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Pacific Heights, San Francisco Homes for sale, recent sales and a Property Nerd’s guide
The ridge between California and Green streets, from Van Ness Avenue to the Presidio edge: Victorian and Edwardian houses, condo and co-op buildings, two hilltop parks and the Upper Fillmore shops.
Pacific Heights by the numbers
pacific heights by the numbers · live from the mls
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Calculated in your browser from MLS data for Pacific Heights (approximate outline traced from the boundary streets). Sales are single-family homes, townhomes and condos.
homes in pacific heights · live from the mls
Homes for sale, for rent and recently sold in Pacific Heights
Every active listing, rental and closed sale in Pacific Heights 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 (Pacific Heights (approximate outline traced from the boundary streets)); it may not match every local definition.
the story
How Pacific Heights came to be
Pacific Heights grew up along the cable lines. SFMTA dates the California Street cable railroad to 1878, the same years in which builders lined Webster Street between Clay and Jackson with 25 Italianate houses (1878 to 1880). Planning notes their tall proportions, angled bay windows and strong cornice lines; the block became an Article 10 landmark district in 1981. The two big parks are older as public land: Lafayette Park dates to the 1860s, per Rec and Park, and the city bought the Alta Plaza site, then a quarry, in 1877. Crews graded Alta Plaza between 1891 and 1899 and built the terraces designed by Rudolph Ulrich. Both parks held temporary shelters after the 1906 earthquake and fire.
That fire is part of why this ridge still looks Victorian. The National Park Service's history of the 1906 firefighting describes the Army preparing a firebreak along Van Ness Avenue from the evening of April 19, and the fire ended on April 21. Van Ness is this guide's east edge. On the Assessor's 2025 roll, half of Pacific Heights' single-family houses carry a recorded year built of 1906 or earlier, and flats buildings have a median recorded year of 1904.
Building did not stop there. Planning treats the blocks from Pacific Avenue north toward Green Street between Fillmore and Lyon as a California Register-eligible historic district of detached two- and three-story houses with front and side setbacks, built roughly 1895 to 1930. The block bounded by Vallejo, Scott, Broadway and Divisadero stayed empty until 1936, when it was subdivided as Normandie Terrace and built up from 1937 to 1941. Raycliff Terrace, off Pacific Avenue between Broderick and Divisadero, followed in 1941 to 1951. On Fillmore Street, Planning's survey traces the Upper Fillmore shopping blocks from a Victorian streetcar suburb through the 1920s.
streets and homes
The streets and the houses
The street grid runs straight over the ridge. East-west streets step down from California, Sacramento, Clay, Washington and Jackson to Pacific Avenue and Broadway, then drop steeply north toward Vallejo and Green. The Cow Hollow design guidelines describe a level ridge along Pacific Avenue at about 250 feet above sea level at Pacific and Lyon, with a second ridge running north-south roughly along Divisadero. Where a street is too steep for cars it turns into stairs: public maps show stairways on Lyon Street between Broadway and Green along the Presidio wall, on Baker Street just north of Broadway and at Normandie Terrace.
The housing is more condo than house. The Assessor counts 2,793 condominium units and about 200 co-op parcels against 1,043 single-family dwellings, plus 311 flats buildings and 573 apartment buildings. The mix shifts as you walk west. On the Assessor's map, more than half the condo units and most co-op units sit east of Laguna Street toward Van Ness, while about three-quarters of the single-family houses are west of Fillmore. By area sampling, RH-2 two-family zoning covers about a quarter of the guide and the RH-1 and RH-1(D) single-family zones about a fifth. Since the Family Zoning Plan took effect on January 12, 2026, the new RTO-C district covers roughly a fifth of the area by sampling, mostly on the eastern blocks between Webster Street and Van Ness.
Remodels here run into history rules. Webster Street is an Article 10 landmark district, and Planning lists California Register-eligible districts covering the western blocks (Pacific Heights), Normandie Terrace, Raycliff Terrace, the Presidio Avenue edge (a Presidio Heights extension) and Upper Fillmore. Parcels in those districts are treated as historic resources for alteration and demolition review. The blocks north of Pacific Avenue between Pierce and Lyon also fall under the Cow Hollow Neighborhood Design Guidelines (2001), which define Cow Hollow differently from the real-estate map: Greenwich to Pacific, Pierce to Lyon.
streets in pacific heights
- Broadway
- Pacific Avenue
- Jackson Street
- Washington Street
- Clay Street
- Sacramento Street
- California Street
- Vallejo Street
- Green Street
- Fillmore Street
- Webster Street
- Steiner Street
- Scott Street
- Divisadero Street
- Broderick Street
- Baker Street
- Lyon Street
- Presidio Avenue
- Gough Street
- Franklin Street
- Laguna Street
- Normandie Terrace
- Raycliff Terrace
parks and places
Parks, shops and landmarks near Pacific Heights
- park
Lafayette Park
About 11.5 acres bounded by Laguna, Sacramento, Gough and Washington streets. Rec and Park finished a renovation funded by the 2008 parks bond; the park has a playground, tennis courts, picnic areas and an off-leash dog area, and one privately owned apartment building still sits inside the park's footprint.
- park
Alta Plaza Park
Nearly 12 acres bounded by Clay, Jackson, Scott and Steiner, with a broad tiered staircase up the terraced south slope, a playground, two tennis courts, a basketball and pickleball court and an off-leash dog area in the southeast corner. The north side looks out over the bay.
