Curbed Comparisons: What $1,800 rents in Oakland right now

Welcome to Curbed Comparisons, a regular column exploring what you can rent for a set dollar amount in different neighborhoods. Today we head across the bay once again to Oakland. Is one person's studio another person's townhouse? Let's find out. Today's price: $1,800.

↑ Who hasn’t wanted to just run off to a private little cottage and settle down from time to time when life gets too hectic? Granted, Bushrod may not be the place most people have in mind, but it turns out that just such an arrangement is available in the neighborhood for $1,800/month. The little (620 square feet) one-bedroom and one-bath home sits in the backyard of a larger house on Shattuck Avenue. No pets, but the rent covers the Internet fees, and it is rather picturesque for an Oakland backyard.

↑ More space for the same price ($1,800/month) requires venturing out to Eastmont, where two bedrooms and one bath sit secure behind a stuccoed exterior, rambling roof, and marching columns of trees. Between those and the tall fence, this place is looking a little bit furtive, but at least renters have their privacy. The house is two blocks away from Glenn Daniel King Estate Park. No pets here either.

↑ Closer to the lake for $1,795/month, here’s a second-floor studio in a towering Art Deco building in Grand Lake, about two blocks from the eternally beautiful Grand Lake Theatre. While this is not, in fact, the “Ghostbusters Building” on Bellevue, the style is close enough that the pair could be long lost siblings. The homes inside come out to about 550 square feet, and once again (all together now) no pets allowed.

↑ Meanwhile, a here’s another studio the exact same size in a more secluded and down to earth spot in Temescal. Note that the square footage includes the basement. Yes, it’s a studio apartment with its own basement, anybody’s guess how that happened. There’s even a price break: $1,790/month. Hey, every little bit counts. As an extra blessing, the lease has a permissive attitude about cats.

↑ Finally, the most affordable deal of the lot comes in Adams Point, albeit it the most extreme north point of the Point, right next to the 580. A one-bedroom, one-bath apartment on Vernon Street is $1,650/month (although if you want to have an “indoor only” cat, that will run you an extra $30). No outdoor cats permitted, evidently, but do outdoor cats even need apartments? Food for thought. They probably don’t appreciate granite countertops anyway.