Richmond

Point Richmond’s early-1900s town square — reached through a short tunnel and anchored by the century-old Hotel Mac — feels like a small town that happens to have Bay and Golden Gate Bridge views from its front steps. It’s one of the most distinct pockets in the entire East Bay, and most people who haven’t visited don’t expect it to exist inside Richmond’s city limits.

The rest of the city carries a deeper history as a WWII “Rosie the Riveter” shipyard hub, now commemorated at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park along the waterfront, and the city’s shoreline — including Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline and the Richmond Marina — offers some of the most direct, uncrowded bay access in the East Bay. Ongoing downtown and waterfront revitalization has brought new restaurants, breweries, and public art into neighborhoods that were overlooked for years.

Richmond offers more space and value than almost anywhere else on the Bay, with a wide range of housing stock from Point Richmond’s charming older homes to more affordable options elsewhere in the city. For buyers willing to look past outdated assumptions about the city, it’s one of the strongest value plays left in the inner East Bay, with direct freeway and BART access into Oakland, Berkeley, and San Francisco.