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Berkeley is a fantastic place to live! Tons of great food (all open for takeout right now), the music scene was really fun when it was open, great fresh produce available at local markets, and most of what we need is walkable from our place, including BART. Also the weather is awesome compared to the city. It's sunny most days now, and the only annoyance is that it's pretty windy in the afternoons.

We been here for 10 months now, and signed for another year at our currently place with no rent increase. I didn't negotiate (our landlord offered us the same rent), but we have the best working relationship with him that I've ever had with a landlord and that's worth it to me. Also he's open to us modifying the property, which is worth something as well — he paid for ceiling fans to be installed and let me build a big garden in the backyard, for example. The place isn't perfect, but for now and especially during SIP, it's great. I expect if and when we move, we will continue to live in Berkeley.

I think some of this will be in the form of 1 or 2 months free, but it should also be noted that Laurel Heights and Marina are somewhat suburban, so to the extent people are moving away from the densest inner city locations, more suburban neighborhoods might dip less in rent.

Yeah, that's what I'm seeing, however, I've seen a dip in housing pricing drop near east bay BART stations, especially West Oakland and Temescal/McArthur Area