Ingleside, San Francisco: Homes, Flats & Real Estate Guide
Ingleside, on the MLS map, is the neighborhood of houses and flats south of Ocean Avenue between Ashton Avenue and San Jose Avenue, reaching down to Lakeview Avenue and the Oceanview line. It is subdistrict 3H of SF District 3, with 2,126 parcels on the 2025 roll, and its houses are the oldest in the district: the median recorded build year is 1925.
Ocean Avenue gives Ingleside its commercial front and its main transit line, the K Ingleside. The streets behind it are mostly one- and two-family zoning, with more flats and small apartment buildings than any other District 3 subdistrict.
Ingleside homes for sale
Ingleside market report
Ocean Avenue: the commercial edge
The roll’s Ingleside addresses on Ocean Avenue run from about the 700s to the 1800s, from the Geneva Avenue and San Jose Avenue end west to Ashton Avenue, where Ingleside Terrace begins. City College’s Ocean Avenue campus is across the street toward the east end; the K’s stop at the City College pedestrian bridge is the last before Balboa Park.
The Assessor still records most of these frontage parcels as NC-2. Planning’s current zoning layer, edited in January 2026, shows the 1400 block of Ocean Avenue in the Ocean Avenue Neighborhood Commercial Transit District (NCT-OCEAN), a named district with its own section of the Planning Code. That district is designed around transit and ground-floor shops with housing above; confirm current controls for a specific parcel with Planning before planning a project.
On the roll, 3H’s non-residential parcels include 16 commercial stores, a bank, a medical office building and three gas stations, and the NC-2 frontage along Ocean Avenue accounts for most of the subdistrict’s commercially zoned parcels. Holloway Avenue, two blocks south, has a second, smaller group of parcels that the roll codes NC-1, between about the 100 and 800 numbers.
The streets south of Ocean
The residential grid runs north-south from Ocean Avenue, crossed by Grafton and Holloway avenues and, farther south, Lakeview Avenue. Going east from Ashton, streets on the roll include:
- Faxon, Jules, Capitol, Plymouth, Granada and Miramar avenues in the western and central blocks;
- Brighton, Lee and Harold avenues and Howth, Tara and Louisburg streets toward the east;
- De Montfort, Mount Vernon, Niagara and Geneva avenues and short streets such as Bruce, Edgar, Caine, Williar, Majestic, Margaret and Josiah near San Jose Avenue.
To the west are Merced Heights and Ingleside Terrace; to the south, Oceanview; and across San Jose Avenue and Interstate 280, the District 10 neighborhoods around Balboa Park station.
District 3’s oldest houses
About 1,170 of Ingleside’s 1,818 single-family houses, roughly 64 percent, carry a recorded build year before 1930. About 240 date from 1930 to 1945 and about 400 from 1946 or later. No other District 3 subdistrict has more than about 500 pre-1930 houses.
| Single-family parcels, 3H (2025 roll) | Value |
|---|---|
| Houses | 1,818 |
| Median year built | 1925 |
| Median lot | 2,809 sq ft |
| Median building area | 1,250 sq ft |
| Recorded as one / two / three stories | 1,439 / 341 / 27 |
With this much 1920s stock, buyers’ inspectors tend to focus on original foundations, older wiring and sewer laterals. Older houses also tend to have had more rounds of remodeling, so the gap between what a house has and what was permitted can be larger. Our guide to older San Francisco homes covers the inspection points for pre-war construction.
Flats, small apartments and rent rules
Ingleside has the most two-unit buildings in District 3. The roll lists 107 flats or duplexes, 16 apartment buildings of up to four units, 16 of five to fourteen units, 15 flat-and-store buildings of four units or less, three larger flat-and-store buildings, two apartment-over-store buildings and one property of 15 or more units. It also counts 57 condominium units and a few commercial condominiums.
The roll codes 422 parcels RH-2 (two-family) alongside 1,612 RH-1 parcels and seven RM-1. Many of the multi-unit buildings predate June 13, 1979. The Rent Board exempts units whose first certificate of occupancy came after that date from the Rent Ordinance’s rent increase limits, though not from its just-cause eviction rules, so rental units in older multi-unit buildings are generally covered by both. A buyer of a tenant-occupied building should confirm the current rent, any pending petitions and the eviction history with the Rent Board; our San Francisco multifamily guide and TIC guide cover the ownership options for two-to-four-unit buildings.
Zoning and special use districts
Three zoning settings matter here:
- House blocks. At the Jules Avenue point we checked, Planning shows RH-1 with a 40//40-R-4 height district, inside both the Oceanview Large Residence Special Use District and the Family and Senior Housing Opportunity Special Use District; the latter is summarized on our District 3 page.
- San Jose Avenue. Planning’s current map shows a run of RTO-C (Residential Transit Oriented, C) parcels along San Jose Avenue near Ocean Avenue and Geneva, with a 50//85-R-4 height district at the point we checked, close to Balboa Park station.
- Ocean Avenue. The NCT-OCEAN district described above.
The Oceanview Large Residence district (Planning Code section 249.3) covers Ingleside’s RH-1 and RH-2 blocks; its perimeter includes Ocean Avenue, Ashton Avenue and Geneva Avenue. It requires Conditional Use authorization for a unit with five or more bedrooms, for a multi-unit project whose smallest unit is less than a third the size of its largest, or for floor area above 1:1 for one unit on RH-1 (0.8:1 on RH-2, 1.5:1 for two units on RH-2). The San Jose Avenue point also sits in the Priority Equity Geographies Special Use District (section 249.97); the Jules Avenue point does not.
