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Merced Heights, San Francisco: Homes, Streets & Real Estate Guide

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

Merced Heights, as the MLS and the Assessor map it, is a grid of about 1,010 single-family houses between Holloway Avenue and Shields Street, running east from Junipero Serra Boulevard and Beverly Street to Orizaba and Ashton avenues. It is subdistrict 3B of SF District 3, and on the 2025 roll 1,012 of its 1,023 parcels are houses. The roll zones almost every lot RH-1, matching Planning’s current map at a mid-block point we checked, and the whole subdistrict sits inside a special use district that puts very large houses through a public hearing.

Outside the MLS the name is used more loosely. Wikipedia’s Merced Heights article, for example, runs the neighborhood south to Brotherhood Way, which takes in the hill blocks below Shields Street, and the area is often grouped with Oceanview and Ingleside as “OMI”. On the MLS those southern blocks are Ingleside Heights, so check the subdistrict code on any listing or comparable sale before you compare prices.

Merced Heights homes for sale

Merced Heights market report

Two blocks deep, a dozen streets across

The subdistrict is a band only about a quarter mile from north to south. Holloway Avenue forms the top edge, with Ingleside Terrace on the other side; Garfield Street runs through the middle; Shields Street is the bottom edge.

The north-south streets, west to east, are Beverly, Monticello, Byxbee, Ralston, Vernon, Arch, Ramsell, Victoria, Bright and Head streets and Orizaba Avenue, with a short run of Ashton Avenue at the east end. Garfield carries the most addresses on the roll, about 127. Each north-south street carries roughly 70 to 80 addresses inside the subdistrict, which gives the area its even, repeating blocks.

West: Junipero Serra Boulevard and 19th Avenue, with San Francisco State and Lakeside beyond.
East: Orizaba and Ashton avenues, where Ingleside begins.
South: Shields Street and the slopes of Ingleside Heights.

There is no commercial zoning inside 3B. The nearest shops are on Randolph Street and 19th Avenue to the south, on Holloway Avenue to the east and on Ocean Avenue to the north.

Houses from three building waves

Merced Heights did not fill in all at once. The roll’s build years split into three groups of similar size:

Recorded year built (single-family parcels)	Houses	Share
Before 1930	281	about 28%
1930 to 1945	about 378	about 37%
1946 or later	353	about 35%

The median build year is 1941. Lots are small, with a median of 2,495 square feet, roughly the size of San Francisco’s common 25-by-100-foot lot (widths were not checked), and the median recorded building area is 1,249 square feet. The roll lists 870 houses as one story, 130 as two and 8 as three; that field may not count a garage level beneath the living floor, so the permit file is the better guide to what is actually there.

Because the stock spans three eras on the same streets, a 1920s house can stand next to a postwar one. Compare foundation type, the age of electrical and plumbing systems and the legal status of any ground-floor rooms rather than relying on the decade alone.

Apart from the houses, the roll shows two flats or duplexes, one small apartment building, two dwellings with an extra unit, a church parcel, a public parcel and a handful of vacant lots. There are no condominiums.

The Oceanview Large Residence rule

Merced Heights falls inside the Oceanview Large Residence Special Use District, Planning Code section 249.3, added by ordinance in 2019. The district covers the RH-1 and RH-2 blocks inside a perimeter of Interstate 280, Orizaba Avenue, Brotherhood Way, Junipero Serra Boulevard, Holloway Avenue, Ashton Avenue, Ocean Avenue and Geneva Avenue.

Inside it, a residential project needs Conditional Use authorization, which means a Planning Commission hearing, if it would create any of the following:

a dwelling unit with five or more bedrooms;
a multi-unit project in which the smallest unit is less than a third of the largest unit’s floor area;
a floor area ratio above the code’s table, which for an RH-1 lot is 1:1 for one unit and 1.15:1 for one unit with an ADU (the ADU’s own area is not counted).

On a 2,500-square-foot lot, a 1:1 ratio works out to about 2,500 square feet of floor area before a hearing is required. Owners planning a large addition, or buyers paying for expansion potential, should ask Planning how the ratio is measured for their lot. ADU projects are covered in our guide to buying a home with an ADU.

Planning’s map also places the area in the Priority Equity Geographies Special Use District (section 249.97, effective January 14, 2024), whose controls sit in the code’s permit-notification and residential-demolition sections, 311 and 317. At the points we checked here, the map did not show the Family and Senior Housing Opportunity district that covers many western house tracts; confirm the controls for a specific lot with Planning.

