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Outer Parkside, San Francisco: Homes, Coast & Real Estate Guide

By Matthew Martinez, Founder, CEO & Managing Broker, Diamond Real Estate Group. California DRE #01869679.

The Outer Parkside is the ocean end of the Parkside: the avenues from Sunset Boulevard west to the Great Highway, between Ortega Street and Sloat Boulevard, with the San Francisco Zoo just beyond its southwest corner. About 91% of its houses were built between 1940 and 1955, which makes it the most uniformly wartime-and-postwar neighborhood in District 2. In the San Francisco MLS it is neighborhood 2B of District 2.

It has the third-largest house count in the district, 4,286 on the Assessor’s 2025 roll, and the plain RH-1 one-family code covers a larger share of its parcels, about 91%, than in any other District 2 neighborhood. The questions that set it apart are mostly about the coast: the Great Highway vote, the SFPUC’s plans south of Sloat, and how far the coastal maps reach inland. The L Taraval’s western loop and two city landmarks along Sloat Boulevard round out the picture.

Outer Parkside homes for sale

Outer Parkside market report

From Sunset Boulevard to the sand

On the Assessor’s map the Outer Parkside begins on the south side of Ortega Street; the 1900 block of 41st Avenue, for example, is coded 2B, while the blocks north of Ortega belong to the Outer Sunset. Sunset Boulevard separates it from Parkside to the east. To the west the avenues run out to 48th Avenue and the row of parcels facing the Great Highway, and to the south Sloat Boulevard is the line, with the Zoo and Lake Merced area across it in District 3.

Popular usage is looser. Many people call this whole area the Outer Sunset, and Wikipedia’s Parkside article treats the Outer Parkside as part of a larger Parkside District that reaches the ocean and the Zoo. When a listing or a news story names the neighborhood, check which definition it uses.

A neighborhood finished after the war

Construction period	Houses on the roll	Share
Before 1940	276	about 6%
1940 to 1945	1,472	about 34%
1946 to 1950	1,879	about 44%
1951 to 1955	538	about 13%
1956 or later	115	about 3%

The single busiest year was 1947, with 670 houses, followed by 1948 with 584. Building dipped in 1942 but recovered quickly during the war: 1944 and 1945 each added more than 300 houses. The result is the most consistent stock in the district, block after block of houses within a few years of one another.

They are also the smallest on paper. The median recorded house is about 1,225 square feet, the lowest of the seven District 2 neighborhoods, on the standard lot of about 3,000 square feet. Alongside them the roll lists 113 flats or duplexes, 96 condominium units and 78 apartment buildings. The Assessor’s building area may not count a finished lower level, so two houses listed at the same size can feel quite different inside.

Sunset Dunes, the November vote and the coast south of Sloat

The Outer Parkside fronts the southern part of Sunset Dunes, the roughly two-mile, 50-acre park that the Recreation and Park Department opened on April 12, 2025, on the former Upper Great Highway between Sloat Boulevard and Lincoln Way. Voters approved closing the road to cars with Proposition K in 2024.

The question is on the ballot again. KQED reported on July 24, 2026 that organizers had gathered enough signatures to put a weekday-reopening measure on the November 3, 2026 ballot: the road would carry cars Monday through Friday and stay a park on weekends. A Superior Court judge had already dismissed a lawsuit challenging Proposition K. The outcome affects how much traffic the western avenues and the Lower Great Highway carry, so look it up before relying on either version.

South of Sloat, the Ocean Beach Climate Change Adaptation Project, run by the SFPUC, will end public driving on the Great Highway from Sloat to Skyline Boulevard for good and put a trail of more than a mile in its place. The project includes:

a buried wall shielding wastewater and recycled-water infrastructure against erosion, plus sand added to the beach as needed;
a new lot of about 60 stalls near the south end of the trail, replacing the 35-space lot at the Great Highway and Sloat;
improvements to the Great Highway intersection at Sloat, a rerouted layover and turnaround for the 23 Monterey, and reconfigured Zoo parking access;
construction estimated from late 2027 to early 2031, with parts of South Ocean Beach closed about six months a year.

For owners near Sloat Boulevard, the intersection, bus and parking changes are the parts of the project closest to home.

What the coastal maps show

To test how far inland each coastal designation reaches, we queried individual points on SF Planning’s GIS layers. Treat the results as a guide, not a parcel ruling:

Coastal Zone: a parcel facing the Great Highway between Rivera and Santiago streets was inside the zone, while a point on the 47th-to-48th Avenue block nearby was outside. Near Sloat Boulevard the zone reaches farther inland: parcels on Sloat between 46th and 47th Avenues were inside.
Liquefaction: on the state seismic hazard map in Planning’s layer, the zone’s eastern edge runs close to the Great Highway frontage from about Pacheco Street to Taraval, and 48th Avenue houses checked near Santiago were outside it. Near Sloat the edge bends inland toward 46th and 47th Avenues.
Flood: the Great Highway frontage parcel was in FEMA Zone X (unshaded), outside the Special Flood Hazard Area, on the flood map effective March 23, 2021.

Inside the Coastal Zone, building projects can involve coastal permitting on top of the usual building permit, and the Family Zoning Plan’s changes there take effect as Local Coastal Program amendments that need California Coastal Commission certification. For a particular lot, the Natural Hazard Disclosure report and our hazard maps guide are where to confirm it.

