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Oceanview, San Francisco: Homes, Streets & Real Estate Guide

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

Oceanview is the neighborhood of about 1,480 single-family houses in San Francisco’s far south, bounded by Orizaba Avenue on the west, Lakeview Avenue on the north and Interstate 280 on the south and east. It is subdistrict 3J of SF District 3, and its commercial heart is the short run of shops on Broad Street and Plymouth Avenue that the M Ocean View passes on its way to Balboa Park.

The 2025 roll lists 1,696 parcels here. Beyond the houses, it shows 59 flats or duplexes, 28 below-market-rate townhouses built in 2016, about a dozen church parcels and the neighborhood’s recreation center and schools.

Oceanview homes for sale

Oceanview market report

A rail stop before it was a neighborhood

Wikipedia’s Oceanview article, citing local histories, traces the area to a 19th-century train station on the line between San Francisco and San Jose, which Southern Pacific bought in 1868. By the article’s account, passenger service ended in 1904 and the residential community took shape in the 1910s around Sagamore Street and San Jose Avenue. The same article notes a former lake, Lake Geneva, near Geneva Avenue, fed by a creek that ran through the canyon.

The old Engine Co. No. 33 firehouse at 117 Broad Street dates from those early years. The San Francisco Fire Department Museum says the company moved in in 1896 and left in 1974 for a newer station on Capitol, and the building has been privately owned since 1977. Broad Street also had the first Ocean View branch library, opened in 1903 near Capitol Avenue according to the San Francisco Public Library; today’s branch, opened in 2000, stands just over the line in Ingleside Heights at 345 Randolph Street.

Streets and edges

Inside the Assessor’s boundary, the houses line streets such as Lobos, Farallones, Sadowa, Thrift, Montana, Sagamore, Minerva and Summit streets and Broad Street, crossed by Plymouth, Capitol, Orizaba and Lakeview avenues. Near San Jose Avenue, short blocks of Caine, Majestic, Margaret and Josiah avenues continue the grid, and the roll’s San Jose Avenue addresses in 3J run from about 2600 to 2950.

West: Orizaba Avenue, with Ingleside Heights beyond.
North: Lakeview Avenue, with Ingleside and, farther on, City College’s Ocean Avenue campus.
South and east: Interstate 280, beyond which are Daly City and the Outer Mission.

Larger lots than the neighbors

Oceanview’s median single-family lot, 3,123 square feet, is the largest of District 3’s four eastern subdistricts, though the median recorded house size, 1,251 square feet, is about the same as in Ingleside and Merced Heights. The median build year is 1942.

Era (recorded year built)	Houses
Before 1930	504
1930 to 1945	about 258
1946 or later	716

That mix, about a third pre-1930 and nearly half postwar, fits the history above: early houses near Sagamore Street and San Jose Avenue, and postwar building on much of the rest. The roll records 1,164 houses as one story, 264 as two and 28 as three. Check the recorded lot dimensions for any house rather than assuming the median applies.

Habitat Terrace and other newer housing

The roll classifies 28 parcels on Habitat Terrace as below-market-rate townhouses, all recorded as built in 2016. Below-market-rate homes carry resale price limits and buyer eligibility rules set by the city, explained in our San Francisco BMR homes guide; read the recorded restrictions before making an offer.

The roll also lists six condominium units on Plymouth Avenue, recorded as built between 1997 and 2021, and a flats building and a flat-and-store building recorded as built in 2016 and 2017. Our condo guide covers the association documents for any condominium purchase.

Broad Street, Plymouth Avenue and the recreation center

The neighborhood shops sit on Broad Street (roughly the 0 to 200 numbers), Plymouth Avenue between about 100 and 250, and the nearby corners of Sagamore, Sadowa and Capitol, plus a short San Jose Avenue frontage. The roll codes them NC-1, and at 200 Broad Street Planning’s current map shows NC-1 with a 40-X height district. The roll counts ten commercial store parcels, fourteen flat-and-store buildings and several small apartment buildings along these streets.

The Minnie and Lovie Ward Recreation Center, which San Francisco Public Works lists at 650 Capitol Avenue, sits mid-neighborhood beside Oceanview Playground. Public Works describes the current center as four connected buildings that replaced a recreation building more than fifty years old, and Rec and Park lists an athletic field, basketball, tennis, a playground and a community garden there. School parcels on the roll sit at 327 and 431 Capitol Avenue and 283 Farallones Street, and church parcels cluster on Broad, Farallones, Plymouth, Sagamore and Capitol.