Ground conditions on the maps

None of the state’s mapped liquefaction polygons falls inside the Merced Heights band on Planning’s seismic hazard layer. The nearest one, the band that crosses Ingleside Terrace, stays north of Holloway Avenue, and another follows Brotherhood Way well to the south.

The earthquake-induced landslide layer shows only a very small polygon just east of Orizaba Avenue, on the Ingleside side of the line. FEMA’s flood map, as carried on Planning’s service, puts the points we checked in Zone X (unshaded), outside the mapped flood hazard areas.

The disclosure report for the specific house still governs. See our San Francisco hazard maps page for how to check a parcel yourself.

Muni on three sides

The 29 Sunset is the line that runs through the neighborhood. SFMTA’s route page shows it coming from 19th Avenue along Holloway, turning down Beverly Street and running east on Garfield Street with stops at Byxbee, Vernon, Victoria and Bright, then continuing by Grafton and Plymouth avenues to Ocean Avenue and Balboa Park BART. It runs from about 5 a.m. to midnight.

The M Ocean View skirts the southwest corner: Wikipedia’s stop table assigns its stop at 19th Avenue and Junipero Serra (19th Avenue and Randolph outbound) to Merced Heights, and the line then runs along Randolph Street a few blocks south, with stops at Arch and Bright. Its San Francisco State station on Holloway Avenue, at 19th Avenue, also serves the 28 and 28R buses. The K Ingleside runs on Ocean Avenue, north of Ingleside Terrace.

For drivers, Junipero Serra Boulevard and 19th Avenue lead south toward Daly City and Interstate 280.

Selling a home in Merced Heights

Buyers here usually compare houses on lot size, finished space and condition more than on the street itself, since the blocks are so similar. The closest comparable sales are within 3B, then Ingleside Heights and Ingleside next door.

Reconcile the space. Houses of this type often have bedrooms, baths or family rooms added at garage level. Match them to permits and the 3R report, and see our page on unwarranted units if there is a separate unit downstairs.
Document the era. For a pre-1930 house, have foundation and sewer lateral information ready; for a postwar house, list the system updates and their permits.
Explain the SUD. If buyers are paying for an addition, the floor-area limit and the five-bedroom trigger belong in the disclosure package, with a pointer to section 249.3.
Check the citywide rules. Our San Francisco selling requirements guide covers the 3R report, energy rules and transfer tax.

The market report on this page shows current figures for subdistrict 3B.

Questions people ask

Where is Merced Heights in San Francisco?

On the MLS and Assessor maps it is the band of blocks between Holloway Avenue and Shields Street, from Junipero Serra Boulevard and Beverly Street east to Orizaba and Ashton avenues. The streets south of Shields, which some general references such as Wikipedia include in Merced Heights, are subdistrict 3G, Ingleside Heights.

Is Merced Heights part of OMI?

Yes, informally. OMI is a common shorthand for Oceanview, Merced Heights and Ingleside; it is not an MLS subdistrict, so listings use 3B, 3G, 3H and 3J.

Can I build a large addition on a Merced Heights house?

Possibly, but the Oceanview Large Residence Special Use District requires a Planning Commission hearing for projects with a five-bedroom unit or with floor area above 1:1 on an RH-1 lot (1.15:1 with an ADU). Ask Planning how the limit applies to your lot.

Are there condos in Merced Heights?

No. The 2025 roll shows single-family houses, two flats or duplexes, a small apartment building, a few dwellings with an extra unit, and some vacant and institutional parcels.

Which Muni lines serve Merced Heights?

The 29 Sunset runs along Holloway, Beverly and Garfield. The M Ocean View stops at 19th Avenue and Junipero Serra and along Randolph Street just to the south, and its SF State station on Holloway also serves the 28 and 28R.

Is Merced Heights in a liquefaction zone?

Not on Planning’s copy of the state seismic hazard map; the nearest mapped liquefaction band runs north of Holloway Avenue. Check the disclosure report for the specific house.

Comparing a Merced Heights house with others in OMI, or getting one ready for market? Request a home valuation built on recent 3B sales, or read our San Francisco home selling guide and the citywide San Francisco neighborhood guide.

Sources & notes

Last reviewed October 2026 by Matthew Martinez.