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Twin Peaks & Midtown Terrace, San Francisco Homes for sale, recent sales and a Property Nerd’s guide
The residential slopes around the Twin Peaks summit: Midtown Terrace's 1950s tract, Forest Knolls below Mount Sutro, Clarendon Heights, and the condo-heavy Twin Peaks blocks that step down to Market St.
Twin Peaks & Midtown Terrace by the numbers
twin peaks & midtown terrace by the numbers · live from the mls
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Calculated in your browser from MLS data for Twin Peaks & Midtown Terrace (approximate outline traced from the boundary streets). Sales are single-family homes, townhomes and condos.
homes in twin peaks & midtown terrace · live from the mls
Homes for sale, for rent and recently sold in Twin Peaks & Midtown Terrace
Every active listing, rental and closed sale in Twin Peaks & Midtown Terrace 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 (Twin Peaks & Midtown Terrace (approximate outline traced from the boundary streets)); it may not match every local definition.
the story
How Twin Peaks & Midtown Terrace came to be
Twin Peaks stayed open hillside long after the city grew around it. The Twin Peaks Tunnel, which opened to streetcars on February 3, 1918, runs under the hill between West Portal and the Castro and still carries Muni Metro, but houses came first to the edges. On the Clarendon Heights and Upper Market slopes above Cole Valley and the Castro, Carmel St, Graystone Ter, Villa Ter and Crown Ter have Assessor medians from about 1910 to 1939. Palo Alto Ave has a small group of Second Bay Tradition houses from 1937-1964 that Planning has found eligible for the California Register as the Palo Alto Avenue Historic District.
The big tracts came after World War II. Midtown Terrace's 976 houses, on Panorama Dr, Dellbrook Ave, Olympia Way and a set of 'view' streets (Skyview, Aquavista, Marview, Cityview, Starview, Knollview, Gladeview, Clairview, Longview and Sunview), have an Assessor middle half of 1956-1958. Forest Knolls followed on the south flank of Mount Sutro, with houses on Warren Dr, Oak Park Dr, Christopher Dr and Forest Knolls Dr dated mostly 1959-1963; a 1961 TV news film held in a university archive identifies it as the Standard Building Company's Forest Knolls development. The east side above Market St filled in with apartment buildings, mostly from the 1960s, and condominium complexes from the 1960s to the 1980s (Assessor middle halves).
The summit is city parkland. Rec and Park describes coastal scrub and grassland there and says Twin Peaks is the only place in San Francisco where the endangered mission blue butterfly has survived. A section of Twin Peaks Blvd has been closed to cars since 2020, and work to turn it into a promenade with a paved path, a natural-surface path and overlooks broke ground on April 29, 2026. Sutro Tower, 977 feet tall, stands on the ridge above Midtown Terrace; it is owned by a company that the owners of four TV stations founded in 1968.
streets and homes
The streets and the houses
Midtown Terrace is a tract of loops and courts on the west face of the hill. Panorama Dr and Dellbrook Ave wrap around it, with Olympia Way, Clarendon Ave and the short 'view' streets between. Nearly all of its houses are detached single-family houses with living space over a garage, on lots of about 3,000-4,000 sq ft (median about 3,400), and the zoning is mostly RH-1(D). Glenview Dr and Sunview Dr, on the Portola Dr side, are part of the same SFAR area.
Forest Knolls has about 490 houses on Warren Dr, Oak Park Dr, Christopher Dr, Forest Knolls Dr, Devonshire Way, Woodhaven Ct and Lake Forest Ct. Galewood Cir is a later group (Assessor median 1979). Near Warren Dr and Locksley Ave and on Clarendon Ave there are apartment and condominium buildings on RM-2 and RM-4 lots. Clarendon Heights mixes 1930s houses on Graystone Ter and Villa Ter with 1950s-60s houses on Saint Germain Ave, Mountain Spring Ave, Palo Alto Ave and the upper part of Twin Peaks Blvd.
