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Bernal Heights, San Francisco: Homes, Hill & Real Estate Guide

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

Bernal Heights is the hill neighborhood bounded by Cesar Chavez Street on the north, US 101 on the east, Interstate 280 on the south and San Jose Avenue on the west. Listings file it as subdistrict 9A of District 9, and the Assessor’s 2025 roll counts about 7,370 parcels there, two-thirds of them single-family houses.

Most of the neighborhood sits inside its own special use district, which holds dwellings to 30 feet and controls how far a house can grow toward the rear of its lot. That rule, together with unusually small lots, shapes almost every renovation and pricing question here. The Inner Mission lies across Cesar Chavez Street, Glen Park is west of San Jose Avenue, and the Portola is on the far side of the freeway to the south.

Bernal Heights homes for sale

Bernal Heights market report

The hill and its edges

Wikipedia puts the neighborhood at about 1.05 square miles. The middle of it is open ground: Planning’s open space layer maps Bernal Heights Park at roughly 26 acres around the summit, which carries a radio and microwave tower, and Bernal Heights Boulevard loops the top as a path of about a mile that is closed to cars.

Streets climb from every side. The flatter ground is at the edges: the Cesar Chavez Street corridor on the north, the US 101 and Bayshore side on the east, and Alemany Boulevard on the south. Smaller public spaces include:

Precita Park, about 2.2 acres at the north foot of the hill.
Holly Park, about 8.1 acres in the southern part of the neighborhood.
St. Mary’s Playground, about 13.8 acres near the southern edge.
The Esmeralda Corridor, a string of small public parcels on the west slope, and several street parks along Bernal Heights Boulevard.

From rancho to small lots

In 1839 the land was part of Rancho Rincon de las Salinas y Potrero Viejo, a 4,446-acre Mexican grant to José Cornelio Bernal. By 1860 François Louis Alfred Pioche owned it and divided it into small lots, and Army engineers laid out the streets during the Civil War, which is why so many street names are military.

The hilltop stayed pasture until after the 1906 earthquake, when it filled in with small frame houses. Wikipedia credits the hill’s chert bedrock with helping many buildings survive the shaking and its sparse development with keeping much of the area clear of the fire that followed. Three of the small earthquake refugee cottages were later moved here.

What is on the ground today

The roll shows a neighborhood of small houses on small lots. The median single-family parcel is about 1,750 square feet of land with about 1,300 square feet of recorded building area, built in 1923.

Property type (2025 roll)	Parcels	Median recorded build year
Single-family houses	about 4,910	1923
Flats and two-unit buildings	about 780	1908
Condominium units	about 630	1927
Apartment buildings of up to 4 units	about 220 (two roll classes)	not retrieved
Flat-and-store buildings	about 150	not retrieved
Apartment buildings of 5 or more units	about 77	not retrieved
TIC buildings (4 units or less)	26	not retrieved

The condo figure is telling. With a median build year of 1927, at least half the condominium units here are in buildings recorded as built in 1927 or earlier, which points to older buildings that were divided rather than new construction. About 200 parcels are classed as vacant residential land.

Buildings from before 1920 are common in the older blocks; our Victorian and Edwardian homes guide covers the review rules that apply to them.

The Bernal Heights Special Use District

Planning Code Section 242 was added in 1991 to fit new building to the hill’s slopes and small lots, and it was last amended by an ordinance effective May 5, 2024. It applies on top of the RH-1, RH-1(S), RH-2 and RH-3 house districts within its boundary. A point check near Cortland Avenue returns RH-1 zoning, the Bernal Heights SUD and a 40-X height district; the SUD’s lower limit for dwellings controls.

Height: 30 feet for dwellings. On downslope lots that is measured with averaging, up to 40 feet above grade at any point, and the rearmost 8 feet may not exceed 32 feet. On upslope lots no part may exceed 38 feet above the curb, or 43 feet for the rear half where the back of the lot is 30 feet or more above the front.
Rear yards: 35% of lot depth on RH-1 lots up to 70 feet deep (on deeper RH-1 lots, a building may be no deeper than 45.5 feet from the front line), and 45% in RH-2 and RH-3. A building may extend into the rear yard to match an adjacent building, but no part of it may come within 25% of the lot depth or 15 feet of the rear line, whichever is greater.
Mass reduction: in RH-1, a building must give up 650 square feet of usable floor area from its exterior envelope (400 on lots deeper than 100 feet).
Garages: new construction is limited to a 10-foot curb cut and a 12-foot garage door.
Review: residential projects get neighborhood notice under Section 311, with the Elsie Street Plan and East Slope Building Guidelines as compatibility guides.
Demolition: generally prohibited, with narrow exceptions for imminent hazards, buildings under abatement orders with repairs at 50% or more of replacement cost, and buildings with no substantial remaining value.

