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Potrero Hill & Dogpatch, San Francisco Homes for sale, recent sales and a Property Nerd’s guide
Potrero Hill's 1900s-1920s houses and flats between US-101 and I-280, plus Dogpatch below it: a landmark district of 1870s-1920s cottages and flats among newer condos, lofts and the Pier 70 waterfront.
Potrero Hill & Dogpatch by the numbers
potrero hill & dogpatch by the numbers · live from the mls
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Calculated in your browser from MLS data for Potrero Hill & Dogpatch (approximate outline traced from the boundary streets). Sales are single-family homes, townhomes and condos.
homes in potrero hill & dogpatch · live from the mls
Homes for sale, for rent and recently sold in Potrero Hill & Dogpatch
Every active listing, rental and closed sale in Potrero Hill & Dogpatch 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 (Potrero Hill & Dogpatch (approximate outline traced from the boundary streets)); it may not match every local definition.
the story
How Potrero Hill & Dogpatch came to be
Planning's 2008 survey of the Central Waterfront describes the land below Potrero Hill as part of a vast rancho that stayed grazing land well into the American period, cut off from downtown by the tidal flats of Mission Bay. That changed with Long Bridge, begun in 1865, which reached Potrero Point near Mariposa Street two years later; the road blasted south from the bridgehead was Kentucky Street, today's Third Street. Shipyards and factories filled Potrero Point, where the oldest surviving Pier 70 buildings date from 1883. The street names followed a plan: north-south streets are named for states, and the east-west streets, first named for California counties, were renumbered in the early 20th century to match the Mission and South of Market.
Dogpatch's cottages and flats went up beside those works. Planning's survey counts 83 wood-frame residential buildings from before 1930 in the district: 32 single-family houses, 41 multi-family buildings, eight shops with flats above and two residential hotels. After the 1906 earthquake, a large refugee camp stood on railroad land bounded by 18th, Kentucky and Indiana streets. By the late 1960s, the survey says, the city considered clearing Dogpatch for industry; instead the 1980s brought new interest, and in 2003 the city made the core an Article 10 landmark district, bounded by Mariposa, Third, Tubbs and Indiana streets.
Up the hill, the Assessor's median house dates to 1913, and about 1,200 houses survive alongside 535 flats buildings. Two city landmarks frame the area: the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House at 953 De Haro Street, a 1922 shingled building by Julia Morgan (landmark No. 86), and the 1895 Potrero School at 1060 Tennessee Street in Dogpatch (landmark No. 138). North of 16th Street, Showplace Square's heavy-timber and brick warehouses from 1893 to 1929 form a California Register-eligible district, and the 1904 Baker & Hamilton Building on 7th Street is a city landmark.
streets and homes
The streets and the houses
The grid runs straight over the hill, so Connecticut, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Carolina, De Haro, Rhode Island, Kansas and Vermont streets climb steeply between 16th Street and Cesar Chavez Street, with small shopping strips on 18th Street (Texas to Connecticut streets) and on 20th Street at Connecticut near the crest. Vermont Street below McKinley Square is the exception: public maps show its one-way block south of 20th Street curving back and forth for about 170 m of roadway across about 110 m of slope. Short terraces such as Turner, Blair and Caire cut into the south and east slopes.
On the Assessor's 2025 roll, Potrero Hill has about 1,200 houses (median year 1913), 535 flats-and-duplex parcels, 118 townhouses and about 2,100 condominium, live/work and below-market-rate condo units, most built in the 1970s through the 2000s. House lots are mostly about 2,500 square feet and the median house about 1,440 square feet. The residential slopes are zoned mainly RH-2, with production (PDR) and mixed-use zoning along the freeways and in Showplace Square.
