenues. Their estimated completion date is April 5th. City
Director Public Works Daniel Gonzales expects they will make the area safer by increasing pedestrian visibility, shorten street crossings, and reduce vehicle speeds.
We went down Jerome, and up Magnolia Avenue for the short distance it interrupts and assumes the streetway's identify before Jerome resumes. Just up the block was 420 Jerome, which was the lowest priced home on the market.
It's a two bedroom/one bath, 955 square feet home built in 1935. Smaller was probably good during the Depression. Zillow says it is a "Jewel Box" and has "abundant natural light as you view the inviting living room with a wood-burning fireplace, a tastefully updated kitchen, two sunny bedrooms, and a beautifully updated bath." One little issue, we noticed a beehive in an opening on the front exterior. The house and its hive are listed at the Piedmont bargain price of $925K. Realtor and walker Mari Negron thinks it will sell for more, and reported it had gone pending that morning. We had missed our chance on this one too.
This part of Jerome is just above Witter Field, so we got another look at its new surface from the walkway above the stadium stands before returning to the Exedra via the path through Piedmont Park. Unbeknownst to many of us, Google Maps says the path is actually named the "Prospect Mountain Trail." We thought we had seen all but one home on the market, but Mari shared that one more had just come on the market. We were confident there will always be more beautiful homes to walk to, Zillow to describe, and brokers to sell in Piedmont.