San Francisco’s ultra-luxury neighborhoods saw home prices rise to never-before-seen numbers last year.
Prices in the San Francisco Association of Realtors’ District 7, comprising the neighborhoods of Pacific Heights, Presidio Heights, the Marina and Cow Hollow, hit their highest-ever levels last year, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing a new report from Compass.
The median sales price for houses in the district rose to $6 million in 2025, up 20 percent from the year prior. That marked the fastest increase among any part of the city recorded by Compass data. Across the city, the median house price was approximately $1.7 million last year.
The Bay Area luxury housing sector at large saw an upswing last year as middle-income families have been shut out of the market due to economic uncertainty, high housing prices and less-than-deal mortgage rates, opening the door for wealthier households benefiting from the artificial intelligence boom. In San Francisco specifically, the influx of AI workers and executives has driven up demand for upscale homes so much that it has created a mansion shortage in the city. Bay Area tech workers and investors are likely also doing well from massive gains in the stock market, according to analysts.
“Right now, the economy is more favorable to wealthy people,” Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, told the Chronicle. That trend isn’t expected to change in 2026, as this year is expected to bring San Francisco’s hottest housing market since pre-pandemic times, Compass analyst Patrick Carlisle said.
Most of the other Realtor districts in San Francisco haven’t climbed back up to price peaks seen mid-pandemic when interest rates were at historic lows. Prices in the city, including the seventh Realtor district, fell in 2022 and 2023 as mortgage rate hikes poured cold water on a previously red-hot market.
Since then, well-positioned buyers began shopping in Pacific Heights and Cow Hollow, often without the need for a loan to buy a house. “It’s pretty jaw-dropping how many buyers we have coming to us who are all-cash, ready to go,” Michelle Harris, a real estate agent with Compass, said. Homes selling for between $2.5 million and $5 million are being bought in a week or less, Harris said.
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