In this solo video, former lawyer‑turned‑real‑estate agent Austin Klar explains why San Francisco’s downtown is experiencing a resurgence driven by massive AI‑related office leases and billions of dollars of mixed‑use development. He outlines where the biggest AI firms—Anthropic (230,000 sq ft near Salesforce Park) and OpenAI (500,000 sq ft at Uber’s Mission Bay campus)—have settled, and how those locations shape the surrounding housing market. Klar then walks through five key neighborhoods that are attractive to tech workers relocating to the city: the Financial District/SoMa, Mission Bay, Dogpatch, Potrero Hill, the East Cut, and North Beach. For each area he describes the character of the built environment (high‑rise amenity towers vs. historic lofts), typical price points for rentals and purchases, commute options (Muni, Caltrain, highway access), and lifestyle amenities (restaurants, gyms, parks). He also highlights three major Mission Bay redevelopment projects—Mission Rock, Pier 70, and the Petrarca Power Station conversion—explaining how they will add thousands of new units and open space. Throughout, Klar offers practical resources: downloadable neighborhood comparison sheets, links to deeper‑dive videos on each area, and his personal contact information for prospective buyers or renters. The overall message is that the AI boom is revitalizing San Francisco, creating a range of viable living options across the city for incoming tech talent.
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Everybody thought San Francisco was dead, but now with billions of dollars being invested in massive new mixed-use communities all across the city and a flood of new office leases coming to the city from AI companies, SF is on its way to being restored to its former glory, just like the early 2000s. Just OpenAI and Anthropic alone have made huge bets on San Francisco, leasing several hundred thousand square feet of office space in these areas. I'm Austin Klar, your lawyer turned real estate agent in San Francisco and Marin County., and I've got a bunch of people from all over the country reaching out to me asking where should they live if they're moving here, relocating because of AI. And I'm going to answer exactly that in this video, talk about each of the neighborhoods and why they make the most sense if you're working in tech in San Francisco. First, I want to talk about where major AI companies have leased office space in San Francisco. If you work in AI, you've probably heard of the company named Anthropic. They are making massive waves in the news after completing a $4 billion investment from Amazon and leasing 230,000 square feet of office space right next to Salesforce Park and Salesforce Tower in Slack's old headquarters. I used to live in that area. I know it very well. It is incredibly flat, some of the best weather in San Francisco, and it is right next to some of San Francisco's best restaurants, two 3-star Michelin restaurants, as well as a series of casual restaurants, food trucks, great places to go for people who work in the area. Their headquarters is located right between the Financial District and the South Beach neighborhoods. If you live there, you're a short walk from everything, a ton of great bars and food, multiple gyms, including the Equinox on Pine Street, which I went to for years, awesome building that used to be a stock exchange, really great architecture and character. And that area is full of gorgeous residential spaces. Some of San Francisco's best amenity buildings are concentrated in that area. The Avery, One Steuart Lane, Mira SF, Infinity and Lumina Towers, and a ton of other incredible high-rises. Most of these will have 24-hour doormen. Mm-hmm. Gyms, pools, rooftops, you name it, they've got it. If you're going to live in the Financial District or SoMa areas, you should expect to pay about $1 million for a 1-bedroom, mid to high ones for a 2-bedroom, and then it goes all the way up to like $12 million for crazy top floor penthouse units of these modern amenity buildings. COVID hit the area pretty hard. There's a lot of supply on the market right now in relation to demand because a lot of people fled the city, fled the downtown area because they didn't need to be downtown for work. So a lot of people are getting great deals on units there, paying for units what people paid for them 10 years ago. So that's what you should expect to pay if you live in either of those areas. But we all know OpenAI is the leader in the AI space right now, and everybody is talking about their 500,000-square-foot new office lease at Uber's headquarters in Mission Bay on the corner of Folsom and 18th Street in the heart of the Mission Bay neighborhood. Mission Bay is undergoing massive redevelopment right now. There are billions of dollars being invested in 3 mixed-use communities that are coming up in and around Mission Bay. The first one is Mission Rock, which is being led by the San Francisco Giants and developer Tishman Speyer. The second one, a few blocks down the street from there, is Pier 70, being developed by Brookfield Partners and the Port of San Francisco. Thousands of new housing units and acres of open park spaces. And the third one might be the most interesting of all. It's the Petrarca Power Station, which is converting a now defunct power station into a beautiful new community. Going on in the area. Now back to Mission Bay. How much should you expect to pay if you're planning on living here? There's a variety of options from apartments to condos. Starting rent in these amenity buildings being built here, expect to pay at least $3,000 a month. And if you're looking to buy a condo, those start at around $700,000 a month. And remember, OpenAI and Anthropic are just two leaders in the AI space. There are a ton of other companies in the space like Perplexity and Adept. And then there are the big boys like Meta, Apple, Google. They are investing a lot of money in AI. AI right now, and there is a ton of VC money being poured into San Francisco, especially into the AI space too. So you better believe that all of these companies, they're going to be hiring people. People are going to be moving to the city. The entire landscape of all these areas that we just talked about are going to change dramatically. And you also don't need to live in those immediate areas around where these companies are based if you're working at those companies. There are a lot of areas in the surrounding neighborhoods that are great places to live if you're moving here to work at one of those companies. And I'm going to talk about several of the best neighborhoods neighborhoods to do that right now. The first of those is the Dogpatch neighborhood, east of Potrero Hill, really close to the Central Waterfront. It's a really small, formerly industrial enclave. There are a lot of old industrial warehouses that were converted into condos and apartments, and that type of industrial warehouse condo loft-style building really dominates the area. There's