BERNAL HEIGHTS NEWS: Homebuyers During Covid Say It Takes a Village to Find a House

The Wall Street Journal

November 19, 2020

Bernal is featured in the Wall Street Journal! This lovely piece touches upon the importance of neighbors and neighborhood. Something very dear to our hearts.

Not only that, but we also get to welcome Bernal’s newest members the Qazi family who are featured in the piece. Carren and I had the pleasure of helping this lovely family close on their new Bernal Heights home. Here are a few snippets from the piece that help paint a picture of the spirit of Bernal:

Over the summer, the couple started looking at Bernal Heights, a neighborhood in San Francisco they’d read had a tight community where people held socially distanced street parties and started a sidewalk food bank. They started hanging out there for a few hours every weekend, taking their dog for walks and going to the parks. Mr. Qazi noticed people would say hello and strike up conversations…

“We felt comfortable there,” says Mr. Qazi, 36. He and his wife bought a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Bernal Heights earlier this month for $1.9 million (18% over asking price), even though their house in San Jose was bigger, had a better yard and was closer to their offices. “Covid switched our emphasis from the house to the neighborhood,” he says.“A lot of people can’t stand where they’re living now. They want to feel part of a community,” says Helen Pederslie, a broker with Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty in Bellevue, Wash.

Getting the feel for a neighborhood isn’t as easy as just asking an agent. The Fair Housing Act, passed in 1968 as part of the Civil Rights Act, prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, religion and other factors. That means agents can’t give clients any information about the neighbors’ race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or familial status… So if buyers want to learn about the neighbors, the best way is to talk to them…

“We always give them the names of people to talk to,” says Jennifer Burden, founder and associate broker with Legacy Real Estate in San Francisco.

Welcome to Bernal Heights! Photo by Jason Henry WSJ