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san francisco neighborhood guide · property nerds® at compass
Cow Hollow, San Francisco Homes for sale, recent sales and a Property Nerd’s guide
The north slope between Green and Lombard streets, from Van Ness Avenue to the Presidio: old dairy-valley blocks with Victorian and Edwardian houses, flats and condos, and the Union Street shops through the middle.
Cow Hollow by the numbers
cow hollow by the numbers · live from the mls
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Calculated in your browser from MLS data for Cow Hollow (approximate outline traced from the boundary streets). Sales are single-family homes, townhomes and condos.
homes in cow hollow · live from the mls
Homes for sale, for rent and recently sold in Cow Hollow
Every active listing, rental and closed sale in Cow Hollow from the MLS, updated automatically, with a map of the neighborhood outline.
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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 (Cow Hollow (approximate outline traced from the boundary streets)); it may not match every local definition.
the story
How Cow Hollow came to be
The name is literal. Planning's Cow Hollow Neighborhood Design Guidelines (2001) describe sand hills behind pastures used first for dairy cows and then cattle, with natural springs running down to Washerwoman's Lagoon, a little north of today's Filbert Street. Laundries and a tannery used the spring water, and nearby land, including the flats north of Lombard between Scott and Steiner and the hill at Pierce and Green, was farmed for produce from the 1850s. By the 1870s about 30 dairies operated in the vicinity. Complaints about the dairies and the tannery's pollution of the lagoon followed, and by the 1880s both were gone.
Houses came next, a few at a time. The guidelines date one early large house, an 1865-66 Italianate on Pierce Street that is now city Landmark No. 51 (a private home, no public access); the Octagon House at Gough and Union dates to 1861. Several early houses stand here because they were moved in from other neighborhoods, many of which later burned in 1906, and a 1901 newspaper article quoted in the guidelines grumbled about a neighborhood of 'second-hand houses.' Construction picked up after 1890, again after the 1906 earthquake and fire, and around 1911 ahead of the 1915 Panama-Pacific exposition on the filled land just north. The 1920s added Mediterranean, Mission, Tudor and Craftsman houses, and many owners covered Victorian trim with stucco to cut fire insurance costs.
By the 1940s, the guidelines say, some large houses had been converted, often illegally, into boarding houses and apartments. A 1946 rezoning fight at the Board of Supervisors led to a neighborhood improvement club, today the Cow Hollow Association, and over the next two decades 20 to 25 blocks were rezoned from apartments and flats to single-family and single-family-detached zoning. Buildings already in place were grandfathered, which is why a single-family block can still hold a 1920s apartment building.
streets and homes
The streets and the houses
Cow Hollow is one long slope. The design guidelines put the ground at about 250 feet above sea level at Pacific and Lyon and about 50 feet at Greenwich and Lyon, and a ridge roughly along Divisadero makes Vallejo, Green and Union rise and fall from west to east. Union Street, a neighborhood commercial district from Van Ness to about Steiner, runs through the middle; Lombard Street at the bottom carries US 101 and most of the area's hotels (the Assessor lists 28 hotel parcels on Lombard in Cow Hollow and the Marina). Mid-block gardens behind the houses are a defining feature in Planning's description of the western blocks.
Houses are a minority here too. The Assessor counts 476 single-family dwellings among 2,438 residential parcels, alongside 1,063 condo units, 446 flats buildings and about 300 apartment buildings. Typical house lots run about 2,800 square feet. By area sampling, RH-2 two-family zoning covers about a third of the guide, RH-1 about a seventh, RH-3 about a tenth and the Union Street district about an eighth; the Family Zoning Plan's RTO-C corridor zoning, in effect since January 12, 2026, covers under a tenth.
Design review has its own rulebook. On the western blocks (Greenwich to Pacific, Pierce to Lyon), Planning reviews additions and new houses against the 2001 Cow Hollow Neighborhood Design Guidelines. Planning also lists a California Register-eligible Cow Hollow First Bay Tradition historic district (1888-1914) between Lyon and about Divisadero, and Blackstone Court, an Article 10 landmark district since 1987 in the block bounded by Lombard, Franklin, Greenwich and Gough, whose five contributing buildings show the area's pre-1906 settlement pattern.
streets in cow hollow
- Union Street
- Green Street
- Filbert Street
- Greenwich Street
- Lombard Street
- Vallejo Street
- Fillmore Street
- Steiner Street
- Pierce Street
- Scott Street
- Divisadero Street
- Broderick Street
- Baker Street
- Lyon Street
- Richardson Avenue
- Webster Street
- Buchanan Street
- Laguna Street
- Octavia Street
- Gough Street
- Franklin Street
- Blackstone Court
parks and places
Parks, shops and landmarks near Cow Hollow
- shopping
Union Street
The Union Street Neighborhood Commercial District runs from Van Ness Avenue to about Steiner Street, with shops, restaurants and services in Victorian-era buildings, many with flats above.
- landmark
Octagon House
Built in 1861 and now at 2645 Gough Street (its original site was the southeast corner of Union and Gough), the house is run as a museum by the National Society of Colonial Dames in California, open on set Sunday afternoons from February through November.
