home / san francisco / castro & eureka valley
san francisco neighborhood guide · property nerds® at compass
Castro & Eureka Valley, San Francisco Homes for sale, recent sales and a Property Nerd’s guide
The Castro Street and Market Street shops around Castro station, Eureka Valley's blocks south to 22nd Street, and the Corona Heights and Duboce Triangle slopes: Victorian-era houses, flats and condos.
Castro & Eureka Valley by the numbers
castro & eureka valley by the numbers · live from the mls
- for sale now…
- median list price…
- homes sold, last 12 months…
- median sale price, 12 mo…
- median price per sq ft, sold…
- sale price vs. list…
Calculated in your browser from MLS data for Castro & Eureka Valley (approximate outline traced from the boundary streets). Sales are single-family homes, townhomes and condos.
homes in castro & eureka valley · live from the mls
Homes for sale, for rent and recently sold in Castro & Eureka Valley
Every active listing, rental and closed sale in Castro & Eureka Valley from the MLS, updated automatically, with a map of the neighborhood outline.
Loading listings…
Listings come from MLSListings and other MLSs through IDX and show their listing brokerage; confirm details with the listing agent. The map outline is the neighborhood boundary used by our listing search (Castro & Eureka Valley (approximate outline traced from the boundary streets)); it may not match every local definition.
the story
How Castro & Eureka Valley came to be
Eureka Valley sat on the northeast corner of Rancho San Miguel, a Mexican land grant from 1845. In 1854 the Horner brothers surveyed part of it into a grid called Horner's Addition, which took in the valley east of Castro Street. For decades the area held farmsteads along 17th and 18th streets, market gardens, breweries and rock quarries; Planning's Eureka Valley context statement dates the earliest documented house to 1864.
Cable cars made it a neighborhood. The Market Street line was extended from Valencia Street to 17th and Castro in 1886, Castro Street was cut through the hill to Noe Valley in 1887, and cars ran down Castro from 1888. Builders filled the blocks with single-story-over-basement cottages, two-story flats and some three-flat buildings. Fernando Nelson put up dozens here, among them the Queen Anne row on Hartford Street in 1901-02. Eureka Valley came through the 1906 earthquake and fire largely intact. The 2.27-mile Twin Peaks Tunnel, from Market and Diamond streets to West Portal Avenue, was finished in 1917 and opened to regular streetcar service in 1918, and Market Street was pushed over the hill to Portola Drive.
Shops followed the rails. 18th Street was the main commercial street through the 1910s; then Market Street and Castro Street between 18th and Market filled in, anchored by the Castro Theatre, which opened in 1922 as the first theater designed by Timothy Pflueger. North of Market, Corona Heights was a working hill: the San Francisco Brick Company opened a brick works there in 1900 and mined loam, clay and shale from a pit at the summit. Duboce Triangle, the wedge between Castro Street, Duboce Avenue and Market Street, was built up mostly from about 1885 to 1910 as cable lines reached Upper Market.
streets and homes
The streets and the houses
Two street grids meet here. Duboce Triangle and the blocks south of Market follow the numbered grid (14th through 22nd streets), with Market Street slicing diagonally across it and then climbing southwest over the hill. North of Market, Corona Heights is a knot of hillside streets and stairways around the park: Roosevelt Way, States Street, Museum Way, Saturn Street, Lower Terrace and Levant Street. South of 18th Street, Castro, Collingwood, Diamond, Eureka and Douglass streets climb toward Kite Hill and Grand View Avenue, with short lanes such as Hartford, Seward and Ford streets in between.
The Assessor's 2025 roll counts about 1,450 single-family houses inside this outline, 31% of about 4,670 residential parcels. Condo units (each its own parcel) number about 1,800, and there are about 1,180 flat, duplex, TIC and other two- to four-unit buildings and about 240 larger ones. The mix shifts by area: the Eureka Valley blocks are about 38% houses, Corona Heights about 31%, and Duboce Triangle only about 8%, with condo units more than half of its parcels. The median house sits on about 2,500 square feet of land, and the median recorded year built is 1908.
