San Francisco’s SoMa Neighborhood Boasts Most New Housing

When it comes to new housing construction in San Francisco, one part of the city reigns supreme — the east side of town.

Of the nearly 64,000 homes added to the city’s housing stock from 2004 to 2024, more than half were in South of Market and downtown, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing figures from the San Francisco Planning Department’s annual San Francisco Housing Inventory survey.

About 24,000 of the homes were built in the SoMa planning district, including South Beach, Mission Bay, Dogpatch and Potrero Hill.

Nearby, another 11,000 units were built downtown, in areas like the Tenderloin, Union Square, parts of the Financial District and Lower Nob Hill.

Most of the new housing is concentrated in areas already dense with apartment buildings and residents.

The number of homes in the SoMa district more than doubled over the past two decades, while downtown saw a 40 percent jump and the Mission had a 20 percent increase.

By contrast, homes built across the rest of the city rose 7 percent in the same period.

Even fewer new homes were built in the Outer Sunset, largely zoned for single-family homes, which saw 1,200 homes built in 20 years — a 4 percent increase.

Mayor Daniel Lurie hopes to create even more housing in the coming years, especially in the areas zoned for denser development like SoMa and downtown.

Last month, the mayor unveiled his “family zoning” plan as part of an ambitious effort to upzone parts of the city to keep pace with state housing goals. The city must build 82,000 homes by 2031.

“For too long, San Francisco has made it easier to block new homes than to build them,” Lurie said in a statement. “And while our needs have changed since the 1970s, much of our zoning hasn’t. Now, the state has given us a clear mandate to build more housing with real consequences if we don’t.”

For now, the mayor’s plan still needs approval from the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors.

If approved, height limits on major streets like 19th Avenue and Taraval Street could double, while parts of Geary Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue could see building heights triple or quadruple.

— Chris Malone Méndez