Forest Hill is San Francisco's forested west-side enclave of detached homes, where the trailing-6-month median single-family sale price is $2.83M and the last 90 days of closings ran a median 17 days on market. Prices are up about 21% from a year ago, and nearly every recent sale closed above its list price.
Unless otherwise noted, all market figures in this guide are from MLS data.
Forest Hill breaks the first rule most buyers carry about San Francisco's west side: that everything out here sits under the fog. National Weather Service station data tells a different story. Sensors in and around the neighborhood logged clear conditions in roughly 31% of observed hours, against about 13% citywide, with fog present only about 4% of the time versus 10% across the city. The trees are real and the quiet is real, but the marine layer treats this hill more gently than its reputation suggests.
I'm Chris Chour, founder and broker of EON Real Estate. Most of my work is single-family and condo transactions in SF's luxury neighborhoods, and I've spent this summer inside the Forest Hill comp set. Every closing, every list-to-close gap and every days-on-market figure in this guide comes straight from MLS records. One mapping note before the numbers: the MLS area labeled Forest Hill also takes in Forest Hill Extension and Forest Knolls addresses, so that combined footprint is what the figures below cover.
The short version of what the data says: this is a thin, single-family-dominated market where renovated homes move fast and list prices have stopped meaning what buyers think they mean. Muni's K, L and M lines all stop at Forest Hill Station, about a six-minute walk from the neighborhood's center per SFMTA stop data, so a rail commute is genuinely walkable from a street of detached homes.
Forest Hill by the numbers
Two context numbers sit behind those cards. The neighborhood's trailing-12-month median of $2.15M runs about 18% above the citywide $1.82M median, and the median sale price here is up about 21% from a year ago, with average price per square foot up 13%. For the citywide picture that comparison lives inside, see the San Francisco market update for July 2026.
One reading note: what is listed right now looks nothing like what has been closing. The three active listings carry a $795K median list price, a fraction of where renovated houses have been trading, so the current inventory snapshot skews toward the smallest units in the area rather than the detached homes that define it.
Where the money actually trades
Thirty closings over the trailing year sort into three working tiers, and each one behaves differently.
$1M to $2M — the entry tier. Fourteen closings, 46.7% of the year's volume: eleven single-family homes plus all three of the year's condo sales, which carried a $1.05M median. The bed mix runs small, six 2-bedroom and six 3-bedroom sales, and the 2-bedroom median landed at $1.45M. This is where first-time buyers to the area actually get in, and it is also where the four-figure price-per-square-foot rule breaks down: the highest-turnover blocks in this tier averaged $641 to $665 per square foot.
$2M to $3M — the center of gravity. Ten closings, a third of the market: nine single-family homes plus one four-unit building, 132 Locksley Avenue, which closed at $2.15M in April 2026 at $833 per square foot after 49 days on market. The houses in this tier are the neighborhood's signature trade: renovated three- and four-bedroom homes moving in under two weeks. 30 Rockwood Court, a renovated 3-bedroom of 2,291 square feet on a cul-de-sac in Forest Hill Extension, closed at $2.73M in July 2026 after 9 days. 151 Ulloa Street, a remodeled 3-bedroom of 2,134 square feet, closed at $2.4M in May. 25 Crestmont Drive, a 4-bedroom, closed at $2.73M the same month.
$3M to $5M — the size-and-view tier. Five closings, 16.7% of volume: four single-family homes and one larger multi-unit sale. The bed mix flips to big: three of the five carried five or more bedrooms. 220 Vasquez Avenue, a 4-bedroom view home of 2,989 square feet, closed at $3.56M in April 2026 after 10 days. 39 Christopher Drive, a 5-bedroom, closed at $3.65M the same month after just 7 days.
Above $5M the data thins to a single closing, the year's top sale at $7.8M. That tier exists here, but one sale is an anecdote, not a market.
Where homes actually trade, block by block
The MLS labels split this area into three sub-zones, and the price map follows the labels. Forest Hill Extension supplies most of the marquee closings: Rockwood Court, Vasquez Avenue, Idora Avenue, Hernandez Avenue and Ulloa Street all show up in the recent comp set at roughly $1,100 to $1,470 per square foot. Forest Knolls, the wooded slope with addresses on Christopher Drive, Oak Park Drive, Warren Drive and Crestmont Drive, trades in both directions: 39 Christopher Drive at $3.65M sits in the same sub-zone as the year's most affordable turnover blocks.
Those turnover blocks are worth naming. The 100 block of Galewood Circle logged three closings at a $1.3M median and $665 per square foot; the 600 block of Clarendon Avenue logged three at a $1.05M median and $641 per square foot; the low block of Crestmont Drive logged two at a $2.13M median and $1,210 per square foot. Walkability drops with the price: Walk Score rates the Galewood block 32, the Clarendon block 41 and the Crestmont block 45, all Car-Dependent, against 65 at the neighborhood's center.
Green space is the through-line on the map. J.P. Murphy Playground, Edgehill Mountain Open Space and the Midtown Terrace Park and Sutro Recreation Center grounds all sit within the surrounding blocks, per OpenStreetMap. If you're weighing this area against the west side's other manor-scale enclaves, the St. Francis Wood market update covers a nearby comparison point.
What the homes here actually are
Single-family homes did 83.3% of the past year's closed volume, 25 of 30 sales. Condos took 10% on three closings at that $1.05M median, and the balance was one four-unit building plus one larger multi-unit sale at $4.21M. There is no meaningful TIC or townhouse market here in the trailing-year data.
The bed mix says this is a move-up market. Three-bedroom homes were the most common trade at 33.3% of closings and a $1.7M median. Four-bedroom sales took 26.7% at a $2.79M median, and homes with five or more bedrooms, averaging 5,377 square feet, took 20% at a $3.93M median. The jump from three bedrooms to four costs roughly a million dollars at the median, which is the cleanest single statement of what square footage is worth on this hill.
