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SF District 2 Real Estate: Sunset, Parkside & Golden Gate Heights

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

SF District 2 is the San Francisco MLS search district for the Sunset and Parkside: seven neighborhoods between Golden Gate Park and Sloat Boulevard, from the hills of Golden Gate Heights west to Ocean Beach. It is a real estate search area whose neighborhood letters (2A to 2G) also appear in the Assessor’s records; Board of Supervisors District 2 is a separate map drawn for elections.

The Assessor’s 2025 roll lists 27,973 parcels in the seven neighborhoods, and 22,576 of them, about 81%, are recorded as one-unit dwellings, most of them stucco row houses built on 25-foot lots between the 1920s and the 1940s. The page below compares the neighborhoods and links to a guide for each.

SF District 2 homes for sale

SF District 2 market report

The seven District 2 neighborhoods

Neighborhood (MLS code)	Character	Main transit
Golden Gate Heights (2A)	Hill streets and stairways around Grand View Park, south of the Inner Sunset and west of Forest Hill; houses from every decade of the 20th century, with mapped landslide zones on the slopes	6 Hayes/Parnassus (ends at 14th Avenue and Quintara); 66 Quintara; L Taraval nearby on Ulloa
Inner Parkside (2G)	14th to 19th Avenues from Ortega to Wawona, between Golden Gate Heights and West Portal; mostly 1925-1941 houses, the district’s largest RH-1(D) share, and the Inner Taraval Street commercial district	L Taraval on Taraval, then Ulloa to West Portal; 28 and 28R on 19th Avenue
Inner Sunset (2F)	Lincoln Way south to the hills, east to UCSF and Mount Sutro; the oldest stock, with Edwardian-era flats, apartment buildings and the Irving Street and 9th Avenue shops	N Judah; 6, 43, 44 and 66 at 9th Avenue and Judah
Central Sunset (2E)	19th Avenue to Sunset Boulevard, Lincoln Way to about Ortega Street; 1930s tract houses, including Period Revival blocks, and the Irving, Judah and Noriega commercial districts	N Judah; 7 Haight/Noriega; 29 Sunset; 28 and 28R
Outer Sunset (2C)	Sunset Boulevard to the Great Highway and Ocean Beach; mostly 1930s and 1940s houses, wartime and postwar flats, and Sunset Dunes park on the old roadway	N Judah to Judah and La Playa; 7; 18 46th Avenue; 29
Parkside (2D)	19th Avenue to Sunset Boulevard, Ortega Street to Stern Grove and Sloat; the most houses of any District 2 neighborhood, built mainly 1923-1943, the Taraval Street commercial district, and Sunset Reservoir on its northern edge	L Taraval; 28 and 28R; 29; 18; 66 Quintara (ends at Vicente and 30th Avenue)
Outer Parkside (2B)	Sunset Boulevard to the Great Highway, Ortega Street to Sloat; compact houses, about 91% built 1940-1955, the district’s highest RH-1 share, and the southern end of Sunset Dunes	L Taraval to its loop at 46th Avenue and Wawona; 18; 23 Monterey; 48 Quintara/24th Street; 7 at Ortega and 48th

Boundaries follow the Assessor’s neighborhood codes, which match the MLS letters; popular descriptions are often wider, and Wikipedia, for example, runs the Outer Sunset all the way to Sloat. Next door are District 1 (the Richmond) across Golden Gate Park, District 5 (Cole Valley, Parnassus Heights and the Haight) to the east, District 4 (Forest Hill, West Portal, St. Francis Wood and other neighborhoods west of Twin Peaks) to the southeast, and District 3 (Lakeshore, Stonestown and nearby areas) south of Sloat.

Housing stock, neighborhood by neighborhood

How we counted: figures come from the Assessor-Recorder’s 2025 closed roll on DataSF, grouped by neighborhood code. Counts are parcels, so each condominium unit counts once and an apartment building counts once however many units it holds. Medians are for one-unit dwellings; “house size” is the building area on the roll, which may leave out finished space that was never permitted.

Neighborhood	Houses	Flats & duplexes	Condo units	Apartment bldgs	Median lot	Median house size	Median year built
Golden Gate Heights	1,326	19	24	9	3,090 sq ft	1,825 sq ft	1951
Inner Parkside	1,397	92	23	12	3,000 sq ft	1,685 sq ft	1931
Inner Sunset	2,031	896	462	440	3,000 sq ft	1,725 sq ft	1924
Central Sunset	4,745	584	160	142	3,000 sq ft	1,620 sq ft	1936
Outer Sunset	3,528	382	119	187	3,000 sq ft	1,310 sq ft	1941
Parkside	5,263	124	38	57	3,000 sq ft	1,485 sq ft	1938
Outer Parkside	4,286	113	96	78	3,000 sq ft	1,225 sq ft	1947

Lots are remarkably uniform: the median is 2,996 square feet in six of the seven neighborhoods, the footprint of a 25-foot-wide avenue lot. What changes is the building on it. The Inner Sunset is the outlier, with houses on fewer than half its parcels and the district’s only real concentration of flats and apartment buildings. Everywhere else, houses make up 80% to 92% of parcels.