Zoning: nine parcels in ten are RH-1

RH-1 is the code on about 91% of Outer Parkside parcels in the roll’s zoning field; only Golden Gate Heights, where RH-1 and the detached RH-1(D) together reach about 96%, has more one-family zoning. The rest is a scatter: about 120 RM-1 and 19 RM-2 parcels of apartment zoning, 114 RH-2, and small NC-1 and NC-2 commercial clusters, about 57 parcels in all. The Taraval Street commercial district on Planning’s map ends around 35th Avenue, east of Sunset Boulevard, so the shops in the Outer Parkside are corner and cluster sites rather than a continuous strip.

The apartment buildings and flats are a small share of the neighborhood but a distinct market. Rented units, rent history and any buyout or eviction filings shape their value; our San Francisco multifamily guide covers how investors underwrite them.

The L Taraval’s west end and the buses

The L Taraval’s outer terminal is at Wawona Street and 46th Avenue near the Zoo, on a one-way loop along Vicente Street, 47th Avenue, Wawona and 46th Avenue. From there trains run north on 46th Avenue to Taraval and east along Taraval, stopping at 46th and Vicente, 46th and Ulloa, 46th and Taraval, then Taraval at 44th, 42nd and 40th Avenues and Sunset Boulevard. Rebuilding of the western segment, from Sunset Boulevard to 46th Avenue, began in August 2019, and the project added boarding islands at 40th, 42nd and 44th and westbound at 46th.

Per published route lists:

the 18 46th Avenue links its daytime terminal at the Legion of Honor with 19th Avenue and Buckingham Way;
the 23 Monterey ends at the Great Highway and Sloat, by the Zoo;
the 48 Quintara/24th Street ends at the Great Highway and Rivera;
the 7 Haight/Noriega ends at Ortega and 48th Avenue, on the northern edge;
the 29 Sunset serves the Sunset Boulevard side.

By car, Sloat Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard carry most trips, and the Great Highway’s status depends on the November vote.

Sloat Boulevard, the Zoo and two landmarks

Sloat Boulevard is the neighborhood’s southern edge. On it, near 45th Avenue, stands the Doggie Diner sign, a 1966 roadside sign designated City Landmark 254 in 2006; Planning’s record credits its graphic design to Harold Bachman.

Across Sloat, the San Francisco Zoo holds the Mother’s Building, a 1925 Italian Renaissance Revival building by George W. Kelham, listed on the National Register and designated Landmark 304 in 2022, with Planning citing its ties to women’s history and the New Deal. The Assessor codes the Zoo parcel to District 3, but from the Outer Parkside it is the neighbor at the end of the L.

Selling a home in the Outer Parkside

Most buyers here are comparing one 1940s house with another, so small differences decide the price, and documents prove them:

Show the permitted space. With the district’s smallest recorded houses, a finished ground floor adds a lot. Match rooms, baths or a second unit to permits, or plan for disclosure or legalization using our unwarranted units guide.
Document the exterior. Near the ocean, roofs, windows, paint and metal work hard. Recent work with receipts answers a common buyer question before it is asked.
State the map status. For blocks near the Great Highway or Sloat, include the parcel’s Coastal Zone and liquefaction readings in the disclosure package. Anyone planning an addition will want them.
Give the coastal context factually. Be ready to describe Sunset Dunes, the ballot measure and the SFPUC project without predicting outcomes.
Assemble the city requirements. The 3R report, inspections and transfer tax are on our San Francisco seller requirements page.

Current prices are in the market report on this page; for one house, ask for a home valuation.

Questions people ask

Where is the Outer Parkside?

West of Sunset Boulevard to the Great Highway, between Ortega Street and Sloat Boulevard, in the southwest corner of the Sunset District. It is MLS neighborhood 2B.

Is the Outer Parkside part of the Outer Sunset?

In everyday usage it often is. The MLS and the Assessor treat it separately, with Ortega Street as the line between the Outer Sunset (2C) and the Outer Parkside (2B).

Is the Great Highway open to cars along the Outer Parkside?

Not the upper roadway: since April 12, 2025 it has been Sunset Dunes. Voters decide on November 3, 2026 whether to let cars back on weekdays, so look up the outcome.

What is happening to the Great Highway south of Sloat?

The SFPUC plans to close it permanently between Sloat and Skyline boulevards, protect wastewater facilities with a buried wall and build a trail of over a mile, with construction estimated from late 2027 to early 2031.

Is the Outer Parkside in the Coastal Zone?

The westernmost parcels are, and near Sloat Boulevard the zone reaches farther inland. Our point checks found a Great Highway frontage parcel inside and a 47th-to-48th Avenue point outside; check the specific parcel.

Where does the L Taraval end?

At a loop around Wawona Street and 46th Avenue near the San Francisco Zoo, using Vicente Street, 47th Avenue, Wawona and 46th Avenue.

When were Outer Parkside houses built?

Mostly from 1940 to 1955. On the 2025 roll about 34% of house parcels date from 1940 to 1945 and 44% from 1946 to 1950, with 1947 the busiest year.

Selling an Outer Parkside house, or comparing it with other San Francisco neighborhoods near the ocean? Get in touch with Diamond Real Estate Group.

Sources & notes

Last reviewed October 2026 by Matthew Martinez.