East of the summit, Corbett Ave, Burnett Ave and Twin Peaks Blvd switch back down toward Market St, and the housing stock flips. The SFAR Twin Peaks area holds about 365 condominium parcels and 175 multi-unit parcels against roughly 130 houses, in complexes on Corbett Ave, Burnett Ave, Gardenside Dr, Perego Ter and Crestline Dr and a band of older houses and flats on Market St and Romain St. If you are shopping here, decide early whether you are looking at a detached house in Midtown Terrace or Forest Knolls or a condo on the east slope; they are different markets on the same hill.
streets in twin peaks & midtown terrace
- Portola Dr
- Woodside Ave
- Laguna Honda Blvd
- Clarendon Ave
- Twin Peaks Blvd
- Panorama Dr
- Dellbrook Ave
- Olympia Way
- Glenview Dr
- Sunview Dr
- Skyview Way
- Aquavista Way
- Marview Way
- Cityview Way
- Starview Way
- Knollview Way
- Gladeview Way
- Clairview Ct
- Longview Ct
- Midcrest Way
- Warren Dr
- Oak Park Dr
- Christopher Dr
- Forest Knolls Dr
- Devonshire Way
- Galewood Cir
- Crestmont Dr
- Locksley Ave
- Palo Alto Ave
- Saint Germain Ave
- Mountain Spring Ave
- Graystone Ter
- Villa Ter
- Crown Ter
- Belgrave Ave
- Carmel St
- Clayton St
- Corbett Ave
- Burnett Ave
- Gardenside Dr
- Perego Ter
- Crestline Dr
- Romain St
- Market St
parks and places
Parks, shops and landmarks near Twin Peaks & Midtown Terrace
- park
Twin Peaks
The city park on the summit, with trails to both peaks, Christmas Tree Point's viewing area and a small parking lot near it. Muni's 37 stops on Crestline Dr; parts of the trail system may close during promenade construction.
- park
Mount Sutro Open Space Reserve
UCSF's 61-acre forest above Forest Knolls, with about 5.5 miles of public multi-use trails.
- park
Tank Hill and the Interior Greenbelt
Tank Hill (about 3 acres, off Twin Peaks Blvd) and the Interior Greenbelt (about 21 acres) are city open spaces between Clarendon Heights, Cole Valley and Mount Sutro.
- park
Midtown Terrace Playground
About 1.6 acres at 210 Olympia Way.
- landmark
Sutro Tower
The 977-foot broadcast tower on the ridge above Midtown Terrace. It is a landmark to look at, not a place to visit.
- landmark
Laguna Honda Hospital campus
The public hospital grounds on Laguna Honda Blvd, inside the SFAR Midtown Terrace area, are a National Register-eligible historic district in Planning's data.
- shopping
Nearby shopping
There are no shopping streets inside the area. The Diamond Heights shopping center is about 1 mi straight-line from Panorama Dr, and the Castro, Cole Valley and West Portal Ave shops are downhill in each direction.
schools and commute
School districts and getting around
School districts
The area is served by San Francisco Unified (SFUSD). Public schools physically in the area are Clarendon Alternative Elementary (500 Clarendon Ave) and Rooftop (443 Burnett Ave, listed as K-8 in the city's school data). SFUSD assigns seats by application and lottery; the attendance area tied to an address is a tiebreaker, not a guarantee, and the elementary assignment policy is being reworked for no earlier than the 2028-29 school year. Check any address with SFUSD's Enrollment Center.
Getting around
- Forest Hill Muni Metro station (K, L and M lines in the Twin Peaks Tunnel) sits at the southwest corner: about 0.4 mi straight-line from Warren Dr at Christopher Dr and about 0.5 mi from Panorama Dr at Dellbrook Ave.
- From the east slope, Castro station is about 0.6-0.7 mi straight-line from Graystone Ter and lower Corbett Ave, and about 1 mi from Crestline Dr.
