North Berkeley

North Berkeley runs roughly from Hearst Avenue north to Eunice Street, and it borders the northwest corner of the UC Berkeley campus. Some definitions also take in Northbrae and Thousand Oaks further north, though each of those is a neighborhood of its own. North Berkeley BART sits at the western edge, and the Downtown Berkeley station is closer to North Shattuck.

At a glance: In the 12 months through September 2026, the median sale price of a single-family home in North Berkeley was $1,885,000, across 78 sales. Homes sold for about 136.4% of their list price, and the middle sale took 14 days on the market.

On September 17, 1923, a fire that started in Wildcat Canyon, east of the ridge, swept down through the La Loma Park and Northside areas. It burned about 640 buildings, 584 of them homes, before it stopped at Hearst and Shattuck Avenues, where larger water mains helped and the afternoon sea breeze returned. When the neighborhood rebuilt, stucco walls and tile roofs largely replaced the wood siding and cedar shakes that had been popular before. That is part of why a North Berkeley street can have a brown shingle next to a 1920s stucco home.

North Berkeley's Craftsman and brown shingle homes climb the hills toward Tilden Regional Park, alongside the stucco homes built after the 1923 fire. The streets get steeper and more winding the higher you go, and the homes tend to get larger, including some of North Berkeley's luxury homes.

What should you look for in an older North Berkeley home? Many homes here still carry original electrical panels, and some have knob and tube wiring that still remains. On the hillside, earthquake, wildfire, and slope considerations are worth understanding too: the Hayward Fault runs along the base of the Berkeley Hills, so it's smart to know what seismic work a home has had. Read the inspection reports closely before you commit.

The Berkeley Rose Garden at 1200 Euclid Avenue was built between 1933 and 1937 with federal relief funds. It is a terraced amphitheater in a small canyon, with views of the Bay and the Golden Gate, and Codornices Creek runs through it. The roses peak in mid-May. Across Euclid, Codornices Park dates to 1915, and a pedestrian tunnel built in 1928 and 1929 links the two. Codornices is known for its long concrete slide.

Live Oak Park at 1301 Shattuck Avenue has a seasonal creek under old oaks, a community center with a theater, and courts and picnic areas. John Hinkel Park on Somerset Place has a historic stone amphitheater and stage in a grove of oaks and bays, with winding paths and wooden bridges. And Tilden Regional Park, with its lake, carousel, botanic garden, and ridge trails, is just over the top of the hills.

Before a single-family home or duplex goes on the market in Berkeley, the seller gets a Home Energy Score under the city's Building Emissions Saving Ordinance (BESO). My Berkeley home selling page covers the choices that follow.

Homeowners move on for all kinds of reasons including (but not limited to): upsizing to a second or third home, divorce, relocating for work, or the passing of a family member.

Tanja Odzak is a Top East Bay Realtor with eXp Realty, helping buyers and sellers in Berkeley and across the East Bay. North Berkeley is the part of the city north of downtown, climbing from the shops of North Shattuck up into the Berkeley Hills. It is known for Craftsman and brown shingle homes, a famous food district, and some of Berkeley's best-loved parks, including the Rose Garden.