Recorded house size falls as you move west and south, from about 1,725 square feet in the Inner Sunset to about 1,225 in the Outer Parkside, and median build year rises in the same direction. Golden Gate Heights, with later hillside construction, sits apart on both measures.

How the Sunset was built

Planning’s 2013 historic context statement describes the Sunset as 4.5 square miles holding more than 25,000 buildings, and much of it as former dunes once called the “Great Sand Waste.” Streetcars came first: the Taraval line opened in 1919 as a shuttle from West Portal, and Judah Street service began through the new Sunset Tunnel in 1928. Sunset Boulevard was completed in 1931.

Henry Doelger, the Gellerts (whose Standard Building Company was led by Carl Gellert) and Ray F. Galli built the majority of the district’s houses, according to the statement, with Oliver Rousseau and others producing smaller, more ornamental tracts. Their typical product was a stucco house with an integrated ground-floor garage and living space above, set shoulder to shoulder with its neighbors. Within the survey area, construction peaked in 1940, with 499 houses built that year, then nearly stopped during the war years in that central area.

Doelger’s 1932 office on Judah Street, the Doelger Building at 320-326 Judah, was designated a city landmark in 2013. A cluster of 1930s Period Revival tracts in the Central Sunset and Parkside has been identified by Planning as eligible for the National Register; the Central Sunset guide lists them.

Zoning, commercial streets and the Family Zoning Plan

On the Assessor’s roll, about 71% of District 2 parcels carry RH-1 or RH-1(D) zoning, the one-unit house districts, and about 19% carry RH-2. The exceptions are the Inner Sunset, where RH-2 is the main code, and pockets of RH-3 and RM-1 in the Central and Outer Sunset. The roll’s zoning field can lag the city map, so the commercial districts below come from SF Planning’s current zoning layer.

Inner Sunset NCD: the frontages between Lincoln Way and Judah Street centered on Irving Street and 9th Avenue, from about 5th Avenue west.
Irving Street NCD (Planning Code section 732): Irving from 19th Avenue to about 27th Avenue.
Judah Street NCD: Judah between roughly 30th and 33rd Avenues.
Noriega Street NCD: Noriega from 19th Avenue to about 33rd Avenue.
Taraval Street NCD: Taraval from 19th Avenue to about 35th Avenue, and the separate Inner Taraval Street NCD east of 19th Avenue toward West Portal.
RTO-C (Residential Transit Oriented – Commercial), which Family Zoning Plan materials describe as allowing commercial uses on more parcels, now mapped along Lincoln Way, Irving, Judah and Noriega in the Outer Sunset, with small NC-1 and NC-2 districts elsewhere.

The Family Zoning Plan was adopted by the Board of Supervisors on December 9, 2025 and took effect January 12, 2026. It directs mid-rise (6 to 8 stories) and taller housing to major transit and commercial streets; Planning’s illustrations include Noriega Street at 25th Avenue, drawn with examples at 85 feet. On residential blocks it removes unit-count limits within the existing height limit, typically four stories, and corner lots and sites larger than 8,000 square feet may rise to six stories. Inside the Coastal Zone the plan takes effect through Local Coastal Program amendments, which need certification by the California Coastal Commission. Check a specific parcel on Planning’s adopted map before paying for development potential.

Transit: two rail lines and a bus grid

The N Judah, opened on October 21, 1928, runs from its Ocean Beach terminal at Judah and La Playa, along Judah to 9th Avenue, then through the Inner Sunset past UCSF and the Sunset Tunnel to downtown and 4th and King. It is the busiest Muni Metro line, with an average of 33,100 weekday riders in June 2025. The L Taraval runs from a loop near the Zoo at 46th Avenue and Wawona, up 46th Avenue and east on Taraval and Ulloa to West Portal station; rail service returned on September 28, 2024 after the L Taraval Improvement Project.

Per published route lists, the main buses are the 7 Haight/Noriega (to Ortega and 48th Avenue), the 28 and weekday 28R on 19th Avenue to Daly City station, the 29 Sunset, the 18 46th Avenue, the 48 Quintara/24th Street (to Great Highway and Rivera), the 66 Quintara, the 6 Hayes/Parnassus, the 43 Masonic and the 44 O’Shaughnessy, plus the 23 Monterey to the Zoo. The 7X and NX peak expresses are listed as not operating. By car, 19th Avenue is the main north-south route, and Sunset Boulevard, between 36th and 37th Avenues, is the parkway through the western half.

The coast: Sunset Dunes, erosion and the Coastal Zone

The Upper Great Highway between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard closed to cars on March 14, 2025, after voters approved Proposition K in November 2024, and reopened on April 12, 2025 as Sunset Dunes, a two-mile Recreation and Park Department park. The question is back before voters: according to KQED, a weekday-reopening measure qualified for the November 3, 2026 ballot and would leave the road a park only on weekends. Check the outcome before relying on either a car route or a park next door.

South of Sloat, the lower stretch of the Great Highway is already closed, which KQED attributes to coastal erosion. Under the SFPUC’s Ocean Beach Climate Change Adaptation Project, the roadway from Sloat to Skyline is to close for good while a buried wall protects wastewater facilities, sand is added to the beach and a seaside trail of over a mile is built. SFPUC puts construction at late 2027 to early 2031, subject to change.