Zoning and the Oceanview Large Residence district

The roll codes 1,455 parcels RH-1 and 146 RH-2. Oceanview gives its name to the Oceanview Large Residence Special Use District, Planning Code section 249.3, added in 2019, which covers the RH-1 and RH-2 blocks here and across the rest of OMI. In it, Conditional Use authorization is required for:

any dwelling unit with five or more bedrooms;
a multi-unit project whose smallest unit is less than 33 percent of the largest unit’s floor area;
floor area above the code’s ratios: 1:1 for one unit on RH-1 (1.15:1 with an ADU), 0.8:1 for one unit on RH-2, and 1.5:1 for two units on RH-2 (1.75:1 with an ADU).

To approve such a project, the Planning Commission must find at least two of four things: it maximizes allowed density, it keeps any unit of five or more bedrooms to three full baths, it is compatible with the scale of surrounding buildings, or it adds no new off-street parking. Planning’s map also places Oceanview in the Priority Equity Geographies Special Use District (section 249.97), whose added controls run through the code’s notification and demolition sections. For the separate state route to a second unit, see our SB 9 guide.

The I-280 edge: what the hazard maps show

Planning’s copy of the state seismic hazard map draws two narrow liquefaction polygons along the San Jose Avenue and Interstate 280 corridor at Oceanview’s eastern edge. Blocks near San Jose Avenue and the east ends of Caine, Majestic, Margaret and Lakeview avenues and Farallones and Lobos streets are close to them; whether a given lot is inside takes a parcel check.

Several very small earthquake-induced landslide polygons sit along the same freeway edge. The rest of the neighborhood shows no mapped zone, and the point we checked on Broad Street is in FEMA Zone X (unshaded). Our San Francisco hazard maps page explains how to look up a lot.

Transit: the M’s Broad Street run

The M Ocean View crosses the neighborhood after leaving Randolph Street: it takes Orizaba Avenue to Broad Street, follows Broad to San Jose Avenue, and ends at San Jose and Geneva by Balboa Park station. Stops include Broad and Orizaba, Broad and Capitol, Broad and Plymouth, San Jose and Farallones, and San Jose and Lakeview. Downtown trains run through the Market Street subway to Embarcadero.

The M Ocean View Transit and Safety Project, which Wikipedia says began planning in 2022 for the stretch from Junipero Serra Boulevard to Balboa Park, had main construction expected to begin in 2026; check SFMTA for current work and stop changes. The 54 Felton runs on Sagamore Street and Plymouth Avenue toward Daly City BART and Balboa Park, and the 29 Sunset runs on Plymouth Avenue north of Lakeview.

Selling a home in Oceanview

Oceanview sales are compared first with other 3J houses, then with Ingleside and Ingleside Heights. Buyers here tend to weigh lot size and any legal second unit closely, since lots are larger than in neighboring subdistricts.

Space and units: reconcile ground-floor rooms and any second unit with the permit record; see our page on unwarranted units.
Location within the neighborhood: a house near the I-280 edge should have its hazard disclosure ready, and one near Broad Street should note the commercial zoning nearby.
BMR townhouses: resale goes through the city’s below-market-rate program rules, not the open market alone.
Citywide rules: transfer tax, the 3R report and the energy requirements are explained in our San Francisco selling requirements guide.

For current market figures in 3J, see the market report on this page.

Questions people ask

What are Oceanview’s boundaries?

Orizaba Avenue on the west, Lakeview Avenue on the north and Interstate 280 on the south and east, per Wikipedia; on the MLS it is subdistrict 3J.

Is it Oceanview or Ocean View?

Both spellings are used. The MLS and Assessor use Oceanview for the neighborhood; the Muni line and the branch library use Ocean View.

What is the Oceanview Large Residence Special Use District?

A 2019 Planning Code district (section 249.3) covering OMI’s RH-1 and RH-2 blocks. It requires a Planning Commission hearing for five-bedroom units, lopsided unit sizes in multi-unit projects, and floor area above set ratios, such as 1:1 for one unit on RH-1.

Which Muni lines serve Oceanview?

The M Ocean View on Broad Street and San Jose Avenue, the 54 Felton on Sagamore Street and Plymouth Avenue, and the 29 Sunset just north on Plymouth. Balboa Park BART is at the line’s east end.

Are there liquefaction zones in Oceanview?

Two narrow mapped liquefaction polygons follow the San Jose Avenue and I-280 corridor on the eastern edge. The rest of the neighborhood shows no mapped seismic hazard zone on Planning’s layers.

Are there below-market-rate homes in Oceanview?

Yes. The roll lists 28 below-market-rate townhouses on Habitat Terrace, built in 2016, which carry city resale and eligibility rules.

Thinking about selling in Oceanview, or comparing it with Ingleside and Ingleside Heights? Request a home valuation based on recent 3J sales, or browse the wider San Francisco guide.

Sources & notes

Last reviewed October 2026 by Matthew Martinez.