also a ton of new construction going up in the area as well, and believe it or not, the area largely survived the 1906 earthquake and fire. So there's a very small strip of historic cottages and Victorians, some of the oldest buildings in the city. The Dogpatch also has its fair share of restaurants and cafes, but it's really close walking distance to some of these great new amenities that I just talked about, like the Chase Center, like the new RH, and it's really close to all those new developments that are coming in the Central Waterfront area. So there's a ton of stuff both in and around the Dogpatch for you, and it's really walkable, easy to get to. Mostly flat. And one of the best aspects of living in the Dogpatch is how easy it is to commute from there. The Muni line goes straight through the area, will take you directly to downtown. It's also really close to the Caltrain station, making commuting to the South Bay really, really easy. And it's very close to the highway as well if you want to commute by car. Prices as well, relatively reasonable for condos starting at around $1.1 million, but they can go all the way up into the $2 million range for larger, newer units. Austin Klar] I've got a whole separate video giving an entire neighborhood tour of the Dogpatch area, including what day-to-day life is like there and how much it costs to live there. If you're curious about any of that and want to learn more, definitely go check it out. I'll link it in the description below. Another great neighborhood to live in if you're working at any of these companies or in the area is Potrero Hill, above the Dogpatch to the west. One of the most popular neighborhoods in San Francisco because of its incredible weather and the stunning views of the city and the bay. Potrero largely consists of Victorian-style single-family homes and a collection of smaller condo buildings. There's also some older homes that were converted into multi-unit buildings. Like the Dogpatch, it's really close to those great amenities along the waterfront that are being built, and there's a collection of small parks in the area making it great for families, pets, or anyone that just likes the outdoors. There's also a great collection of awesome restaurants along the commercial corridor of 20th Street, and depending on where you live in Potrero Hill, you can definitely walk there. One thing to be aware of compared to the Dogpatch is that Potrero Hill if you couldn't tell by its name, is very hilly. So not quite as easy to get around by foot, but because of the great weather, people do it all the time. And because you have those hills, that's how you get those awesome views. And just like the Dogpatch, it is really easy to commute to downtown Mission Bay or the South Bay. So it's perfect for someone looking for a relatively well-priced option on the southern end of the city. Condos in Potrero Hill average about $1.1 million, but they can get really pricey for super high-end stuff there, well above $3 million. And it's the same idea with single-family homes. Not too far above average compared to the rest of SF, about $2.2 million for a single family. But new construction, big mansions, I've seen places go north of $6 to $7 million in Potrero Hill. I've got a full video about the Potrero Hill neighborhood on my channel as well. I'll link that in the description below. Go check it out if you're curious about why this is one of the most popular neighborhoods in San Francisco and why so many people love living here. Another great neighborhood to consider is the East Cut. It is technically part of SoMa, but residents and businesses there carved it out made it its own neighborhood, gave it its own identity. Just like SoMa, a lot of modern high-rise amenity buildings. And just like SoMa, it's also very flat. Steps from some of the best restaurants in San Francisco, multiple Michelin-starred restaurants, food trucks, a lot of fast casual spots to service all the offices in the area. It's also very close to the highway, very easy to get to the Bay Bridge or the South Bay, and it is super flat, so it is very walkable to get to the Financial District and all the different tech offices around the area. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] And the last neighborhood Last neighborhood you might consider is North Beach. It's one of my favorite neighborhoods in the city, and it happens to be the first place that I lived when I first moved to San Francisco over a decade ago. Has some of the best restaurants in the city. It is known for its Italian food, nicknamed San Francisco's Little Italy. It's also mostly flat, so very easy to walk around, very close to the North Waterfront. So it is on the north end of the city, not walkable if you live in a place like Mission Bay to get to work,. But if you work in the Financial District or close to Market Street, 20 to 25 minute walk depending on where you live in North Beach. I worked at a law firm in the Financial District when I first moved here. I'd walk home from work and stop at my favorite deli or stop at my favorite pizza place, stop in Washington Square Park and just hang out and take in some of the great weather. Really great place to live. Definitely worth considering. As far as cost of living here, really good. You know, newer construction condos are going to start a little bit over $1 million. Most of the infrastructure in the area is relatively older, so you can definitely get condos for less expensive than that. But if you want something nice and shiny and new, like what you'll get in Mission Bay and SoMa and South Beach and Central Waterfront, you're going to have to spend a little bit over $1 million starting out. If you want a breakdown of how these different neighborhoods stack up against each other, you can download it using the link in the description below. I break it all down so that you don't have to do a whole bunch of your own research and watch a whole bunch of different videos. You have all the information you need right there. And keep in mind that people who are moving here or who are already living here and relocating, working in tech, don't just live in these 4 or 5 different neighborhoods. They live all across the city. So if you want to learn more about which neighborhoods might be right for you or how they stack up against each other or where they rank in comparison to each other, I made a whole separate video ranking a whole bunch of popular and not so popular neighborhoods in San Francisco. I'll link that in the description as well. Go check it out. I moved here from Orange County over a decade ago without really having spent much time in San Francisco at all. So I know how difficult it can be finding the right neighborhood in a place you have no idea about. So if you have any trouble doing that or you want more information about any of these areas or how the market is, definitely reach out to me. My contact information is in the description below. I'd be more than happy to be a resource for you.