The Coastal Zone itself reaches only the westernmost blocks. At Lawton Street, our point checks placed the 47th-to-48th Avenue block and the Great Highway frontage inside it and the 46th-to-47th block outside; near Noriega, the Great Highway frontage was inside. In the Outer Parkside the zone reaches farther inland near Sloat Boulevard, to the block between 46th and 47th Avenues. Confirm a parcel before assuming coastal permits apply or do not.

Ground and hazard checks

Liquefaction: on SF Planning’s copy of the state seismic hazard zone map, the liquefaction zone in District 2 follows the coastal strip by the Great Highway and widens toward Sloat Boulevard and Lake Merced at the southern edge. The Inner and Central Sunset avenues are outside it.
Landslide: mapped landslide zones touch the district on its hills: the slopes of Golden Gate Heights and Grand View Park and the Mount Sutro side of the Inner Sunset. The flat avenues returned none in our queries.
Flood: FEMA’s flood map for San Francisco (effective March 23, 2021) shows VE coastal high-hazard zones along Ocean Beach; a check at the homes facing the Great Highway near Lawton returned Zone X.

These are map checks, not parcel reports. The Natural Hazard Disclosure for a specific address is what counts, and our San Francisco hazard maps guide shows where to look a parcel up.

Garage-level rooms and in-law units

Because the standard Sunset house puts the garage and an unfinished ground floor under the main living level, many have had rooms, a bathroom or a full second unit added downstairs over the decades. Whether that space is legal depends on the permit history and, for a unit, on the zoning and the city’s legalization path. Buyers in District 2 routinely ask for the permit file and 3R report on that point, and our guide to unwarranted units in San Francisco explains the options for a space that was never approved.

How buyers compare District 2 neighborhoods

Older flats and walkable shops: the Inner Sunset, where Edwardian-era buildings cluster around Irving, 9th Avenue and Judah.
A 1930s tract house: the Central Sunset and Parkside, the core of the Doelger, Gellert and Galli era.
The coast and Sunset Dunes: the Outer Sunset and Outer Parkside, with the smallest typical houses and the most exposure to coastal maps and fog.
Views and hillside lots: Golden Gate Heights, with the district’s largest median lot and newest median build year.
Rail commute: blocks near Judah for the N, or near Taraval for the L; Inner Parkside and the Inner Sunset are closest to downtown.

Selling in District 2

With so many similar houses, District 2 comparables are unusually close, which makes the differences sharper: legal bathroom count, finished and permitted ground-floor space, the garage, condition of the stucco and windows, and whether a Period Revival facade has survived. Before listing, assemble the 3R report and permit history, reconcile any lower-level rooms, gather tenancy records for rented flats, and order the inspections the city requires. Citywide steps, including the transfer tax, are on our San Francisco seller requirements page, and a home valuation applies current sales to a specific address.

Questions people ask

Is SF District 2 the same as Supervisor District 2?

No. District 2 here is the San Francisco MLS search district covering the Sunset and Parkside. Board of Supervisors districts are drawn separately for elections.

Which neighborhoods are in SF District 2?

Golden Gate Heights (2A), Outer Parkside (2B), Outer Sunset (2C), Parkside (2D), Central Sunset (2E), Inner Sunset (2F) and Inner Parkside (2G).

Who built the Sunset District’s houses?

Mostly a handful of tract builders. SF Planning’s historic context statement names Henry Doelger, the Gellerts’ Standard Building Company and Ray F. Galli as building the majority, with Oliver Rousseau and others building smaller tracts, mainly between 1925 and 1950.

Is the Great Highway open to cars?

Not along the beach. Since April 2025 the Upper Great Highway from Lincoln Way to Sloat has been Sunset Dunes park, and a November 3, 2026 ballot measure proposes weekday car traffic, so check the election result. South of Sloat the road is closed, and an SFPUC project would make that permanent.

Which Muni Metro lines serve District 2?

The N Judah, which runs along Judah Street to Ocean Beach, and the L Taraval, which runs along Taraval Street and 46th Avenue to the Zoo. Rail service on the L resumed in September 2024.

Is the Sunset in a liquefaction zone?

Only in parts. On SF Planning’s copy of the state map the zone follows the coastal strip and the area near Sloat and Lake Merced; most of the inner avenues are outside it. Check the specific parcel.

Did the Family Zoning Plan change the Sunset?

Yes, mainly on commercial and transit streets such as Noriega, Irving, Judah, Taraval and Lincoln Way, and through removal of unit-count limits on many residential blocks. It took effect January 12, 2026.

Why do so many Sunset houses have rooms behind the garage?

The standard tract house put a garage and unfinished space on the ground floor. Owners later finished much of that space, sometimes without permits, so the permit history matters in any sale.

Weighing one District 2 neighborhood against another, or getting a Sunset house ready for market? Contact Diamond Real Estate Group, or see how the district fits into the rest of San Francisco.

Sources & notes

Last reviewed October 2026 by Matthew Martinez.