The SF neighborhoods where homes actually got cheaper

Although 2018 saw the expected talk of SF’s home market finally flattening out and even began to see some real signs of contracting, for the most part actual sale prices all over the city just kept on going up all year long.

With some exceptions.

The real estate site PropertyShark has compiled all public sales of homes across San Francisco and ranked the 50 priciest neighborhoods, starting with number one slotted Presidio Heights.

That ritzy corner of the city saw its median sales price escalate to $4.5 million, a spike of 24.5 percent year over year, although bear in mind that’s based off of a fairly small sample size of 40 sales.

Number two ranked Sea Cliff only netted 11 sales this year for a median that rose a slightly spooky 11.11 percent since 2017, finishing at more than $3.87 million. Ultra tony St Francis Wood was up 3.8 percent for third place at $2.72 million-plus.

But where are the city spots where prices actually declined in 2018? There aren’t many, but according to the PropertyShark figures a few SF neighborhoods stalled over the past 12 months, including:

• Noe Valley: A big surprise here, and also one of the largest samples in the city with 208 recorded sales. Unfortunately the decline is so minimal—down just 0.14 percent—as to be essentially flat.
• Inner Richmond: And there’s probably not much ado about this one either, since the decline of just 0.16 percent is also entirely marginal. It is interesting that the Inner Richmond dropped at all though, given how prominent its rising popularity has been the last couple of years—it was even one of our final Curbed Cup winners. The new median here is $1.57 million.

Photo by elemos14

• NoPa: Despite its proximity to the park and Haight, things turned south in NoPa this year with the neighborhood median down 1.46 percent to “just” $1.35 million on average.
• Nob Hill: Despite its historically swanky reputation, Nob Hill was only the 47th most expensive SF neighborhood this year, and its median declined 2.38 percent, down to $1.33 million plus.
• Parnassus Heights: Probably nothing to get excited about here. While the median for the neighborhood did decline a seemingly significant 5.75 percent, only 15 homes sold here all year, so it only takes a couple of sales to move the needle.
• Jordan Park/Laurel Heights: Another big ticket neighborhood—or set of them—that took a hit, down six percent to $1.76 million.
• Pacific Heights: Even San Francisco’s seat of luxury saw its bottom fall out, dropping 7.59 percent off of 173 sales this year, down to a median of $1.65 million.
• Inner Sunset: Note that even after a drop of 8.24 percent down to $1.56 million that this westernmost neighborhood still has a higher median than the likes of Telegraph Hill, Bernal Heights, and the Haight, to name a few.
• Lake Street: Though little remarked upon, this small strip just south of the Presidio saw a busy year, with 50 homes sold and prices declining by 8.75 percent, down to $1.82 million.
• Clarendon Heights: Likely another trick of the numbers. Though sale prices were down 14.48 percent (to $2.9 million), that’s based on just 13 homes sold.

According to PropertyShark writer Robert Demeter “Median home sale prices were calculated based on residential property sales closed between January 1, 2018 and December 14, 2018,” including condos.

For the full list of what happened where in SF, check here.

• Priciest SF Neighborhoods [PropertyShark]
• Curbed Cup SF Retired [Curbed SF]