About 49% of the zoned land is RH-2 and 18% RH-3; Family Zoning Plan transit zoning (RTO-C and RTO-1) reaches about a tenth of the area, mostly along Market Street, and the whole outline sits in the Central Neighborhoods Large Residence Special Use District. Planning has found several districts here eligible for the California Register, including Duboce Triangle (about 1870 to 1920), the Castro Street and 18th Street commercial district, Castro and Liberty streets (1897-1906), Hartford Street (1900-02) and 19th and Noe streets (1905-06).
streets in castro & eureka valley
- Castro Street
- Market Street
- 17th Street
- 18th Street
- 19th Street
- Collingwood Street
- Diamond Street
- Eureka Street
- Douglass Street
- Noe Street
- Hartford Street
- Liberty Street
- 21st Street
- 22nd Street
- Grand View Avenue
- Corbett Avenue
- Roosevelt Way
- States Street
- Museum Way
- Saturn Street
- Levant Street
- Duboce Avenue
- 14th Street
- 15th Street
- 16th Street
- Henry Street
- Beaver Street
- Sanchez Street
- Seward Street
- Caselli Avenue
parks and places
Parks, shops and landmarks near Castro & Eureka Valley
- landmark
Castro Theatre
429-431 Castro Street. Timothy Pflueger's first theater, opened in 1922 and designated City Landmark No. 100 in 1977; a 2023 amendment added interior features such as the lobby's coffered ceiling and the mezzanine to the designation.
- shopping
Castro, 18th and Market streets
The Castro Street Neighborhood Commercial District (Castro Street from 17th to 19th, 18th Street from Diamond to Noe) and the Upper Market corridor along Market Street hold the shops, many in older buildings with flats above.
- park
Corona Heights Park and Randall Museum
About 13 acres of rocky hilltop at Roosevelt Way and Museum Way, with a one-mile trail network to the summit and an off-leash dog area. The Randall Museum (199 Museum Way) adds an aquarium, live animals, a ceramics studio and a woodworking shop.
- park
Kite Hill
A 2.9-acre open-space hilltop at Yukon and 19th streets.
- park
Seward Mini Park
A 0.4-acre park at 30 Seward Street, built in 1973 on a lot slated for development, with a community garden and two long, steep concrete slides (Rec and Park suggests bringing cardboard).
- park
Eureka Valley Recreation Center
A 2.25-acre center at 100 Collingwood Street with a gym, playground, ball field, tennis and an off-leash dog area; it came out of the city's 1947 recreation bond.
- park
Duboce Park (next door)
Across Duboce Avenue: a 4.8-acre park from 1900 with a playground, dog area, basketball court and the Harvey Milk Recreational Arts Center. The Sunset Tunnel portal is at its southwest corner, and the 89 houses of the Duboce Park landmark district (mostly 1899-1902) face it.
- landmark
Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library
1 José Sarria Court, on 16th Street near Market. A branch first opened on the site in 1902; the current building by Appleton and Wolford opened in 1961 and was renovated in 2009.
schools and commute
School districts and getting around
School districts
The area is in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), which assigns students by application; an address's attendance-area elementary school is a tiebreaker, not a guarantee, and the elementary policy is changing, so check SFUSD's current rules. Harvey Milk Civil Rights Elementary (4235 19th Street) is in the neighborhood; McKinley Elementary (1025 14th Street) is just across Castro Street, and Sanchez Elementary (325 Sanchez Street) and Everett Middle School (450 Church Street) are a few blocks east. Attendance areas change; check any address with SFUSD's Enrollment Center.
Getting around
- Castro station (Market, Castro and 17th streets) is about 0.1 mile straight-line from 18th and Castro; Church station (Market and Church) is about 0.3 mile from Duboce and Noe. Both are on Muni Metro's Market Street subway.
- The F Market & Wharves streetcar runs on Market Street to its terminal at 17th and Castro; the N Judah stops at Duboce Avenue and Noe Street before entering the Sunset Tunnel toward Cole Valley; the J Church runs a block east on Church Street.
- Buses include the 24 Divisadero on Castro Street, the 37 Corbett on Roosevelt Way, the 33 Ashbury/18th Street and the 35 Eureka.
- 16th St Mission BART is about 0.9 mile straight-line from 18th and Castro streets.