- shopping
Upper Fillmore
Fillmore Street from about Jackson Street south across California is the Upper Fillmore Neighborhood Commercial District, with shops and restaurants in buildings that Planning's survey dates from the 1860s to the 1920s. The Sacramento Street shopping strip starts just past the west edge.
- landmark
Webster Street historic district
Twenty-five Italianate houses from 1878 to 1880 on Webster Street between Clay and Jackson, a city landmark district since 1981. They are private homes with no public access; the view is from the sidewalk.
- landmark
Haas-Lilienthal House
A designated city landmark at 2007 Franklin Street that San Francisco Heritage runs as a Victorian house museum and its offices; check SF Heritage for tour days.
- stairs
Lyon Street steps
Public maps show a long public stairway on Lyon Street between Broadway and Green, along the Presidio wall on the west edge, linking the ridge to Cow Hollow below.
schools and commute
School districts and getting around
School districts
Pacific Heights 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 San Francisco Public Montessori (K-5) on Jackson Street, Cobb Elementary (K-5) just across California Street, and Sherman Elementary (K-5) a block north of Green Street in Cow Hollow. SFUSD is changing its elementary assignment policy, and its own pages give different start years, so check the exact address and the current rules with SFUSD's Enrollment Center.
Getting around
- Muni through the area: 1 California (Sacramento and Clay streets), 22 Fillmore, 24 Divisadero and 43 Masonic (Presidio Avenue edge), per SFMTA's current route file.
- Van Ness Avenue on the east edge has center-running bus rapid transit lanes (completed in 2022) used by the 49 Van Ness/Mission, with boarding islands at Vallejo, Jackson and Sacramento.
- The California Street cable car ends at California and Van Ness, the area's southeast corner.
- No Muni Metro or BART inside: the nearest rail is Chinatown-Rose Pak station on the T line, about 0.8 mi straight-line from the east edge (about 1.5 mi from the middle), and Civic Center BART, about 0.9 mi from the southeast corner.
- US 101 runs on Van Ness Avenue along the east edge and on Lombard Street a few blocks north, toward the Presidio Parkway and the Golden Gate Bridge.
nerd notes
Buying or selling in Pacific Heights: what we check
Buying here
- Most listings are condos and co-ops, not houses. For a condo, read the CC&Rs, budget, reserve study, recent board minutes and any special assessments, and check current dues. For a co-op, ask about board approval, share-loan financing (fewer lenders offer it) and any rules on renting.
- Check historic status before planning exterior work. Webster Street is an Article 10 landmark district, and several California Register-eligible districts cover the western blocks, Normandie Terrace, Raycliff Terrace, the Presidio Avenue edge and Upper Fillmore. The Property Information Map's Preservation tab shows each parcel's category.
- North of Pacific Avenue between Pierce and Lyon, additions and new houses are also reviewed against the Cow Hollow Neighborhood Design Guidelines (2001), including their attention to mid-block open space and rear facades.
- Tenant-occupied units: buildings first built on or before June 13, 1979 can carry both rent limits and just-cause eviction rules; most single-family homes and condos have eviction protection but not rent control under state Costa-Hawkins law. Confirm with the Rent Board before you close.
- Flats and apartment buildings: about 274 buildings on the Assessor's Pacific Heights blocks appear on the city's soft-story retrofit list, nearly all marked work complete. Ask for the permit and certificate of final completion. Also check the zoning next door: RTO-C zoning now covers roughly a fifth of the area, mostly east of Webster Street.
Selling here
- Gather permits, the parcel's historic resource status and any Article 10 approvals before listing; buyers ask early in a neighborhood with this many historic districts.
- For condos and co-ops, order the HOA or co-op resale documents early and be ready to explain dues, reserves, assessments and any rental or pet rules.
- If the unit is tenant-occupied, document the tenancy, the building's construction date and Rent Board status so buyers can price it.
- Be specific about the block: a flat block near Upper Fillmore and a steep north-slope block near Green Street are different products. Give straight-line distances to Lafayette or Alta Plaza and to the 1, 22, 24 and Van Ness lines.
nerd noteCommissions are always negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what's included.
faq
Pacific Heights questions, answered
Where does Pacific Heights end and Cow Hollow begin?
On the real-estate map this guide follows (SFAR's 2010 polygons, which the MLS areas grew from), the line is Green Street. Planning's 2001 Cow Hollow design guidelines use a different area, Greenwich Street to Pacific Avenue between Pierce and Lyon, so the north-slope blocks of Pacific Heights also fall under those guidelines.
Is Pacific Heights mostly single-family houses?
No. The Assessor's 2025 roll counts 1,043 single-family dwellings out of 5,075 residential parcels, about 21%. Condominium units (2,793), co-op units, flats and apartment buildings make up the rest.
What is Lower Pacific Heights?
The blocks south of California Street toward Geary Boulevard. It is a separate real-estate neighborhood and is not part of this guide.
Is there BART or Muni Metro in Pacific Heights?
No. Buses and the Van Ness bus rapid transit lanes serve it. The nearest rail stations are Chinatown-Rose Pak on the T line, about 0.8 mi straight-line from the east edge, and Civic Center BART, about 0.9 mi from the southeast corner.
Can the public see inside any of the historic houses?
The Haas-Lilienthal House at 2007 Franklin Street is run as a house museum by San Francisco Heritage. The Webster Street houses and the other historic districts are private homes with no public access.
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