Episode 2 · Property Types & Supply Dynamics
Eureka Valley Housing Stock: Types, Ages, Lots, Taxes
Eureka Valley is known for its old buildings on steep, fully built hills, and this page shows what that stock holds, with houses, condominiums and small buildings of two to four units in near-thirds, most built before the middle of the last century. It also shows how many condominiums hide in the house count, how long owners hold, and why the assessed value you inherit is set by what you pay.
💡 Key Insights & Takeaways
- Sorted correctly, the stock divides into 40.2% single-family houses, 29.0% condominium units and 30.4% small buildings of two to four units.
- Across the neighborhood, 58.8% of assessed value sits in the land rather than the building, and 28.9% of parcels carry more than 70% of their value in land alone.
- The median single-family home is 1,690 square feet on a 2,848 square foot lot, and the median condominium is 1,267 square feet.
- Parcels with the homeowner's exemption are assessed at a median of $1,026,164, against $1,357,633 for those without it, as of 14 September 2026.
- The median hold is 13.3 years, and every hold length is short by about twenty months, because the most recent recorded transfer is 31 December 2024.
Of the 4,281 residential parcels in Eureka Valley as of 14 September 2026, 1,243 that the assessment data files as single-family are condominium units. That is two-fifths of the apparent house column. The median building here went up in 1908, which makes this some of the oldest housing stock in the city.
At a glance
| As of | ||
|---|---|---|
| Residential parcels | 4,281 | 2026-09-14 |
| Condominiums filed as single-family | 1,243 | 2026-09-14 |
| Median year built | 1908 | 2026-09-14 |
| Median assessed value | $1,190,791 | 2026-09-14 |
| Share carrying the homeowner's exemption | 43.5% | 2026-09-14 |
Assessed values are what the county carries a property at for tax. They are not market value.
What kind of homes are in Eureka Valley?
The neighborhood holds 4,281 residential parcels, and they divide into near-thirds once you sort them correctly.
| Type | Share | Count | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-family houses | 40.2% | 1,721 | 2026-09-14 |
| Condominium units | 29.0% | 1,243 | 2026-09-14 |
| Small multi-family, two to four units | 30.4% | 1,303 | 2026-09-14 |
| Vacant residential land | — | 14 | 2026-09-14 |
Sorting them correctly is the hard part. San Francisco's assessment data has no condominium land-use class, so it files condominium units under Single Family Residential. We identify a condominium as a single-family use with no lot size, and validate the result against the listing record. That reclassifies 1,243 parcels, which is 42% of what the assessment data's house column appears to contain. A straight read of the assessment data would report 2,964 single-family homes here. There are 1,721.
Only 14 residential parcels are vacant land. This neighborhood is fully built out, and what changes hands is almost always an existing building.
How big are homes in Eureka Valley?
| Measure | Value | n | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median living area, all residential | 2,014 sq ft | 4,281 | 2026-09-14 |
| Median living area, single-family | 1,690 sq ft | 1,721 | 2026-09-14 |
| Median living area, condominium | 1,267 sq ft | 1,243 | 2026-09-14 |
| Median lot, single-family | 2,848 sq ft | 1,721 | 2026-09-14 |
The all-residential median runs above both of the others because the multi-family buildings carry several units of floor area on one parcel. Read the single-family and condominium medians rather than the combined one when you are pricing a home to live in.
Lot size is missing rather than small on a large share of this neighborhood. A zero lot size is recorded on 1,257 residential parcels. Zero is missing, not a measurement, so the lot median above runs only on the 1,721 single-family parcels that report a lot. Ask for the lot dimensions in writing before you price the land.
How old is Eureka Valley housing?
The median building went up in 1908, and 80.1% of the stock predates 1950. Only 2.8% was built after 2000. This is the oldest housing stock of any community we have analysed, and it is old enough that the age is a maintenance question rather than a character note: foundations, plumbing stacks, electrical service and seismic retrofit all sit inside that median.
We cannot tell you what has been renovated. The effective year built is not recorded for any parcel, so there is no renovation signal at all. A 1908 building that was taken back to the studs in 2018 and one that was not look identical in this data. That gap is the single most important thing to close with your own inspection.
Are you buying the land or the building in Eureka Valley?
You are mostly buying land. Across the neighborhood, 58.8% of assessed value sits in the land rather than the improvement, and 28.9% of parcels carry more than 70% of their value in land alone. On single-family parcels the assessed value works out to $868 per square foot of living area.
That land share is high for a neighborhood of small lots, and it is what a constrained, fully built-out hill looks like on paper. The land-dominant share is an upper bound on redevelopment pressure, not a measurement of it — with no renovation signal available, a well-kept building and a tired one both read the same way. Zoning, historic preservation rules and the grade itself will decide far more than the land share does.
Who owns homes in Eureka Valley, and for how long?
43.5% of these parcels carry the homeowner's exemption, which California gives to an owner who lives in the home. That is a floor under owner occupancy rather than a measure of it. An owner who lives here and never filed for the exemption is counted with the investors.
We cannot go further than that here. Owner names and mailing addresses are not in the data, so entity ownership, trusts, co-ownership and owner residency cannot be reported at all. We would rather say so than infer it.
| Tenure | Share | n | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median hold length | 13.3 years | 2,974 | 2026-09-14 |
| Held 20 years or more | 33.6% | 2,974 | 2026-09-14 |
| Held 30 years or more | 12.6% | 2,974 | 2026-09-14 |
Those hold lengths are understated by a known amount. The most recent recorded transfer is 31 December 2024, about twenty months before the as-of date, so every hold length is short by roughly that gap. A third of owners passing twenty years is why so little of this neighborhood comes to market in any given year.
What does it cost to hold a home in Eureka Valley?
California resets a property's taxable value on the day it changes hands, and after that it rises by about 2% a year. So the bill you inherit is set by what you pay, and not by what your neighbour pays.
The median assessed value across the neighborhood is $1,190,791. Split the assessed values by the exemption and the cap becomes visible directly:
| Group | Median assessed value | n | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carries the homeowner's exemption | $1,026,164 | 1,863 | 2026-09-14 |
| Does not | $1,357,633 | 2,418 | 2026-09-14 |
The gap is $331,469 of assessed value, or about 24%. That is the cap measured directly on one neighborhood, and it is the difference between a long-held home and one that changed hands recently. A buyer today steps in at the top of the range, not the middle of it. Run the tax number for the day after closing rather than the number on the current bill before you set a budget.
Common questions
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