Sunnyside, San Francisco: Homes, Streets & Real Estate Guide
Sunnyside is a neighborhood of small-lot houses on a street grid south of Mount Davidson, centered on Monterey Boulevard between Westwood Highlands and Glen Park, with Interstate 280 along its southeastern edge. It is subdistrict 4S in the MLS’s District 4. The Assessor’s 2025 roll lists about 2,010 parcels, 1,714 of them single-family houses.
Sunnyside has the most varied housing in this part of District 4. It has the district’s smallest median lot, its largest group of two-unit flats, a neighborhood shopping street, an 1891 conservatory that is a city landmark, and a small commercial historic district that Planning added in 2026.
Sunnyside homes for sale
Sunnyside market report
A grid below the hill
Where most District 4 tracts curve around the contours, Sunnyside’s streets run in a grid. North of Monterey Boulevard the Assessor’s addresses climb along Joost, Mangels and Melrose avenues toward Miraloma Park; south of it they run along Hearst, Flood and Staples avenues. The cross streets include Gennessee, Foerster, Edna, Detroit, Congo and Baden streets and Acadia Street, with Circular Avenue at the freeway edge.
The neighbors, from the Assessor’s subdistrict outlines, are Westwood Highlands and Westwood Park to the west, Miraloma Park to the north, Glen Park to the east and Mission Terrace across Interstate 280 to the southeast. City College of San Francisco’s campus on Frida Kahlo Way lies just to the south, beside the Balboa Reservoir site, which the Assessor records in the Westwood Park subdistrict. Its Phase 1A, with infrastructure and two affordable buildings, has been under construction since November 2025, per the project site.
Monterey Boulevard: shops, a conservatory and a new historic district
Monterey Boulevard is Sunnyside’s main street. Planning zones its frontage NC-1, and in the 700 block the Assessor’s roll shows commercial buildings and flats over shops, several with build years from 1924 to 1927, alongside condominium buildings from the 1980s and 1990s at 780, 781–787 and 798 Monterey.
Three of those storefronts now carry historic status. Planning’s California Register layer adds a Monterey Boulevard Neighborhood Commercial Historic District, with an adoption date of March 18, 2026, made up of 769, 771–773 and 775 Monterey Boulevard and a period of significance of 1925 to 1927; its description credits Samuel Heiman. The Assessor dates those three buildings to 1927, 1926 and 1925.
Farther east, the Sunnyside Conservatory at 234–258 Monterey Boulevard is City Landmark No. 78. Planning’s record describes a Queen Anne building from 1891, designated in 1975.
Small lots and a wider mix of housing
Sunnyside’s houses sit on tighter lots than anywhere else in the district, and the neighborhood has more types of housing than its residence-park neighbors:
| Measure (4S, 2025 roll) | Value |
|---|---|
| Single-family houses | 1,714 parcels |
| Median single-family lot | 2,500 sq ft, the smallest median in District 4 |
| Median single-family building area | 1,210 sq ft |
| Median recorded year built | 1925 |
| Houses recorded before 1930 / after 1945 | 1,096 / 428 |
| Houses recorded as one story | 1,374 (about 80 percent) |
| Two-unit flats | 65 parcels, plus about 23 flats with a ground-floor store |
| Apartment buildings | about 29 parcels |
| Condominium units | about 91 |
About 64 percent of the houses carry build years before 1930 and about a quarter were built after 1945, so 1920s cottages share blocks with postwar infill. A 2,500-square-foot lot has the area of a 25-by-100-foot lot, a common San Francisco size, so additions tend to go up or back rather than out.
Zoning on the grid and the boulevard
The Assessor’s zoning field lists about 1,657 parcels as RH-1 (one-family), 155 as RH-2, 105 as RM-1 and 80 as NC-1. Planning’s current map, re-edited when the Family Zoning Plan took effect on January 12, 2026, puts the residential points we checked in RH-1 under a 40//40-R-4 height district, and NC-1 (Neighborhood Commercial, Cluster) with a 40//65-R-4 height district on Monterey Boulevard.
Planning writes those corridor heights as two figures; its Family Zoning Plan page says the new maps show heights “including any bonus programs.” Ask Planning which figure applies to a specific project before pricing development potential.
The residential blocks are also inside the Family and Senior Housing Opportunity Special Use District. Section 249.94 of the Planning Code lets qualifying RH lots hold two to four units and sets a 2,400-square-foot minimum lot for a separate rear-yard unit, a threshold a median Sunnyside lot clears by only about 100 square feet. Our SB 9 guide explains the state’s separate route.
Flats, apartments and tenancy questions
Two-unit flats and small apartment buildings are a real part of Sunnyside’s sales, unlike in most of District 4. On Monterey Boulevard, the roll dates many of them from the 1920s through the 1960s.
