Glen Highlands, Merriewood & Forestland, Oakland

Tanja Odzak is a Top East Bay Realtor with eXp Realty, helping buyers and sellers in Oakland and across the East Bay. Glen Highlands, Merriewood, and Forestland are three neighboring hillside areas in the Montclair part of the Oakland hills, between Highway 13 and Skyline Boulevard and north of Montclair Village. Most of their homes are in ZIP code 94611, and the MLS often lists them under the Montclair name. When we refer to Glen Highlands, Merriewood & Forestland, we are including all three areas in that term. The MLS has no area names for Glen Highlands or Forestland, so in the home prices below, this page means the homes inside the boundary we use for our own home search across all three areas.

At a glance: In the 12 months through September 2026, the median sale price of a single-family home in Glen Highlands, Merriewood & Forestland was $1,338,500, across 116 sales. Homes sold for about 120.5% of their list price, and the middle sale took 14 days on the market.

Merriewood is a hillside tract of about 100 acres, set among oak, pine, and redwood trees at roughly 500 to 1,300 feet. The Realty Syndicate Company opened sales in September 1924, and by March 1926 nearly 150 homes were close to finished. Many of the early houses were built as vacation cabins, and the 1920s advertising stressed the view of San Francisco Bay. The streets follow two themes: the zodiac, with Aquarius Way, Capricorn Avenue, Leo Way, Taurus Avenue, and Virgo Road, and Robin Hood, with Nottingham Drive, Robin Hood Way, and Sherwood Drive. Two public stairways, the Lower and Upper Merriewood Stairs, connect the streets.

Montclair Village, the closest main shopping district, is next to Highway 13. Temescal Regional Recreation Area sits beside Glen Highlands, and the North Oakland Regional Sports Center is near the Highway 24 end of Merriewood. Up the hill, the Sibley and Huckleberry preserves have trails.

Hillside homes from several eras: cabins and houses from the 1920s in Merriewood and Glen Highlands, many mid-century and later homes, and homes rebuilt after the 1991 Oakland Hills fire where it burned. Streets wind along the slope. As with any home in Oakland, review the inspection reports, because old homes can come with old-home issues and drainage and foundation problems can show up on a hillside lot.

Hillside homes of any age deserve a careful look before you write an offer. Much of the Oakland hills is inside the City's Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, which the City kept in place in 2025, so check the address: a sale in the zone includes defensible space paperwork under state law, and it is worth getting insurance quotes early.

Buyers in the hills ask about the foundation, drainage, the age of the roof and the electrical, and, where a home was rebuilt after 1991, the build date and the permits. Answering them before you list keeps them from becoming negotiating points later. Oakland's own steps apply here as everywhere in the city. The City's transfer tax is charged in tiers on the whole price, plus Alameda County's own transfer tax. The sewer lateral needs a compliance certificate or a time extension certificate before escrow closes, the sale triggers a sidewalk compliance certificate, with some exemptions, and a home in the City's Very High fire zone adds defensible space paperwork. Who brings the sewer lateral and the sidewalk into compliance, the seller or the buyer, is negotiated. My page on selling your home in Oakland lays it out.

Tanja Odzak works across the Oakland hills and knows what to check in a hillside home. If you're weighing a move to Glen Highlands, Merriewood, or Forestland, that's worth a conversation.