Belvedere
Town Statistics
Belvedere, Italian for “beautiful view”, is one of the wealthiest towns and most expensive real estate markets in the nation, and is an Island extension of the Tiburon Peninsula. The town has fabulous views of San Francisco, the South Bay, the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, and the East Bay Hills. In fact, almost any direction one gazes from Belvedere one is rewarded with breathtaking vistas.
Traditionally, an enclave of retired CEO’s, private equity barons, and banking titans, Belvedere is recently hosting more families especially on the Lagoon. Belvedere is a small island, less than one square mile in size, surrounded on three sides by the waters of San Francisco Bay and on the fourth side by the Belvedere Lagoon. The population is ~2,070 people, 55% female clustered in three primary neighborhoods: Belvedere Island; Belvedere Lagoon and Corinthian Island. The terrain is predominantly hilly and lush; many residences were designed by famous architects and/or are considered historically significant.
The weather in Belvedere is extraordinary. Coastal breezes keep the air fresh and clear, and the temperatures are moderate year-round; the average low in January is 42.9 degrees, and the average high in July is only 74.9.
Belvedere shares Tiburon’s Reed School District- widely considered the best in Southern Marin. Reed School District is named after adventurer John Reed. John Reed was born in Dublin in 1805, and went to sea with a seafaring uncle at 15. He left the ship at Acapulco, where he stayed for six years, learning to speak Spanish fluently, before sailing north to Yerba Buena, later to be named San Francisco. Having befriended many influential people along his journeys, he was eventually issued a land grant from the Mexican government near present day Santa Rosa. Unfortunately the Cotate Indians drove him back to the relative safety of Southern Marin where he married the commandant’s daughter and was awarded another land grant, what is most of modern day Tiburon, Belvedere and Mill Valley. For more history please visit the Mill Valley Historical Society.