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Telegraph Hill & North Beach, San Francisco Homes for sale, recent sales and a Property Nerd’s guide
Coit Tower's hill and the flat blocks around Washington Square, from Broadway to Bay Street: stairway lanes with pre-1870s cottages, post-1906 flats and apartments, condos and the Columbus and Grant shops.
Telegraph Hill & North Beach by the numbers
telegraph hill & north beach by the numbers · live from the mls
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Calculated in your browser from MLS data for Telegraph Hill & North Beach (approximate outline traced from the boundary streets). Sales are single-family homes, townhomes and condos.
homes in telegraph hill & north beach · live from the mls
Homes for sale, for rent and recently sold in Telegraph Hill & North Beach
Every active listing, rental and closed sale in Telegraph Hill & North Beach 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 (Telegraph Hill & North Beach (approximate outline traced from the boundary streets)); it may not match every local definition.
the story
How Telegraph Hill & North Beach came to be
Telegraph Hill is named for a semaphore telegraph put up on its summit in 1850, according to Rec and Park. Pioneer Park was established on the top in 1876, and Coit Tower, a slender concrete column designed by the firm of Arthur Brown, Jr., was finished in 1933. The tower is named for Lillie Hitchcock Coit. The murals inside its base were painted in 1934 by a group of artists, and Rec and Park runs the tower and its elevator to the observation deck.
The east slope is a different world. Planning's Telegraph Hill landmark district, designated under Article 10 in 1986, covers six blocks and 90 parcels generally between Green, Montgomery, Greenwich and Sansome. Planning's walking-tour guide describes a concentration of pre-1870s buildings there: small dwellings built by tradesmen and reached only by narrow pedestrian lanes and stairways, because the ground was too steep for roads. Napier Lane, a narrow boardwalk street, preserves an 1870s pattern. Just before World War II about a dozen experimental buildings arrived, including a 1936 Streamline Moderne apartment building and work by Richard Neutra and William Wurster; Gardner Dailey's Second Bay Tradition houses (1936-59) form a separate eligible district near the summit.
The flats were rebuilt after 1906, and Planning's survey districts here all start their periods in 1906: the southeast slope of Telegraph Hill (1906-13), Upper Grant Avenue's shopping street and its surrounding flats and apartments (1906-25), the Powell Street shops between Filbert and Greenwich, eleven storefronts in eight buildings with flats or apartments above (1906-24), and Washington Square, a level park block framed by mostly Art Deco and Moderne buildings (1906-39). The Assessor's records match: the median house dates to 1907 and the median flats building to 1908-09. The newest public building is the North Beach Branch Library at 850 Columbus Avenue, which opened in May 2014 near Joe DiMaggio Playground.
streets and homes
The streets and the houses
The grid hits the hill and breaks. Columbus Avenue cuts diagonally from Broadway to Bay Street across the flats; Grant Avenue's narrow shopping blocks climb north from Broadway; and on the east slope Filbert and Greenwich streets turn into long public stairways. The Filbert Steps rise from Sansome Street, concrete at first against a rock face, then wooden steps among old cottages up to Coit Tower, with Napier Lane crossing about halfway; the Greenwich Steps run one block north. Telegraph Hill Boulevard winds up to the tower, and the 39 Coit bus climbs it.
This is a flats-and-condos market. Of 2,360 residential parcels on the Assessor's roll, about 125 are single-family dwellings, on median lots of only about 1,500 square feet. Condos (about 1,168 units), flats buildings (513) and apartment buildings (392) dominate, with storefronts below flats along Grant, Columbus, Powell and Stockton. By area sampling, RH-3 three-family zoning covers about a quarter of the guide, the North Beach Neighborhood Commercial District about a fifth and RM-1 to RM-3 apartment zoning about 30%.
Special rules apply. Planning's 2017 code summary says the Telegraph Hill-North Beach Residential Special Use District allows no more than 0.5 off-street parking spaces per dwelling unit, and adding a garage to a building of two or more units needs a Planning Commission hearing with findings on lost storefront space, lost unit area, recent evictions and narrow streets. In the North Beach commercial district, new buildings or major enlargements on lots of 2,500 square feet or more need conditional use approval, and alterations within listed or eligible historic districts get historic review. Parts of the blocks near Sansome also fall in the Northeast Waterfront landmark district (1983).
streets in telegraph hill & north beach
- Columbus Avenue
- Grant Avenue
- Stockton Street
- Powell Street
- Mason Street
- Kearny Street
- Montgomery Street
- Sansome Street
- Broadway
- Vallejo Street
- Green Street
- Union Street
- Filbert Street
- Greenwich Street
- Lombard Street
- Chestnut Street
- Francisco Street
- Bay Street
- Telegraph Hill Boulevard
- Napier Lane
- Alta Street
- Taylor Street
parks and places
Parks, shops and landmarks near Telegraph Hill & North Beach
- landmark
Coit Tower and Pioneer Park
Pioneer Park (about 4.9 acres, established 1876) surrounds Coit Tower (1933), with 1934 murals in the base and an elevator to the top; Rec and Park notes the elevator can be out of service, which means 13 flights of steps.
