Piedmont jumbo loans and 2026 loan limits.

Piedmont became a city in 1907, when Oakland was growing around it, and it has kept its own city hall, police and fire department ever since. It covers about one and three-quarter square miles of hillside. The civic center is at Highland and Vista avenues, beside Piedmont Park. Grand Avenue and Moraga Avenue cross its lower and northern parts, and Oakland’s Montclair district and Mountain View Cemetery lie just outside.

There is almost no commercial land: a few shops near the civic center and along Grand Avenue. Nearly everything else is houses, most built between about 1905 and 1940. They include Craftsman, Tudor, Mediterranean and Colonial revival homes, many by well-known Bay Area architects of the period, with some mid-century and later houses among them. Lots are small and regular on the lower streets and grow larger and steeper toward the eastern side. Many have views of the bay and San Francisco.

The house itself. With so few condominiums, associations or new subdivisions, a Piedmont loan file is mostly about one older house and its condition.

Ask what has been done to the structure. Many houses have been bolted to their foundations and braced against earthquakes; some have not. Brick chimneys, old wiring and original plumbing are common findings. The appraiser reports what is visible, and an insurer may ask about all of it. Lenders generally do not require earthquake insurance, but the Hayward Fault runs through the hills a short distance to the east, and many owners consider it.

Sellers in much of the East Bay must show that the sewer pipe from the house to the street passes a test, or agree with the buyer on who will fix it. It is a closing matter, not a loan matter, but it can cost real money, so settle it in the contract.

Piedmont has a city transfer tax of its own on a sale, in addition to the county’s. It is a closing cost, and the contract decides who pays. The city also reviews exterior changes through design review, which is worth knowing if you plan to add on.

Lower Piedmont is the western part of the city, closest to Oakland’s Grand Avenue and Piedmont Avenue districts and to Lake Merritt beyond. It runs from the city’s western edge uphill toward the civic center, on the streets either side of Grand Avenue, below Highland Avenue.

This is where lots are smallest and houses closest together. Craftsman bungalows and brown-shingle houses from the 1900s and 1910s are typical, with two-story Mediterranean and Tudor houses from the 1920s. The slope is gentle. Because similar houses sell here regularly, an appraiser usually has good matches, and the differences come down to condition, updated kitchens and baths, and whether there is a garage. Many garages are small or sit under the house. Ask about the foundation, since houses of this age were often built on shallow footings, and about seismic bolting. Shops and buses on the Oakland side are a short walk away, which appraisers recognize.

Central Piedmont is the middle of the city, around the civic center on Highland Avenue, Piedmont Park and the streets near them, such as Hillside Avenue, Magnolia Avenue and Oakland Avenue. The park lies right beside the civic center, a short walk from the Highland Avenue shops.

Houses here are a step larger than in Lower Piedmont: two-story and three-story homes from the 1910s to the 1930s, on wider lots, many designed by architects. Streets curve with the hills, and some lots are sloped enough that the house has a different number of floors front and back. An appraiser has to weigh size, lot, view and original detail, and may need to adjust more between sales than on the lower streets. Large older houses cost more to insure for rebuilding because of their materials and workmanship, and that premium is part of the housing cost a lender counts. If you plan to remodel, the city’s design review looks at windows, rooflines and neighbors’ views. Ask the seller for permit records, which the city keeps for each address.

Upper Piedmont is the higher, eastern part of the city, toward Oakland’s Montclair district. It includes Sea View Avenue, Glen Alpine Road, Hampton Road and, in the southeastern corner, the St. James Wood area around St. James Drive.

Lots are the largest in the city, and many houses stand well back from the street behind gardens. Along Sea View Avenue are estates from the 1910s and 1920s; St. James Wood, first laid out in the 1920s, has traditional and mid-century houses on winding, wooded streets. For a lender these are individual properties. An appraiser may find only a few comparable sales in a year and may reach back in time or into neighboring Oakland hills areas. A second appraisal is common on a larger loan. Slopes are steeper here, so retaining walls and drainage come into the inspection. The city treats all of Piedmont as a wildland-urban interface area under its fire code. The Oakland hills fire of 1991 burned neighborhoods a short distance to the north. Ask for homeowners insurance quotes early.