- park
Allyne Park
A 0.75-acre city park on Gough Street between Green and Union, per Rec and Park's park map.
- park
Cow Hollow Playground
A small (0.15-acre) Rec and Park playground near Baker and Greenwich streets.
- landmark
Blackstone Court
An Article 10 landmark district off Lombard Street between Franklin and Gough, with five buildings from before 1906 in carpenter gothic and vernacular styles. Private homes, seen from the lane.
- park
Moscone Recreation Center and the Presidio
Just across Lombard in the Marina, Moscone Recreation Center has four ball diamonds, four tennis courts, two basketball courts, a playground and an indoor recreation center; the Presidio lies across Lyon Street on the west edge.
schools and commute
School districts and getting around
School districts
Cow Hollow is served by the San Francisco Unified School District, which assigns seats by application rather than by fixed boundaries; an address's attendance-area school is a tiebreaker, not a guarantee. Public schools in or next to the area include Sherman Elementary (K-5) on Union Street, SFUSD's Tule Elk Park early education center on Greenwich Street, and Marina Middle School just north of Lombard Street. SFUSD is changing its elementary assignment policy and its own pages give different start years, so check the exact address and current rules with SFUSD's Enrollment Center.
Getting around
- Muni through the area: 45 Union/Stockton (Union Street, toward North Beach and downtown), 22 Fillmore, 28 19th Avenue (Lombard and Richardson, toward the Golden Gate Bridge and the Sunset) and 43 Masonic, per SFMTA's current route file.
- The 49 Van Ness/Mission runs in center bus lanes on Van Ness Avenue (completed in 2022), with boarding islands at Union and Vallejo.
- No Muni Metro or BART inside: Chinatown-Rose Pak station (T line) is about 0.9 mi straight-line from the east edge and about 1.5 mi from the middle; Civic Center BART is about 1.4 mi from the southeast corner.
- US 101 uses Van Ness Avenue and Lombard Street, then Richardson Avenue into the Presidio toward the Golden Gate Bridge; Lombard is a busy surface arterial, not a freeway.
- The Presidio's trails are across Lyon Street, and the Marina Green waterfront is about 0.6 mi straight-line north of Union and Fillmore.
nerd notes
Buying or selling in Cow Hollow: what we check
Buying here
- Check which design rules apply. West of Pierce Street, the 2001 Cow Hollow Neighborhood Design Guidelines shape what Planning will approve for additions and new houses, with attention to mid-block open space and rear facades; the First Bay Tradition and Blackstone Court districts add historic review. See the Preservation tab on the Property Information Map.
- About a quarter of the area falls in a state-mapped seismic hazard zone on DataSF's layer, more of it west of Webster Street. Ask whether the parcel is in a zone and what the foundation and any geotechnical reports say.
- Condos and flats outnumber houses. For a condo, read the CC&Rs, budget, reserve study, minutes and assessments and check current dues; for a TIC, ask about fractional financing and any plans to convert to condos.
- If there are tenants: buildings first built on or before June 13, 1979 can carry rent limits and just-cause eviction rules, while most single-family homes and condos have eviction protection but not rent control under state Costa-Hawkins law. Confirm with the Rent Board.
- About 149 buildings on the Assessor's Cow Hollow blocks appear on the city's soft-story retrofit list, nearly all marked work complete. For a five-plus-unit wood-frame building, ask for the retrofit permit and certificate of final completion.
Selling here
- Pull permits and the parcel's historic resource status early; buyers on the western blocks will ask how the design guidelines affect any addition.
- For condos and TICs, order resale documents early and be ready to explain dues, reserves, assessments and TIC loan terms.
- Say exactly where the property sits on the slope (Green Street versus Greenwich Street is a different walk to Union Street shops and to the 45, 22 and 28 lines) and give straight-line distances.
- If the home is on Lombard Street, be upfront about US 101 traffic and describe window and layout choices plainly.
nerd noteCommissions are always negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what's included.
faq
Cow Hollow questions, answered
Where is the line between Cow Hollow and the Marina?
This guide uses Lombard Street, with Richardson Avenue at the west end. Both the SFAR 2010 realtor map and the city's SF Find map draw it there. MLS sales for the two areas overlap, so check the address rather than the area name on a listing.
Why is it called Cow Hollow?
Planning's 2001 design guidelines describe pastures, springs and about 30 dairies in the vicinity by the 1870s, gone by the 1880s.
Is Cow Hollow mostly single-family houses?
No. The Assessor's 2025 roll counts 476 single-family dwellings out of 2,438 residential parcels, about 20%. Condo units, flats and apartment buildings make up the rest.
Do the Cow Hollow design guidelines cover the whole neighborhood?
No. They apply to the area from Greenwich Street to Pacific Avenue between Pierce and Lyon, which includes part of Pacific Heights and leaves out the Union Street blocks east of Pierce.
How far is BART?
There is no BART or Muni Metro in Cow Hollow. Civic Center BART is about 1.4 mi straight-line from the southeast corner, and the T line's Chinatown-Rose Pak station is about 0.9 mi from the east edge. Most trips start on the 45, 22, 28 or Van Ness buses.
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