- landmark
Filbert and Greenwich Steps
Public stairways up the east slope from Sansome Street to the tower, past cottages on Napier Lane and the Grace Marchant Garden, which a local news report says is protected for the public by an easement.
- park
Washington Square
A level 2.26-acre park block between Columbus, Stockton, Filbert and Union, the center of a California Register-eligible district of mostly Art Deco and Moderne buildings.
- park
Joe DiMaggio Playground and North Beach Library
A 2.42-acre Rec and Park playground near Mason and Lombard; the North Beach Branch Library, 850 Columbus Avenue, opened nearby in 2014 in a building by Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects.
- shopping
Columbus Avenue and Grant Avenue
The North Beach Neighborhood Commercial District covers Columbus Avenue and Upper Grant Avenue from Broadway north, with restaurants, cafes and shops in post-1906 buildings, many with flats above.
- landmark
Powell-Mason cable car terminal
The Powell-Mason line has run from Market and Powell to Bay and Taylor since 1888, per SFMTA; its north end is at the guide's northwest corner.
schools and commute
School districts and getting around
School districts
Telegraph Hill and North Beach are 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 Garfield Elementary (K-5) on Filbert Street, Francisco Middle School on Powell Street, and Jean Parker Elementary and John Yehall Chin Elementary, both on Broadway along the south edge. 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: 39 Coit up Telegraph Hill to the tower, 8 Bayshore, 30 Stockton and 45 Union/Stockton through the flats toward downtown, and 12 Folsom/Pacific along Broadway, per SFMTA's current route file.
- Cable car: the Powell-Mason line runs on Mason and Taylor streets to its terminal at Bay and Taylor.
- Rail: the T line's Chinatown-Rose Pak station is about 0.2 mi straight-line from the Broadway edge (about 0.5 mi from Washington Square); Embarcadero BART is about 0.5 mi from the Sansome and Broadway corner.
- Parking is limited: the residential special use district caps off-street parking at 0.5 spaces per unit, and in the Telegraph Hill landmark district many houses are reached only by lanes and stairways.
- The Embarcadero and the north waterfront are a few blocks east and north of the Sansome and Bay Street edges.
nerd notes
Buying or selling in Telegraph Hill & North Beach: what we check
Buying here
- Read the special-use rules before planning a garage: per Planning's summary, the Telegraph Hill-North Beach Residential SUD caps off-street parking at 0.5 spaces per unit, and a new garage in a two-plus-unit building needs a Planning Commission hearing with findings.
- Check historic status. The Article 10 Telegraph Hill and Northeast Waterfront landmark districts and several eligible districts (Southeast Telegraph Hill, Gardner Dailey, Upper Grant Avenue, Washington Square, Powell Street Shops) cover much of the area; see the Property Information Map's Preservation tab.
- Ground conditions differ block to block: about 69% of North Beach's residential parcels and about 11% of Telegraph Hill's fall in a state-mapped seismic hazard zone on DataSF's layer. Ask for any geotechnical reports, and for hillside lots, retaining-wall and drainage history.
- Condos and TICs are most of the market. Review CC&Rs, budget, reserves, minutes and assessments and check current dues; for a TIC, ask about fractional financing. About 200 buildings on the Assessor's blocks here appear on the city's soft-story list, nearly all marked work complete.
- Tenants: buildings first built on or before June 13, 1979 can carry 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.
Selling here
- Spell out access: street frontage versus stair or lane access, how deliveries and moves work, and any parking, since buyers cannot easily add a garage under the special use district.
- Gather permits and historic-district approvals, especially for homes inside the Article 10 Telegraph Hill district.
- For condos and TICs, order resale documents early and explain dues, reserves and any loan terms.
- Give straight-line distances to Washington Square, Coit Tower, the T line station and the Powell-Mason cable car rather than walking-time claims on a hilly route.
nerd noteCommissions are always negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what's included.
faq
Telegraph Hill & North Beach questions, answered
What is the difference between Telegraph Hill and North Beach?
On the SFAR 2010 realtor map, Stockton Street divides them: Telegraph Hill is the hill east of Stockton to Sansome Street, and North Beach is the flatter area west to Mason Street and Columbus Avenue. This guide covers both.
Can a garage be added?
It is hard. Planning's summary says the residential special use district limits parking to 0.5 spaces per unit, and a new garage in a building of two or more units needs a Planning Commission hearing with specific findings.
How do you get to Coit Tower without a car?
Take the 39 Coit bus up Telegraph Hill Boulevard, or climb the Filbert or Greenwich Steps from Sansome Street.
Are there single-family houses here?
Few. The Assessor's 2025 roll counts about 125 single-family dwellings among 2,360 residential parcels, about 5%, most on lots of roughly 1,100 to 2,400 square feet.
How close is BART or Muni Metro?
The T line's Chinatown-Rose Pak station is about 0.2 mi straight-line from the Broadway edge, and Embarcadero BART about 0.5 mi from the Sansome and Broadway corner.
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