- Driving: Market Street heads east about 1 mile straight-line from Castro station to the Central Freeway (US-101) ramps near Mission Street, and west over the hill to Portola Drive and the west side.
nerd notes
Buying or selling in Castro & Eureka Valley: what we check
Buying here
- Most of the housing here is not a detached house: condo units and two- to four-unit buildings outnumber single-family houses about two to one. For a condo, read the HOA's CC&Rs, budget, reserve study and minutes and check current dues; for a TIC, read the TIC agreement and line up a lender that makes fractional TIC loans first. Ask whether a two-unit building could convert to condos: Public Works' rules let it skip the lottery once each unit's separate owner has lived there a year.
- If a unit is rented, check Rent Ordinance coverage. Single-family houses and condos are exempt from its rent-increase limits only if the tenancy began on or after January 1, 1996, and they remain under its just-cause eviction rules; a house with a legal in-law unit counts as a two-unit building (city Rent Board guidance).
- Check historic status on the Property Information Map's Preservation tab before you plan exterior work. Contributors to Planning's eligible districts (Duboce Triangle, Hartford Street, Castro and Liberty streets, 19th and Noe, the Castro Street and Upper Market commercial districts) are treated as historic resources, so façade changes and demolition get review. The Central Neighborhoods Large Residence SUD also requires Conditional Use approval for an RH-lot project that would create a unit over 3,000 square feet of gross floor area or over the district's floor-area ratio.
- Check the parcel against the state hazard maps. The California Geological Survey maps liquefaction zones over parts of Duboce Triangle (around 14th, Sanchez, Walter, Belcher and Henry streets), around 20th, Collingwood and Diamond streets, and near Church and Market; and landslide zones on the Corona Heights slopes (Museum Way, States Street, Saturn Street, Buena Vista Terrace) and a few Eureka Valley hillsides. Planning's environmental checklist calls for a geotechnical report for larger excavation or additions on 20% slopes or in a landslide zone, and says one will likely be required in a liquefaction zone.
- For flats and apartment buildings, check the city's Mandatory Soft Story Program list: it shows about 150 buildings inside this outline, most marked work complete and about a dozen marked non-compliant (city data, October 2026). FEMA maps the area as Zone X (minimal flood hazard); check the SFPUC 100-year storm flood map too.
Selling here
- Reconcile the permit history with the unit count and floor plan before listing; an unpermitted ground-floor unit raises Rent Ordinance and legalization questions that buyers will want answered.
- San Francisco requires sellers to disclose whether a property is in the SFPUC 100-year storm flood risk zone, in addition to the state natural hazard disclosures; many Duboce Triangle and Corona Heights parcels are in state seismic hazard zones, so order reports early.
- If the building is a contributor to an eligible historic district, say so in the marketing and have the Property Information Map report ready; buyers planning a remodel will want to know the review path up front.
- For condos and TIC interests, assemble the HOA or TIC documents, recent minutes, budget and any special assessments before going live; missing documents slow escrow.
nerd noteCommissions are always negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what's included.
faq
Castro & Eureka Valley questions, answered
Is the Castro the same as Eureka Valley?
Largely. Planning's context statement calls the area Eureka Valley, now commonly known as the Castro. Listing records split it into The Castro, Eureka Valley, Corona Heights and Duboce Triangle; this guide covers all four.
Is Duboce Park in this guide?
The park is just across Duboce Avenue from Duboce Triangle. This guide's outline stops at Duboce Avenue, following the Realtor association map; the city's map draws Duboce Triangle north to Waller Street and includes the park.
How close is Muni Metro?
Castro station is at Market, Castro and 17th streets, about a tenth of a mile straight-line from 18th and Castro, and Church station is at Market and Church. The F streetcar ends at 17th and Castro.
Are there single-family houses here?
About 1,450 on the Assessor's 2025 roll, 31% of residential parcels, more in Eureka Valley and few in Duboce Triangle.
What is the Central Neighborhoods Large Residence SUD?
A special use district covering this whole area. On RH-zoned lots, a project creating a unit over 3,000 square feet of gross floor area or over the district's floor-area ratio needs Planning Commission approval, except small additions.
next door
More San Francisco neighborhood guides
talk to a property nerd
Thinking about Castro & Eureka Valley? Let's run your numbers.
Eric, Janelle and the Boyenga Team have sold more than 2,520 Silicon Valley homes, $2.6+ billion in all, since 1996. Get a value, a plan, or a straight answer about a street.
Questions about Castro & Eureka Valley? Send us a note.