Getting around Ingleside
The K Ingleside runs along Ocean Avenue. In the direction SFMTA labels “West to Balboa Park” (the trains actually head east along Ocean Avenue here), it lists stops at Jules, Miramar and Lee avenues and the City College pedestrian bridge before the line ends at the Balboa Park BART mezzanine; downtown-bound trains start at San Jose and Geneva. It runs from about 5 a.m. to midnight, with the 91 Owl and L Owl listed for overnight service.
The 29 Sunset crosses the neighborhood on Grafton Avenue (stops at Jules, Capitol, Granada and Plymouth), then Plymouth Avenue to Ocean Avenue, Lee and Geneva, and Balboa Park BART. The 54 Felton uses Grafton Avenue, Mount Vernon Avenue and Louisburg Street to reach Geneva Avenue and Balboa Park. The M Ocean View runs on San Jose Avenue at the east edge, with stops at Lakeview and at Farallones.
Balboa Park station, with BART and the K and M terminals, sits just east of the Ocean Avenue and Geneva Avenue end, and Interstate 280 is reached from Ocean, Geneva and San Jose avenues.
What the hazard layers show
Most of Ingleside is clear of the state’s mapped seismic hazard zones on Planning’s layers. The liquefaction band that crosses Ingleside Terrace ends at about Ashton Avenue near Ocean Avenue, at Ingleside’s western corner, and a separate narrow strip along the San Jose Avenue and I-280 corridor comes close to the southeast corner near Lakeview and Caine avenues. A few very small landslide polygons appear along the I-280 edge and just east of Orizaba Avenue.
The points we checked are in FEMA Zone X (unshaded). Parcel-level checks are explained on our San Francisco hazard maps page.
Selling a home in Ingleside
Ingleside sales split into three groups that buyers price differently: single-family houses, two-unit flats, and mixed-use buildings on Ocean Avenue. Recent 3H sales of the same type come first, then Oceanview and Merced Heights for houses.
- For a 1920s house, assemble the permit history, the 3R report and any foundation, sewer lateral and electrical work records.
- For flats or an apartment building, prepare the rent roll, leases, Rent Board filings and estoppel-ready tenant information; see our guide to selling a tenant-occupied home.
- For Ocean Avenue property, document the commercial leases and note that current zoning is NCT-OCEAN on Planning’s map even where the tax roll still says NC-2.
- Review citywide requirements in our San Francisco selling requirements guide.
The market report on this page shows current figures for subdistrict 3H.
Questions people ask
Where is Ingleside in San Francisco?
On the MLS map it is subdistrict 3H: south of Ocean Avenue between Ashton Avenue and San Jose Avenue, down to about Lakeview Avenue. Ingleside Terrace, the 1911 residence park west of Ashton, is a separate subdistrict (4E) in District 4.
Does the K Ingleside run through Ingleside?
Yes. It runs along Ocean Avenue, with stops at Jules, Miramar and Lee avenues and at the City College pedestrian bridge, and ends at Balboa Park station.
How old are the houses in Ingleside?
The median recorded build year is 1925, and about 64 percent of the houses were built before 1930, the highest share in District 3.
Is Ocean Avenue in Ingleside zoned NC-2 or NCT?
The tax roll still says NC-2 for most Ocean Avenue parcels, but Planning’s current map shows the Ocean Avenue Neighborhood Commercial Transit District at the 1400 block. Use Planning’s map for current zoning.
Are there rent-controlled buildings in Ingleside?
Many of Ingleside’s 107 flats and 30-plus apartment buildings predate June 13, 1979; rental units first occupied before that date are generally subject to the Rent Ordinance’s rent increase limits. Confirm a building’s status with the Rent Board.
Can I build a large addition on an Ingleside house?
The Oceanview Large Residence Special Use District requires a Planning Commission hearing for five-bedroom units and floor area above set ratios, such as 1:1 for one unit on an RH-1 lot.
Weighing an Ingleside house or flat against nearby options, or preparing one for sale? Get a home valuation grounded in recent 3H sales of the same building type, or see our San Francisco neighborhood guide.
Sources & notes
- DataSF (Office of the Assessor-Recorder): Assessor Historical Secured Property Tax Rolls, 2025 closed roll (parcel counts by class, build years, stories, zoning codes, street listings and subdistrict extents; queried October 2026)
- San Francisco Planning: PlanningData map service (zoning, height and special use districts, seismic hazard liquefaction and landslide layers, FEMA flood layer; point and envelope queries, October 2026)
- San Francisco Planning Code (via GoCodebook): Sec. 249.3, Oceanview Large Residence Special Use District
- San Francisco Planning Code (via GoCodebook): Sec. 249.97, Priority Equity Geographies Special Use District
- SFMTA: K Ingleside route page (routing, stops, hours)
- SFMTA: 29 Sunset route page (streets and stops)
- SFMTA: 54 Felton route page (streets, stops, hours)
- Wikipedia: M Ocean View (route, stops, station details, planned projects)
- Wikipedia: Oceanview, San Francisco (boundaries, history, parks, library, firehouse)
- SF.gov (Rent Board): Partial exemption for newly constructed rental units (June 13, 1979 certificate-of-occupancy cutoff)
Last reviewed October 2026 by Matthew Martinez.