Dogpatch is mostly condos and lofts: the roll shows 29 houses and 41 flats buildings against about 1,100 condo and live/work units, about 1,000 of them built since 1990 and the rest in older buildings. The landmark district's houses line Tennessee and Minnesota streets between Mariposa and 23rd streets, including a row of cottages at 1002-1014 Tennessee Street built in 1890-91. East of Illinois Street, Pier 70 and the former Potrero Power Station site have their own mixed-use zoning for large new neighborhoods.
streets in potrero hill & dogpatch
- 18th St
- 20th St
- 22nd St
- Connecticut St
- Arkansas St
- Wisconsin St
- Carolina St
- De Haro St
- Rhode Island St
- Kansas St
- Vermont St
- Missouri St
- Texas St
- Mississippi St
- Pennsylvania Ave
- Potrero Ave
- 17th St
- 19th St
- 23rd St
- 25th St
- Cesar Chavez St
- Tennessee St
- Minnesota St
- Indiana St
- Illinois St
- 3rd St
- Mariposa St
- Tubbs St
- Henry Adams St
- Division St
parks and places
Parks, shops and landmarks near Potrero Hill & Dogpatch
- park
McKinley Square
A 2.9-acre park at 2311 20th Street at the head of Vermont Street's curving block, per city parks data.
- park
Potrero Hill Recreation Center
About 10 acres at 801 Arkansas Street with a ball field, gym, tennis courts, playground, community garden and an off-leash dog play area.
- park
Jackson Playground
A 4.9-acre Rec and Park site at 1645 17th Street, at the north foot of the hill.
- park
Esprit Park
A 2-acre park at 19th and Minnesota streets in Dogpatch, reopened in February 2025 after a renovation that added two meadows, including an off-leash dog play area.
- park
Crane Cove Park
The Port's roughly 7-acre bayfront park at 18th and Illinois streets, opened in 2020, with a small beach for kayak and paddleboard launching, a lawn, two preserved shipyard cranes (Cranes 14 and 30), play areas and a dog run.
- shopping
18th, 20th and 22nd Street shops
Neighborhood commercial zoning covers 18th Street between Texas and Connecticut streets and 20th Street at Connecticut on the hill; in Dogpatch, the shops cluster at 22nd and Third streets and 20th and Third streets.
- landmark
Potrero Hill Neighborhood House
953 De Haro Street, a 1922 shingled community building designed by Julia Morgan and city landmark No. 86 since 1977.
- landmark
Potrero Branch Library
1616 20th Street; the building opened June 25, 1951, designed by Pollack & Pope, and reopened in March 2010 with a second-floor addition and a skylit atrium.
- landmark
Dogpatch civic buildings
The district keeps the 1895 Potrero School at 1060 Tennessee Street, the 1912 Potrero Police Station at 2300 Third Street and the 1915 Potrero Emergency Hospital at 2310 Third Street.
schools and commute
School districts and getting around
School districts
Potrero Hill and Dogpatch are served by the San Francisco Unified School District, which assigns seats by application and lottery; an address's attendance-area school is a tiebreaker, not a guarantee. Public schools on the hill include Daniel Webster Elementary (465 Missouri Street) and Starr King Elementary (1215 Carolina Street), plus two alternative high schools, Downtown High (693 Vermont Street) and S.F. International High (655 De Haro Street); Bryant Elementary (2641 25th Street) is just west in the Mission. Check the exact address and current rules with SFUSD's Enrollment Center.
Getting around
- Caltrain: 22nd Street station (1149 22nd Street, under I-280 at Pennsylvania Avenue) is about 0.4 mile straight-line from 20th and Wisconsin streets and about 0.2 mile from 22nd and Tennessee streets. Caltrain lists it as stairs only, not wheelchair accessible, with a short platform where not all doors open. San Francisco 4th and King is about 1.2 miles straight-line.
- Muni Metro: the T Third stops at 3rd and 20th streets and 3rd and 23rd streets in Dogpatch, runs north through Mission Bay into the Central Subway to Chinatown-Rose Pak station, and south to Sunnydale.
- Muni bus: the 55 Dogpatch runs from 16th St Mission BART along 16th, 20th and 22nd streets to 20th and Tennessee streets; 16th St Mission and 24th St Mission BART are each about 1.2 miles straight-line from 20th and Wisconsin streets.
