San Francisco’s 7 Most WALKABLE Neighborhoods

Whenever someone asks me what my favorite thing is about living in San Francisco, my answer always surprises them. It's the walkability. Yeah, San Francisco has a ton of hills, but it's actually an incredibly walkable place. There are a ton of places that you can live all over the city where you are walking distance to shops, restaurants, bars, parks, even the office, you name it. And you can do all of that without having to walk up and down all these mega hills throughout the city. I'm Austin Klar, your lawyer turned real estate agent in San Francisco and Marin County. I moved to the Bay Area over a decade ago to work as a lawyer at one of the biggest law firms in the world. And now I represent buyers and sellers in the most important financial transaction of their lives, buying and selling their homes. And in this video, I'm gonna break down my top 7 most walkable neighborhoods in San Francisco, and we're gonna kick it off with number 7, the Inner Sunset. The Inner Sunset is located on the west, kind of central side of SF, just south of Golden Gate Park. And it is for the most part generally flat. There are some mini inclines, some like slight hills throughout the neighborhood, but for the most part, it is relatively flat. So it is very easy to get around on foot. And pretty much no matter where you live in the Inner Sunset, you are going to be walking distance to a ton of great amenities. The main commercial corridor is at 9th and Irving. One of my favorite bakeries in the city, Tartine, has a location there. Really great pastries and brunch food. There's a ton of great pizza in the area, Asian food, Mexican food. Pretty much anything you want is in the Inner Sunset. And if you live in the Inner Sunset, as I had mentioned earlier, Golden Gate Park is at your doorstep. The park is actually— Very close. Massive, 20% larger than New York Central Park, if you can believe it. There's so much to do there from regular golf, disc golf, multiple lakes. There's picnic areas, baseball fields, a tea garden, multiple museums, you name it. And one of the highlights of the Inner Sunset is that it is relatively affordable compared to not just the other neighborhoods I'm going to talk about on this list, but most of the neighborhoods in San Francisco as well. The median single-family home in the Inner Sunset over the past year was about $1.73 million, just under $1,000 a foot. $1.73 million. And that's only slightly higher than the median home for all of San Francisco over that same time period, which is about $1.62 million. Same, just under $1,000 a foot. And for condos, about $1.3 million, just over $1,000 a foot, a little bit more than the median condo for all of SF, about $1.13 million. And the main reason why I put the Inner Sunset at number 7 on my list instead of higher is because of the weather. The Inner Sunset is probably the coolest and most foggy neighborhood on this list. Very similar to the one I'm gonna talk about next on my list, but the next neighborhood I'm about to talk about is a little bit smaller, so it's a little bit more walkable in my opinion, and you're gonna be closer to all the action in that area no matter where you live compared to maybe a little bit farther away in the Inner Sunset depending on where you live in that neighborhood just 'cause it's much larger. By the way, I have full breakdowns on my YouTube channel of each of the neighborhoods that I'm going to talk about on this list. I'll link them in the description below, so definitely check them out if you wanna learn more about any of these neighborhoods. And definitely subscribe to my channel if you want more videos just like this because I post videos about this kind of stuff every single week. And if you want to learn more about how these neighborhoods stack up against each other, what some of the cons are of these neighborhoods, or you want to learn about what's going on in the market in any of these areas, definitely reach out to me. I'll put my contact information in the description below. I'd be happy to help you. Now back to the rankings, and we're going to go to number 6 on my list, the West Portal neighborhood. West Portal is south of the Inner Sunset, closer to San Francisco State University, and as I mentioned earlier, It's on the smaller side compared to the Inner Sunset. So no matter where you live in West Portal, you'll be closer to the action, the main commercial corridor, which is on West Portal Avenue. That's where you're gonna find all the food, all the bars. You'll be able to catch a trolley there to take it to downtown. No matter where you live, you'll be able to walk to that area. Now there are definitely some hills in West Portal. It is more hilly than I would say the Inner Sunset is, but because it is so small, you're not walking up and down a ton of hills to get to where you need to go. Maybe it's 1, maybe it's 2. You're not gonna be walking for that long, so it is still a very walkable neighborhood overall. My favorite food spot in West Portal, probably Little Original Joe's, a smaller takeout version of their main restaurant in North Beach. The same company also opened up a Mexican spot there called Elena's. It is one of the hardest restaurants to get a reservation at right now, so I actually haven't been yet. You're also walking distance to Stern Grove, which is where they have the free Stern Grove Music Festival every year. It's an awesome park. And similar to the Inner Sunset, it is relatively affordable compared to other neighborhoods., in San Francisco, especially the more desirable neighborhoods, including the other neighborhoods that I'm about to talk about on this list. Median price of a single-family home in West Portal, about $1.9 million compared to