ANTIOCH — Three real estate professionals suspected of using a client’s credit report to buy a $739,000 Brentwood home and pocket the $30,000 commission were released on bail Friday, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office reported.
Charges of forgery, grand theft, identity theft, falsifying real estate documents and conspiracy were filed in Contra Costa County against Monika [...]

Apartment rents in six northern Alameda County cities went up an average of 10.9 percent last year due to strong job growth and a shortage of apartments, according to a survey released Wednesday by a property owners group.
Rents for all types of apartments in Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland and Piedmont averaged $1,142 last year, [...]

TEN YEARS AGO, the Internet was just beginning to catch on, cells phones were more a novelty than a necessity and a million dollars would buy a nice, spacious house — a new, custom-built, five-bedroom, three and a half-bath, 4,500-square-foot house in the coveted Mission area of Fremont, for example.
What will $1 million buy [...]