Woodminster, Oakland

A 2,000-seat outdoor theater built as a Works Progress Administration project, with construction starting in 1935, and dedicated as a memorial to California's poets and writers. A cascade drops about 100 feet down the hillside from three pools, with stairways and paths alongside it and a reflecting pool below. Plantings in the Writers Memorial Grove honor California authors including Joaquin Miller, Bret Harte, Jack London, and Mark Twain.

The amphitheater still hosts an annual program of summer musicals. Woodminster Summer Musicals has performed there since 1967.

In many ways Woodminster is similar to Montclair, and many people confuse the two neighborhoods, but Woodminster is a bit further out. It is set up on the hillside, and homes here can have impressive views of the San Francisco Bay Area, the Bay, multiple bridges, and canyons, with some homes having incredible panoramic views. There are many custom mid-century homes built into the steep hillside. Woodminster is a beautiful, wooded neighborhood, and the homes are built into the tree canopy.

Tanja sold a super cool "telephone pole" home here with stunning views of the Bay, including from the swimming pool.

Hillside homes are worth a careful look before you write an offer. Like many homes in Oakland, drainage and foundation issues may be present because of the hills.

Joaquin Miller Elementary School, for kindergarten through grade 5, and Montera Middle School sit side by side on Ascot Drive, just below Joaquin Miller Park, and Skyline High School is on Skyline Boulevard. All three are in the Oakland Unified School District. School boundaries don't follow neighborhood names, so check the district's boundary map for any address you're considering. The Oakland page lists the public and private schools across the city.

Custom mid-century homes set into steep hillsides don't have many exact matches, so pricing takes careful comparable sales, and buyers will look at the foundation, drainage, and how the home is built into the slope. The fire zone matters here too: plan for defensible space documentation if the home is in the City's Very High zone, and for insurance questions from buyers. The City's transfer tax is charged in tiers on the whole price, plus Alameda County's own transfer tax, and the sewer lateral needs a compliance certificate or a time extension certificate before escrow closes. Who brings the lateral into compliance, the seller or the buyer, is negotiated. My page on selling your home in Oakland covers each step.

Tanja Odzak has sold homes in Woodminster and can usually spot an older home's condition issues by eye, often before the inspection report comes back. If you're weighing a purchase or thinking about selling, that conversation is worth having early.