San Francisco appreciation rates and housing market information

San Francisco housing market information

With 776,733 people, 346,527 houses or apartments, and a median cost of homes of $824,150, San Francisco house prices are not only among the most expensive in California, San Francisco real estate also is some of the most expensive in all of America.

large apartment complexes or high rise apartments are the single most common housing type in San Francisco, accounting for 44.36% of the city's housing units. Other types of housing that are prevalent in San Francisco include duplexes, homes converted to apartments, or other small apartment buildings (23.33%), single-family detached homes (18.08%), and a few row houses and other attached homes (14.07%). Cities with mostly row houses, apartments, and other high density housing types are relatively uncommon, and characteristic of compact cities that frequently have a downtown or other neighborhoods where amenities are within walking distance and a lot of street life can be seen.

San Francisco is dominated by renter-occupied one, two, or no bedroom apartments. 61.87% of San Francisco's dwellings are rentals.

The housing in San Francisco was primarily built before 1939 (49.87%), making the housing stock in San Francisco some of the older overall in America, although there is a range of ages of homes in San Francisco. The next most important San Francisco housing age is 1940-1969 (34.12%), followed by 1970-1994 (13.92%). There's also some housing in San Francisco built between 1995 and later (2.09%).

San Francisco home appreciation rates

Appreciation rates for homes in San Francisco have been tracking above average for the last ten years, according to NeighborhoodScout data. The cumulative appreciation rate over the ten years has been 98.13%, which ranks in the top 20% nationwide. This equates to an annual average San Francisco house appreciation rate of 9.81%.

Over the last year, San Francisco appreciation rates have trailed the rest of the nation. In the last twelve months, San Francisco's appreciation rate has been -8.75%, which is lower than appreciation rates in most communities in America. In the latest quarter, NeighborhoodScout's data show that house appreciation rates in San Francisco were at -1.99%, which equates to an annual appreciation rate of -7.96%.

Notably, San Francisco's appreciation rate in the latest quarter is one of the lowest in America.

Relative to California, our data show that San Francisco's latest annual appreciation rate is higher than 79% of the other cities and towns in California.

One very important thing to keep in mind is that these are average appreciation rates for the city. Individual neighborhoods within San Francisco differ in their investment potential, sometimes by a great deal. Fortunately, you can use NeighborhoodScout to pinpoint the exact neighborhoods in San Francisco - or in any city or town - that have the best track record of real estate appreciation, by the latest quarter, the last year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, or even since 1990, to assist you in making the best San Francisco real estate investment or home purchase decisions.