- Freeways: US-101 runs along the west side and I-280 along the east side, between the hill and Dogpatch, with the US-101 / Cesar Chavez interchange at the southwest corner.
nerd notes
Buying or selling in Potrero Hill & Dogpatch: what we check
Buying here
- Check seismic hazard maps by parcel: the state's maps put about 37% of this area in liquefaction zones, covering nearly all of Dogpatch's flat blocks and Pier 70 plus the Showplace Square blocks near 8th Street, and Planning's survey notes that about two-thirds of the Central Waterfront is filled land. A few steep slopes on the hill (near Turner Terrace and Texas Street, 25th and Dakota streets, and Carolina and De Haro streets) are in landslide zones.
- Flood and sea level: FEMA's flood map shows special flood hazard areas only along the bay edge east of Illinois Street. The city's Sea Level Rise Vulnerability Zone map is a screening map for a 108-inch scenario; look up any waterfront-area parcel on it.
- For Dogpatch condos and lofts, read the HOA budget, reserve study, minutes and any special assessments, check current dues, and confirm how live/work units are classified and may be used. Some units are recorded as below-market-rate condos, which carry city resale rules.
- In the Dogpatch landmark district, exterior changes generally need approval under Article 10 (a Certificate of Appropriateness); elsewhere, check the parcel's historic status in the Property Information Map's Preservation tab, since Showplace Square and parts of Third Street are in eligible districts.
- On the hill's flats and older buildings, check Rent Ordinance coverage (pre-June 13, 1979 buildings; single-family homes and condos are usually exempt from rent limits under Costa-Hawkins but keep just-cause rules), TIC financing and the soft-story list. Planning's summary allows up to four units on many RH lots (six on corners) under conditions; large projects are planned at Pier 70 and the former power station site.
Selling here
- For a condo or loft, assemble the HOA documents, budget, reserve study and any assessment history before listing; buyers' lenders will ask for them.
- Get the natural hazard disclosure early: in Dogpatch most parcels fall in a mapped liquefaction zone, and buyers will ask about foundations and any seismic work, so have the records ready.
- On the hill, lead with the lot and unit count (a 2,500-square-foot lot with flats is a different buyer than a single-family house) and pull the permit history for any added units.
- If the property is in the Dogpatch landmark district or an eligible district, gather past approvals for exterior work. Check sf.gov for the transfer tax tier that applies to your sale price.
nerd noteCommissions are always negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what's included.
faq
Potrero Hill & Dogpatch questions, answered
What is the difference between Potrero Hill and Dogpatch?
Potrero Hill is the residential hill between US-101 and I-280, mostly houses, flats and condos on steep blocks. Dogpatch is the flat Central Waterfront east of I-280, where a small landmark district of 1870s-1920s cottages and flats sits among industrial buildings, newer condo buildings and live/work lofts.
What kinds of homes are in Potrero Hill and Dogpatch?
On the Assessor's 2025 roll, Potrero Hill has about 1,200 houses, 535 flats buildings and about 2,100 condo-type units; Dogpatch has 29 houses and about 1,100 condo and live/work units. Houses are about 27% of residential parcels across the two.
Is Dogpatch in a liquefaction or flood zone?
Most of Dogpatch's flat blocks are in a state-mapped liquefaction zone, which can mean a geotechnical report for permits. FEMA's flood map shows special flood hazard areas only along the bay edge east of Illinois Street. Check each parcel.
How close is Caltrain?
22nd Street station is about 0.2 mile straight-line from 22nd and Tennessee streets in Dogpatch and about 0.4 mile from 20th and Wisconsin streets on the hill. Access is by stairs only.
What is the Dogpatch historic district?
An Article 10 city landmark district created in 2003, bounded by Mariposa Street, Third Street, Tubbs Street and Indiana Street, with roughly 100 flats and cottages plus commercial, industrial and civic buildings from 1867 to 1945.
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