Jordan Park, San Francisco
Zip Code: 94118.
Area: 6 city blocks.
Distance to Downtown: 3.4 miles. Houses on Market (as of July 2007): None.
Median Home Price: $3,197,500. (At press time, only 5 single-family homes had come on the market in 2007.)
Distinguishing Characteristic: Lots range from 37.5 to 50 feet wide, as opposed to the usual 25 in the rest of the city. This allows for larger homes or more space between residences.
Ornately detailed Victorian town houses on precipitous hillsides make for charming postcards, but the true gem of this city's real-estate market lies in the wide, level streets and oversized homes of Jordan Park, located just south of Presidio Heights. Bordered by California Street, Geary Boulevard and Palm and Parker avenues, Jordan Park remains, as its original developer and primary architect, Joseph Leonard, envisioned it in the early 1900s, a "residential park" in the city. As the above scene on Commonwealth Avenue illustrates, the roughly 300 homes in Jordan Park are a mix of architectural styles popular at the turn of the 20th century, are breathtakingly large (with up to seven bedrooms) and, unlike most houses in coveted Presidio Heights or Pacific Heights, are fully detached. For growing families whose children attend one of the many prestigious private schools nearby (Town School for Boys, Schools of the Sacred Heart), amenities like in-law units, expansive yards (front and back) and a convivial community create a satisfyingly suburban feel. Home prices have historically been lower than for those on the best blocks of Pacific Heights, but that margin is disappearing, since more families who choose to stay in the city are paying top dollar for Jordan Park's gracious living.
Just next to Jordan Park is Sacramento Street's high-end shopping district, which is known for antiques and home-decor stores like Threshold by Kendall Wilkinson (No. 3419; 415-409-1966) and Isgro & Co (No. 3248; 415-931-5858), and for designer-clothing boutiques such as Susan of San Francisco (No. 3685; 415-922-3685) and the Grocery Store (No. 3625; 415-928-3615). Laurel Village Shopping Center (3500 California Street), a tidy cluster of grocers, shops and restaurants, is conveniently close, with excellent homey food at Rigolo (415-876-7777) and Café Lo Cubano (415-831-4383) and first-rate butchers at Bryan's Quality Meats (415-752-3430). By Joohee Muromcew
Oakhurst, Metro Atlanta
Zip Code: 30030.
Area: Less than 1 square mile.
Distance to Downtown: 5.6 miles.
Houses on Market (as of July 2007): 60.
Median Home Price: $391,950.
Distinguishing Characteristic: Up for local historic-district status.
Not long ago, the close-knit community of Oakhurst, within the city of Decatur, a suburb inside the Atlanta perimeter, was known more for car theft than for the storybook charm it has today. After the historic Scottish Rite Children's Hospital, which had been the neighborhood's lifeblood since 1918, relocated to north Atlanta, in 1976, Oakhurst was just about abandoned. Then, in the late 1990s, a new wave of urban pioneers moved in, renovating the area's 1,000 or so Craftsman bungalows (a bargain at $150,000 or less at the time).
By 2001 Oakhurst was in the midst of a full-blown renaissance. As a result, homes aren't nearly as inexpensive these days, with an increasing number of large Craftsman-style infills and renovated bungalows selling from $400,000 to almost $1 million. Buyers can find teardowns for less than $200,000, but renovation guidelines may tighten considerably if a section of Oakhurst is granted local historic-district status this fall.
Today residents enjoy walking to dinner at one of almost a dozen restaurants in the always-lively village center, packing a picnic for jazz concerts on the lawn of the former children's hospital (which now houses a community center, stores and art galleries) or attending one of the many yearly neighborhood festivals, including this month's Arts & Music Festival, February's Winter Wine Crawl (both at oakhurstga.org) and the popular BBQ, Blues & Bluegrass Festival (decaturbbqfestival.com),in August.
The community has more than 5,000 residents, among them professors, artists, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists, and empty nesters. But the overwhelming majority here are young families eager to enroll their children in the top-ranked Decatur public schools. Some of them will go on to Agnes Scott College (above), just outside Oakhurst's borders.
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