A buyer of an occupied building will ask which units are covered by the city’s Rent Ordinance, what the current rents are and whether there are any past eviction or buyout filings. Those answers also matter under the SUD, which rules out projects that would demolish a tenant-occupied unit, or three or more units that were subject to rent limits in the past five years. Our San Francisco multifamily guide and TIC guide cover the documents, and the Assessor shows four parcels in the TIC class here.
Slopes and the freeway edge
Planning’s seismic hazard layers show two kinds of mapped zone, both small. Thin earthquake-induced landslide polygons appear on the slope north of Monterey Boulevard, in the blocks around Joost and Mangels avenues between Detroit and Edna streets, with another near the eastern end. A narrow liquefaction polygon follows the Interstate 280 corridor along the southeastern edge.
Parcels we tested on Flood Avenue and Joost Avenue were outside both, but zone edges cut through blocks, so check the exact parcel. A lot in a mapped zone must be disclosed at sale; our San Francisco hazard maps page shows where to look.
Buses, BART and the freeway
The 23 Monterey takes its name from the boulevard, and its published termini are Palou Avenue and Third Street at one end and the San Francisco Zoo at Sloat Boulevard and the Great Highway at the other. Just south of the neighborhood, City College’s Unity Plaza is the terminal for the 8 Bayshore and the 49 Van Ness/Mission, according to a route list dated 2022.
The K Ingleside stops at the City College pedestrian bridge on Ocean Avenue and ends at the Balboa Park BART mezzanine, according to SFMTA. Interstate 280 runs along the southeastern edge of the neighborhood. Confirm current Muni routes with SFMTA before relying on them for a commute.
Selling a home in Sunnyside
Buyers here may compare a Sunnyside house with a similar-size house in Glen Park or Westwood Park, so the lot, the stairs and the level of finish carry a lot of weight. For two-unit buildings, the paperwork matters as much as the floor plan.
- Pull the permit history, especially for garage-level rooms and rear or vertical additions on narrow lots; if a unit was never permitted, see our unwarranted units guide.
- For flats or apartments, gather leases, rent histories and any Rent Board filings.
- Note the lot’s seismic hazard status and include any geotechnical or drainage reports.
- For a condominium, assemble the association documents listed in our San Francisco condo guide.
- Complete the city’s sale requirements, listed on our San Francisco selling requirements page.
For current 4S prices, see the market report below.
Questions people ask
Where is Sunnyside in San Francisco?
It lies south of Mount Davidson and Miraloma Park, west of Glen Park and north of City College, with Monterey Boulevard running through the middle and Interstate 280 along its southeastern edge.
What is the Sunnyside Conservatory?
An 1891 Queen Anne building at 234–258 Monterey Boulevard that the city designated Landmark No. 78 in 1975.
Are there flats and apartments in Sunnyside?
Yes. The 2025 roll lists about 65 two-unit flats, about 23 flats with a store, about 29 apartment buildings and about 91 condominium units, alongside 1,714 houses.
Is Sunnyside a historic district?
Not as a whole. Planning lists the Sunnyside Conservatory as a landmark and, since 2026, a three-building Monterey Boulevard commercial historic district eligible for the California Register.
How big are Sunnyside lots?
The median single-family lot is 2,500 square feet, the smallest median in District 4 and the area of a 25-by-100-foot lot.
Which Muni lines serve Sunnyside?
The 23 Monterey runs on Monterey Boulevard by name, and the K Ingleside, 8 Bayshore and 49 Van Ness/Mission reach City College nearby, per SFMTA and published route lists. Check SFMTA for current service.
Planning to sell a house or a two-unit building in Sunnyside? Request a home valuation and we will walk through the records buyers will ask for. The San Francisco guide covers the rest of the city.
Sources & notes
- DataSF / SF Assessor-Recorder: Assessor Historical Secured Property Tax Rolls, 2025 closed roll (parcel counts by class, build years, stories, median lot and building area, zoning codes, street and block listings and subdistrict extents for 4A, 4E, 4H, 4P, 4R and 4S; queried October 2026)
- San Francisco Planning: PlanningData map service (zoning, height and special use districts, landmarks, California Register historic districts, seismic hazard zones, FEMA flood zones, supervisor districts; queried October 2026)
- San Francisco Planning Code (via GoCodebook): Sec. 249.94, Family and Senior Housing Opportunity Special Use District
- San Francisco Planning: SF Family Zoning Plan
- SFMTA: K Ingleside route page
- Wikipedia: List of San Francisco Municipal Railway lines (route names and termini; page states service as of July 2022)
- Balboa Reservoir project site: Balboa Reservoir (Phase 1A construction status)
Last reviewed October 2026 by Matthew Martinez.