the $1.62 million for all of San Francisco. So definitely expensive in the grand scheme of things, but relatively speaking, not quite as expensive as a lot of the other neighborhoods I'm about to talk about. I actually recently helped clients buy a place in West Portal. They weren't super familiar with the area, but were looking to start a family, moving out of their condo, in Hayes Valley to somewhere else in the city that was a little bit more family-friendly, and they wanted something that was walkable, but they also wanted something that was relatively close to downtown because they both work downtown. So West Portal wasn't necessarily on their radar, but after visiting the property that they ultimately bought and walking around the neighborhood several times, they fell in love with it and never looked back. And the reason I bring that up is just to back up the affordability point. They bought a 4-bedroom house, about 2,000 square feet, for $1.8 million, something that is really hard to find in other parts of San Francisco and other good neighborhoods of San Francisco. So you can definitely find good value in the area, even though, you know, on an absolute basis, yes, $1.8 million is very expensive. Moving on to number 5 on my list is Pacific Heights, which is where I live on the north side of San Francisco. Now, Pacific Heights definitely has some massive hills running in the north to south direction, but pretty much in the east to west direction, especially as you get further east on Pac Heights, relatively flat. On the west side of Pac Heights, you do get some slight inclines, but nowhere near as much of an incline as those hills that are running north to south. Still very walkable. So no matter where you live in Pacific Heights, you will be able to walk to all the great amenities in the area, and there are a ton. It's immediately east of the Presidio, which is a gorgeous national park with awesome views, tennis courts, playgrounds, you name it. It's also got Alta Plaza and Lafayette Parks, which are terraced parks with beautiful views of the city and classic San Francisco architecture. Of homes surrounding the parks. You also have the main commercial corridors of the areas on Fillmore Street and Sacramento Street. Fillmore has a ton of boutique and designer stores along with like great bars and casual food. Sacramento Street, a little more home design, interior design focused, and a lot more upscale food options including Michelin star food. You should be within a 10-minute walk of at least one, if not more, of all these things that I just mentioned, no matter where you live in Pacific Heights. And depending on where you live, you might also be walking distance to Union Street in Cow Hollow, which also has a ton of great food, bars, and shops. There are also multiple gyms on Union Street, and I walk to the gym when I go on Union Street. So really not that hard to do, even though there are hills in the area. The weather in Pacific Heights is also a lot more mild than in West Portal and in Inner Sunset. So in my view, even though there are hills here, it is still relatively walkable. And because of that better weather, I put it higher than those other two on my list. Of course, the major downside here is the cost of living. It is easily one of the most expensive places to buy a place in San Francisco. Median price of a single-family home, uh, over the last year, about $5.3 million, about $1,400 a foot. So super, super expensive. And for condos, it's about $1.65 million. So about half a million dollars more than the median price condo for all of San Francisco, uh, about a little over $1,100 a foot. and at the high end for all of these properties, you can find houses and condos that go for close to, if not more than, $3,000 a foot. So it can get incredibly expensive at the high end. You can certainly find things that are more affordable. These are just median prices, so 50% of properties are going to be below that. But generally one of the most expensive areas in the city. But in my opinion, it's worth it because of all the great things you have here. Next on my list at number 4 is Cole Valley in Central San Francisco. It's one of the smallest neighborhoods in San Francisco, only about a fifth of a square mile, just a few blocks in each direction, and it's all centered around the commercial corridor on Polk Street. Some really great food, coffee shops, small like boutique-y grocery stores and markets. It's also one of the most family-friendly neighborhoods. There are kids everywhere, pets everywhere, all the time. They even have their own neighborhood dog park. It definitely has just a very small town, quaint vibe to it. And no matter where you live, because it's so small, you're really close to the main transit line running through the neighborhood. So it is very easy to live car-free and walk around. And while there are hills in Cole Valley, it is definitely not all flat. It's very easy to walk those hills because the neighborhood itself is so small. So even if you live up a hill, maybe you're walking 2 blocks to get to the main commercial corridor if you're trying to get coffee or groceries. So it's really not that difficult to walk around, notwithstanding the hills. The weather there is also among the best in the city, more mild than Pac Heights. Not quite as warm as like a Noe Valley or SoMa, but very, very mild, very pleasant. Cole Valley is also not as expensive as Pacific Heights is, but it is definitely not cheap. Median price of a single-family home, about $3.7 million, about $1,400 a foot, and median condos just under $1.6 million, a little over $1,100 a foot. Next on my list are the South Beach, East Cut, and Yerba Buena areas. I combine them all into one. They're all right next to each