Listed undeveloped lots on the South Slope need conditional use authorization for any new building, with criteria that include steep-slope and liquefaction design, fire access and traffic. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm a lot’s controls with Planning or a land use attorney before you price an addition.

On the Assessor’s roll, RH-1 accounts for about 3,390 parcels, RH-2 for about 2,610 and RH-1(D) for about 310. The commercial frontages are separate districts on Planning’s map: the Cortland Avenue NCD and the Mission Bernal NCD.

Cortland Avenue and the neighborhood’s anchors

Cortland Avenue is the commercial street, a strip of restaurants, bakeries and other small businesses. The Bernal Heights branch library at 500 Cortland was built with WPA funding, dedicated in 1940 and reopened in January 2010 after renovation, and the Bernal Heights Recreation Center sits beside it.

In the southeast corner, the Alemany Farmers’ Market has run every Saturday since August 4, 1947, with a flea market on Sundays. Precita Park on the north side faces the Mission across Cesar Chavez Street.

Ground conditions on and around the hill

Bernal’s hazards follow its shape. Planning’s earthquake-induced landslide layer shows about 20 small mapped zones in the neighborhood, most of them on the upper slopes in and around Bernal Heights Park, with others on the south slope toward Alemany Boulevard and the east slope above US 101.

Liquefaction zones stay at the edges. On Planning’s copy of the state map they run along Cesar Chavez Street east of about Harrison Street toward the freeway, down the eastern foot along US 101 and Bayshore Boulevard, and along Alemany Boulevard on the south side, where Islais Creek once ran. The hill’s interior is outside them.

The roll counts about 77 apartment buildings of five or more units. Under DBI’s mandatory soft-story program, a wood-frame building of that size is covered when its permit to construct was applied for before January 1, 1978 and it has three or more stories, or two over a basement or underfloor area. Our San Francisco hazard maps guide shows how to check a parcel.

Transit and freeways

67 Bernal Heights: the neighborhood’s own Muni line, between 24th St./Mission BART and Ellsworth and Crescent.
Mission Street: the 14 Mission and 49 Van Ness/Mission run along the western side, per published route lists.
12 Folsom/Pacific: ends at Valencia Street and Cesar Chavez, at the northwest corner.
BART: 24th St./Mission station, at 2800 Mission Street, is served by four lines and has no parking.
Freeways: US 101 runs along the east side and Interstate 280 along the south.

Route patterns change, so check SFMTA before relying on a specific stop.

Selling a home in Bernal Heights

Buyers here usually compare houses on the same few measures: whether the lot slopes up or down from the street, whether there is a garage and how it is reached, and how much finished space sits below the main floor. On lots this small, every square foot of permitted area matters.

Pull the permit history for additions, decks and lower-level rooms, and be ready to show which spaces are legal living area; our unwarranted units guide explains what happens when they are not.
Check the SUD envelope if your pricing assumes expansion: rear-yard, height and mass-reduction limits decide what a buyer can add.
Document slope work such as retaining walls, drainage and foundation repairs, with engineer’s letters where you have them.
For two- to four-unit buildings, assemble leases, rent history and Rent Board filings, and see our TIC guide if a buyer group may purchase together.
Line up the city’s point-of-sale items, from the 3R report and energy rules to the transfer tax; our San Francisco selling requirements page lists each one.

Diamond may refer you to partners we work with; you’re free to choose any provider. Current neighborhood figures appear in the market report on this page.

Questions people ask

Is Bernal Heights part of the Mission?

No. It is a separate neighborhood south of Cesar Chavez Street, and the MLS lists it as subdistrict 9A, separate from the Inner Mission (9C).

How tall can a house be in Bernal Heights?

Under the Bernal Heights SUD, dwellings are generally limited to 30 feet, with slope-based rules allowing up to 40 feet above grade on downslope lots and 38 to 43 feet above the curb on upslope lots.

How big are Bernal Heights lots?

Small. The median single-family parcel on the 2025 roll has about 1,750 square feet of land and about 1,300 square feet of recorded building area.

Is Bernal Heights in a liquefaction zone?

The hill itself is not. Planning’s map shows liquefaction zones along the Cesar Chavez, US 101 and Alemany Boulevard edges, and small landslide zones on the steeper slopes.

Can I demolish a house in Bernal Heights?

Rarely. Section 242 generally prohibits demolishing residential buildings except for imminent hazards, certain abatement cases or buildings with no substantial remaining value.

What is the closest BART station?

24th St./Mission, at 2800 Mission Street; the 67 Bernal Heights bus starts there.

Thinking about selling a Bernal Heights house or small building, or about what an addition would be worth? We can review the lot, the permit record and recent sales with you. Request a home valuation, contact us, look across the freeway at Potrero Hill, or browse the rest of SF District 9 from our San Francisco real estate guide.

Sources & notes

Last reviewed October 2026 by Matthew Martinez.