Albany is fairly small city at just under 5.5 miles square, with a population a little under 20,000. Albany High School is known as one of the best public schools of the San Francisco Bay Area for its academic excellence. In fact its school district is ranked higher than Piedmont which is another local city that is known for having great schools. The City of Albany is ranked #35 which is the highest ranking school district within Alameda County.
Many East Bay residents recognize Albany for its annual Solano Stroll event, an annual street festival held on Solano Avenue in Albany and Berkeley. According to different reports the event attracts anywhere from 250,000 to 350,000 visitors on the second Sunday of September. Interestingly, per Wikipedia, the event was started in 1975 by The Iris store owner and Solano Avenue Association founder Ira Klein as a “thank you party” from Solano Avenue business owners to customers. Pretty cool, huh?
Albany is mostly flat and is good for those that enjoy walking and biking, and is easy for kids to get around to school, etc. Albany is a very family oriented city. Families move here because of the high rated public schools. I grew up in Berkeley and remember a friend, back in the 80’s (yes I’m dating myself), moving to Albany because his parents wanted to buy a house and thought highly of Albany’s school district. As long as I can remember Albany has been known for having great schools. The school system is very easy to navigate as there are only 3 elementary schools, 1 middle school, and 1 high school.
Overall, Albany is a popular city for many homebuyers to include on their home buying radar. The homes tend to be smaller than adjacent communities like El Cerrito and Berkeley but the value proposition is obviously good as those that I’ve known that have purchased homes in Albany tend to stay in the city a long time. At one point, prior to purchasing my home in Oakland, my wife and I had Albany and Alameda on our short list although we settled on buying a home in Oakland partially because we both grew up in Berkeley and Oakland, and had settled in Oakland prior to buying our home Oakland.
