Harbor Bay/Bay Farm

Claim a slice of bayside real estate with a home in Harbor Bay/Bay Farm. This section of Alameda County is notable in part for its selection of properties right along the San Francisco Bay shoreline and its proximity to the San Francisco Bay Ferry. Outdoor recreation opportunities abound here, too. “There are cycling and walking trails,” says local Realtor Guy Blume of The Guy Blume Team. “It has close proximity to Oakland International Airport and direct views of the San Francisco Bay and the San Francisco skyline.”

Most of the single-family homes in Harbor Bay/Bay Farm are modern — most were built after 1980, says Blume, a top-ranked realtor in Alameda and Contra Costa counties since 2012. The average home in this area has three bedrooms, Blume says, and most \are somewhere around 2,000 square feet. The houses here are mostly traditional- and contemporary-style options, in single- and multistory layouts. Harbor Bay/Bay Farm homes fill well-manicured lots that range from about 2,600 square feet to more than 5,000 square feet. Sidewalks line every block in the neighborhood, providing an element of walkability. Townhouses and condos supplement the inventory of single-family homes here, and prices for these start at around $800,000. The single-family houses here have price tags that start at roughly $1 million and can climb to more than $2 million in some cases.

Harbor Bay/Bay Farm residents take advantage of the area’s walkability. It’s common to see people out and about, enjoying fresh air. “It’s an active community,” Blume says. The neighborhood features multiple parks. The 4-acre Tillman Park is among the options, a space woven into the web of homes here, with a playground, multiple athletic fields and basketball courts. Leydecker Park is a bigger option, at almost 6 acres, and features tennis courts in addition to a playground, fields and basketball courts. Shoreline Park is a spot to enjoy time by the water, with plenty of open, grassy space perfect for a picnic. Golfers will love the neighborhood's proximity to the public Corica Park, whose 18-hole South Course was named one of the top municipal courses in the country by GOLF Magazine in 2021. Corica Park also has a North Course undergoing renovation and a nine-hole par 3 course.

Guy says that some move to Harbor Bay/Bay Farm for the schools. Kids here can enter the Alameda Unified School District, which carries an A overall rating on Niche. Students can start at either Bay Farm School K-8 or Earhart Elementary, depending on where they live. Bay Farm School features an Outdoor Learning Center that facilitates weekly garden classes for those in kindergarten through fifth grade and hosts a weekly lunchtime club for middle school students. Earhart Elementary, which has kindergarten through fifth grade, offers an afterschool enrichment program with the help of the PTA. Both Bay Farm and Earhart have A grades on Niche. From Earhart students can move on to the A-rated Lincoln Middle, whose extracurricular opportunities include a range of lunch clubs, from a games club to a science and engineering club. Students across Alameda High advance to the A-plus-rated Alameda High for grades 9 to 12, which has a career technical education department with programs in biotechnology, computer science, digital filmmaking, multimedia and sports medicine.

Residents can go to the Harbor Bay Landing shopping center for a bite to eat, a complex whose options include La Penca Azul, where the margaritas and burritos are popular. There’s also a Safeway here, convenient for grocery shopping, and a Starbucks across the street.

It’s common for people who live in Harbor Bay/Bay Farm to take the San Francisco Bay Ferry from the Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal to the city for work. Ferry riders can get from Harbor Bay to Downtown San Francisco in just about 25 minutes, and it runs from 6:30 a.m. to 7:55 p.m. Monday through Friday.

In Harbor Bay/Bay Farm, bayfront living comes with access to a plethora of standout Alameda County amenities.

Written By

Alexander Hubbard

Photography Contributed By

Anne Kohler

Video By

Daric Clarke