San Francisco

History and architecture

The 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed much of the city, and the rebuilding that followed gave entire districts their Edwardian character. West of Van Ness, blocks of Victorian houses survived, which is why the Painted Ladies and the bay-window rows of the Mission and the Haight are still standing.

Wood frame construction dominates. That keeps buildings light on their foundations, which matters in an earthquake zone, but it also means sound travels between flats and soft-storey garages under apartments had to be retrofitted by city order.

• Victorian, before 1906

  Bay windows, ornate trim, wooden frame, usually two to four flats.

• Edwardian, 1906 to 1915

  Plainer facades from the rebuilding years, still wood frame.

• Post-1979

  Outside rent control, usually newer systems and higher asking rents.

Living here as a renter

San Francisco rent control covers most multi-unit buildings finished before June 1979, limiting annual increases and requiring just cause for eviction. Buildings completed after that date are exempt, so the construction year on the public record changes your rights, not just your rent.

Soft-storey retrofit status, hill grade and fog line are the three local details worth checking before signing. A block in the Sunset and a block in the Mission can differ by ten degrees on the same afternoon.

Getting around

Muni buses and light rail cover the city, BART links it to Oakland, Berkeley and the airport, and Caltrain runs down the Peninsula toward Silicon Valley. The cable cars have been running since 1873 and are still part of the transit network, not only a tourist ride.

Hills decide walkability here in a way flat cities never have to think about. A station 800 metres away can be a different journey entirely depending on the grade in between.

Economy and who lives where

Technology dominates employment, concentrated in SoMa, Mission Bay and down the Peninsula, with health care and tourism close behind. The commute pattern is unusual: a large share of residents work outside the city and travel south by train or shuttle.

That pulls demand toward the eastern neighborhoods near the freeway and train lines, while the Sunset, Richmond and Excelsior stay more residential and more family oriented.