other. On the southeast side of San Francisco. The area is almost entirely flat, and the weather there is arguably the best in all of San Francisco. Typically, you can expect about 10 degrees warmer than places closer to the Pacific Ocean, like the Inner Sunset, and you have a lot less foggy days as well, a lot more sun, which is great because there is so much to walk to in that neighborhood. You've got the Ferry Building and the Embarcadero. You've got the great shopping in Union Square. You have multiple Michelin-starred restaurants. And what's great is that most of the major companies in San Francisco are located within walking distance of these neighborhoods. They're either gonna be in Mission Bay or in the East Cut itself or in the Financial District, all of which are walking distance from these areas. So you don't need a car. You definitely don't need to take public transit to get to work. You literally can just walk. That's what I did when I lived in South Beach neighborhood. I was working at my law firm in the Financial District. It was door-to-door, 20 minutes, completely flat the whole way. I did it every single day. And what's great about the homes here, most of which are condos in like high-rise amenity buildings, they're on sale right now. After the pandemic, when remote work really took off, you know, most people didn't need to be in the office anymore, so they didn't need to live immediately near work. So there was less demand for a lot of these high-rise condos that really dominate the area. And that caused prices to shift in the area pretty dramatically from the highs of like 2018, 2019 There are several examples of people getting condos today for what people paid like 7 to 10 years ago, sometimes even less. The median price of condos in the area is about $1.2 million, and it's about what it was 5 or 6 years ago. So definitely some good deals to be had in those areas where there's less demand right now while people are working remotely. Number 2 on my list is the Marina, another one on the north side of San Francisco, this time next to the North Waterfront. It is entirely flat, and no matter where you live in the Marina, you're going to be walking distance to Chestnut Street, which is where all the shops and restaurants are. And if you live kind of on the south side of the Marina, you'll also be a really easy walk to Union Street, a little bit up a hill, but not too far to get to Union Street and Cow Hollow, which I mentioned earlier, has all the shops and restaurants of that neighborhood. My favorite places in the Marina are like A16 for pizza, Momonoko for sushi. There's a souvlaki there. There's a really good mix of like nice and casual food in the Marina. You're also walking distance to a ton of outdoor amenities. First of all, the water, Marina Green, Crissy Field, the Palace of Fine Arts, Fort Mason, So many parks and open spaces here. And even though it is by the water, the weather is relatively mild. It's not as cold or foggy as places like the Inner Sunset or West Portal. So it is a really great area to walk around. And because it is so jam-packed with amenities and pretty good weather, it is pretty expensive. Median condos are about $1.5 million, over $1,200 a foot, and median single-family homes about $3.8 million, over $1,400 a foot. And number 1 on my list, which is the first neighborhood I ever lived in when I moved to San Francisco, North Beach, which is San Francisco's Little Italy. It's not entirely flat. There are some inclines in the area, but nothing really steep. No matter where you live in the area, you're gonna be next to Joe DiMaggio Park, Washington Square Park, all the restaurants on Columbus Street, the waterfront, multiple gyms, multiple grocery stores, markets everywhere. And what's great about North Beach is that it's also walkable to downtown. So if you happen to work downtown, you don't need a car. You can walk there. I lived in North Beach for several years, didn't own a car for most of the time that I lived there. I walked to work just like I did in SoMa every single day. And there's so much great food nearby. I would stop off on my walk home from work and get incredible food. Pizza from Tony's, sandwiches from Molinari, awesome food. You can eat it in the park if you want, or you can go home. Really easy to do. It's just a really great neighborhood if you want to live like in the heart of the city and feel like you're living in a quintessential San Francisco area. That area really has a sense of identity and culture, and you can take it all in on foot. And what's great is that it's not crazy expensive there. There aren't really single-family homes, it's mostly condos. And the median price condo there was about $1.14 million, or about $1,000 a foot, very in line with the rest of the city. Well, there you have it. Those are my top 7 most walkable neighborhoods in San Francisco. I definitely want to know your rankings and if I missed any, so let me know what you think in the comments. If you're thinking about relocating but having trouble navigating the market, definitely reach out to me. My contact information is in the description below. I moved to San Francisco over a decade ago without really knowing that much about different neighborhoods, so I know how scary navigating that can be. Happy to help you. And if you want to get a sense of how these neighborhoods stack up against each other, go check out another video that I made where I rank in tiers a ton of popular and some not so popular neighborhoods in the city. I'll link that at the top of the description below as well. And make sure to subscribe for more videos just like this. I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you in the next one. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]