- Muni buses, per public route maps: the 36 on Clarendon Ave, Panorama Dr and Warren Dr; the 37 on Corbett Ave, Burnett Ave and Crestline Dr; the 48 and 52 on Portola Dr; the 44 on Woodside Ave; the 33 on Clayton St. Check SFMTA for current service.
- Portola Dr becomes Market St and runs downtown; downtown (Powell St BART) is about 3.2 mi straight-line from the middle of the area. Glen Park BART is about 1.1 mi straight-line from the Portola Dr edge.
- Rec and Park warns of strong winds on the summit trails; the west-facing streets of Midtown Terrace and Forest Knolls look toward the ocean side of the city.
nerd notes
Buying or selling in Twin Peaks & Midtown Terrace: what we check
Buying here
- Landslide zones: about a fifth of the area is inside a state-mapped earthquake-induced landslide zone, including stretches of Twin Peaks Blvd, Burnett Ave North, Palo Alto Ave, Clairview Ct, Clarendon Ave and Saint Germain Ave. Check the parcel on the Seismic Hazard Zone map; additions and retaining walls may need a geotechnical report.
- East-slope condos: get the CC&Rs, budget, reserve study, minutes, insurance and any special-assessment history, and check current dues. Many complexes date from the 1960s-80s, so ask about roofs, decks, siding and seismic work.
- Rent rules: if the unit or building is tenant-occupied, check Rent Ordinance coverage; units first built after June 13, 1979 are exempt from the rent-increase limits but still covered by eviction protections. For apartment buildings, check the city's soft-story list.
- Midtown Terrace and Forest Knolls are mostly RH-1(D). Ground-floor rooms behind the garage are common; pull the permit history and confirm ceiling height and egress before counting them as living space.
- Large additions: about a quarter of the area (the Twin Peaks portion) is in the Central Neighborhoods Large Residence SUD, where a unit over 3,000 sq ft or over the floor-area limit needs Conditional Use approval, per Planning's summary.
- Fire and flood: CAL FIRE's 2025 local-responsibility map shows no fire hazard severity zone in San Francisco and FEMA maps the area as Zone X, but some lots back onto the Mount Sutro forest or the Twin Peaks grassland, so read the natural hazard disclosure.
Selling here
- List under the right MLS area (Midtown Terrace, Forest Knolls, Clarendon Heights, Twin Peaks or Upper Market) and put the street name in the remarks; buyers often search the sub-area names.
- Photograph the view from each main room in clear weather and say which way it faces.
- For condos, order HOA resale documents early and summarize any recent assessments or completed projects for buyers.
- Have the permit record for any finished ground floor, deck or rebuilt retaining wall ready before listing.
nerd noteCommissions are always negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what's included.
faq
Twin Peaks & Midtown Terrace questions, answered
Is Twin Peaks mostly condos?
The east slope above Market St is: the Realtor-map Twin Peaks area has about 365 condo parcels and roughly 130 houses. Midtown Terrace and Forest Knolls on the west side are almost all detached single-family houses.
When was Midtown Terrace built?
Mostly in the mid-1950s. The Assessor's roll dates the middle half of its 976 houses to 1956-1958.
Can you drive up Twin Peaks?
Part of Twin Peaks Blvd still carries cars, and Rec and Park lists a small parking lot near the Christmas Tree Point viewing area plus street parking off Crestline Dr. The section closed to cars in 2020 is being rebuilt as a walking and biking promenade.
Which Muni Metro station is closest?
Forest Hill station, at the southwest corner by Laguna Honda Blvd, for Midtown Terrace and Forest Knolls; Castro station for the Corbett Ave and Upper Market side.
Is Upper Market in this guide?
Yes, the slope west of Market St and Portola Dr. The blocks east of that line are in the Noe Valley guide, and the Market St corridor itself is in the Castro guide.
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