The buildings are old and the owners stay. Census ACS data for the central block group puts the median year built at 1938, the owner-occupied share at 87.1% and the median household income above $250K, with half of employed residents working from home. That last figure explains a lot of the daytime quiet, and the tenure pattern explains the thin inventory: 3 active listings against 30 closings in a year is a structurally tight market.
What to consider before buying (or selling) here
Walkability depends entirely on which block you're on
The neighborhood center rates a 65 Walk Score, Somewhat Walkable, but the highest-turnover blocks rate 32 to 45, Car-Dependent. Daily errands point to the retail cluster around the West Portal Branch Library, with Peet's Coffee, the Philosophers Club and a full run of restaurants per OpenStreetMap, or to a drive. Transit is the exception to the car math: a 76 Transit Score, rated Excellent Transit, beats the walk numbers by a wide margin.
List prices here are marketing, not appraisals
I don't sugarcoat this part: every one of the eight single-family comps MLS returned for the past six months closed above its list price. 39 Christopher Drive listed at $2M and closed at $3.65M. 89 Idora Avenue listed at $2.2M and closed at $3.03M. 30 Rockwood Court listed at $1.9M and closed at $2.73M. If you budget off asking prices in this neighborhood, you will write losing offers all spring. Budget off closed comps.
Thin data swings hard
Thirty closings a year means monthly medians whip around on mix alone. June 2026 saw one closing at $1.5M; April's median was $3.56M on three sales. Neither month is a trend, and I tell clients to treat any single-month headline about this neighborhood, up or down, as noise until the 90-day window confirms it. The same caution applies to the $7.8M top sale: it is one data point.
An address near a school is not a seat at it
Clarendon Alternative Elementary, 533 students per NCES data, sits at 500 Clarendon Avenue, and West Portal Elementary and Miraloma Elementary operate within the adjacent ZIP codes. None of that guarantees placement: SFUSD runs its own assignment process, so confirm current rules with the district before you let a specific school drive your offer price. Private options nearby include St. Brendan School and St. Ignatius College Preparatory, per NCES.
Buyer playbook, seller playbook
If you're buying in Forest Hill in 2026, anchor to the last 90 days: five closings, a $2.73M median and 17 median days on market. Then price the condition gap. Seven of the eight recent single-family comps carried renovated-condition flags in MLS records, so renovated is the default state of what trades, and a needs-work house has almost no recent comp support. I'd build the discount yourself rather than expecting the list price to do it, and remember the levers that actually move outcomes at the table: cash versus financing, how many offers land alongside yours, parking and condition. If you're still deciding whether this neighborhood fits, the neighborhood-choice guide frames that decision.
If you're selling, the calendar is your friend twice a year. October 2025 was the busiest single month of the trailing year with six closings, and spring 2026 carried the strongest prices, with March through May medians peaking at $3.56M in April. The list-low, close-high pattern is fully priced in here; buyers now expect it, which means your list number is a marketing decision and your comp set is the real price. MLS off-market records also show five quiet sales in the area since January 2023 at a $2.1M median, a small slice next to the thirty on-market closings of the past year alone, and the overbid pattern above is the strongest argument I can make for full exposure over a quiet deal.
Frequently asked questions about Forest Hill
How much does a house cost in Forest Hill, San Francisco?
As of July 2026, the median single-family sale price over the trailing six months is $2.83M, per MLS data. The last 90 days of closings ran a $2.73M median. Entry points exist below that: 46.7% of the past year's closings landed between $1M and $2M, and the three condo sales of that period carried a $1.05M median.
Are Forest Hill home prices going up or down in 2026?
Up: through July 2026, the neighborhood's median sale price sits about 21% higher than the same window a year earlier, and average price per square foot is up 13%, per MLS data. Days on market held flat year over year at a 32-day average. Momentum concentrated in spring 2026, when March through May closings carried the year's strongest monthly medians.
How fast do homes sell in Forest Hill?
Over the 90 days ending in late July 2026, the median sale went from listing to closed in 17 days, per MLS data. July's single closing, 30 Rockwood Court, needed just 9 days. The trailing-year median is 13 days, though the average stretches to 32 because a handful of listings sat much longer. Renovated homes are the ones moving at the fast end.
Is Forest Hill sunny or foggy compared to the rest of San Francisco?
National Weather Service station data through 2026 puts Forest Hill on the sunny side of the ledger: clear conditions in roughly 31% of observed hours versus about 13% citywide, and fog in only about 4% of hours versus 10% across the city. Temperatures track the citywide average within a third of a degree. The tree canopy reads cooler than the thermometer says it is.
How do you get around from Forest Hill without a car?
As of 2026, SFMTA stop data puts Forest Hill Station, served by the K, L and M Muni lines, about a six-minute walk from the neighborhood's center. The 6 Hayes-Parnassus runs along Quintara Street, and the 36, 43, 44 and 52 lines stop on Laguna Honda Boulevard. The area carries a 76 Transit Score, rated Excellent Transit, against a 65 Walk Score.
Are there condos in Forest Hill, or is it mostly houses?
In the twelve months ending July 2026, 83.3% of closed sales were single-family homes, per MLS data. Condos took 10% of the market on three closings at a $1.05M median, and the balance was a four-unit building on Locksley Avenue plus one larger multi-unit sale at $4.21M. If you want attached housing here, expect a thin, slow-arriving supply.
Talk to me about Forest Hill
When you're ready to look at a specific house here, or you own one and want to know what the list-low, close-high pattern means for your number, I can pull the current comp set and walk you through it, no commitment attached. Reach out through eonre.com and we'll start with the data.
