Episode 2 · Property Types & Supply Dynamics
Inner Mission Houses: Size, Age, Hold Time, Assessed Value
Inner Mission is a part of San Francisco built on small lots, with older houses, condominiums and buildings that hold a few units each. This page shows what is built here, how big and how old the houses are, and how long owners keep them. It also explains how California's cap on yearly increases shapes what the county assesses each house at.
đź’ˇ Key Insights & Takeaways
- The county lists 6,077 residential parcels in Inner Mission, and 22.6% of them are houses, though that share runs slightly high because some condo buildings are filed as houses.
- The median house has 1,360 square feet of living area on a lot of 2,500 square feet, and those county measurements differ from the sizes shown in sale listings.
- The median house was built in 1906, and 84.1% of houses were built before 1950.
- 58.9% of houses with a bathroom count have exactly one bathroom, and the median is 1.0 bathroom.
- The median hold is 15.4 years among houses with a transfer date, understated by about 20 months because the latest transfer in the data is dated 14 February 2025, and 30.9% of houses have no date.
If you are weighing a house in Inner Mission, start with 4.1 times, the gap in county assessed value between two houses of the same size band on small lots as of 15 October 2026. The gap depends on whether the last transfer fell in 2020 to 2025 or before 2000. These are assessed values, not sale prices.
At a glance
Inner Mission houses at a glance, as of 15 October 2026. Sizes are the county's measurements, assessed values are the county's estimates and not market value, and holds are understated by about 20 months.
| Measure | Value | Counted (n) |
|---|---|---|
| Residential parcels | 6,077 | 6,077 parcels |
| Median living area, houses | 1,360 square feet | 1,120 houses |
| Median year built, houses | 1906 | 1,369 houses |
| Median recorded hold, houses | 15.4 years | 948 houses |
| Median assessed value, houses | $670,700 | 1,370 houses |
What kinds of buildings stand in Inner Mission?
Buildings with more than one unit are the biggest group in Inner Mission, ahead of condos and houses. As of 15 October 2026, the county lists 6,077 residential parcels inside the area bounded by Guerrero Street, Potrero Avenue, Division Street and Cesar Chavez Street. A parcel is one entry in the county's property list, so this counts entries and not homes or people.
The county lists 7,247 parcels in the same area. The other 1,170 hold shops, offices, hotels and similar uses, so they are left out here.
Table 1. Inner Mission residential parcels by type, as of 15 October 2026 (n = 6,077 parcels).
| Type | Parcels | Share of parcels |
|---|---|---|
| Buildings with more than one unit (the county calls them multi-family) | 2,397 | 39.4% |
| Condominiums | 2,224 | 36.6% |
| Houses (single family) | 1,371 | 22.6% |
| Vacant class | 85 | 1.4% |
The county files condo units as single-family use, with no lot of their own. This page moves 2,273 of those parcels into the condo group, and 49 of them fall into the vacant class, which leaves 2,224. That makes the condo count a floor. It also makes the house count slightly high, because 143 parcels filed as houses sit on lots of 10,000 square feet or more and look like the main parcels of newer buildings with many units.
The 85 parcels in the vacant class have no year built and no living area on record, and 79 of them carry a building value. Do not read them as empty lots.
How big are Inner Mission houses and their lots?
The median Inner Mission house has 1,360 square feet of living area (n = 1,120 houses) and sits on a lot of 2,500 square feet (n = 1,371 houses), as of 15 October 2026. Lots are small, with 85.6% of house lots under 4,000 square feet. Among houses with a recorded size, 60.6% have under 1,500 square feet of living area.
These sizes are the county's own measurements. They differ from the sizes in sale listings by more than 20% on 338 of 623 matched properties, or 54.3%, so do not set the two side by side.
The median floor-area ratio is 0.57. That ratio divides a house's living area by its lot area, so 0.57 means living area equal to 57% of the lot.
The median condo with a recorded size has 1,244 square feet (n = 339). The county has a size on file for 339 of 2,224 condo parcels, or 15.2%, so that median describes only those units and not the whole group.
Table 2. Inner Mission house layout, as of 15 October 2026.
| Measure | Value | Counted (n) |
|---|---|---|
| Houses with one story | 58.4% | 1,312 houses |
| Houses with two or more stories | 41.6% | 1,312 houses |
| Houses with exactly one bathroom | 58.9% | 1,329 houses |
| Houses with three or more bathrooms | 10.5% | 1,329 houses |
| Median bathrooms per house | 1.0 bathroom | 1,329 houses |
| Houses with the zoning code RH2 | 51.8% | 1,339 houses |
RH2 is the zoning code the city assigns to just over half of the houses that carry a code.
How old are Inner Mission houses?
The median Inner Mission house was built in 1906, and 84.1% were built before 1950 (n = 1,369 houses), as of 15 October 2026. Buildings with more than one unit are as old, with a median year built of 1906 (n = 2,376). Condos are newer, with a median year built of 1999 (n = 2,218).
The county's list makes new houses look more common than they are. After you set aside the 143 large-lot parcels that look like newer buildings filed as single-family, 3.5% of the remaining houses were built in 2000 or later.
What does the county show about rebuilding in Inner Mission?
The county's rebuild screen flags up to 219 of 1,371 houses, or 16.0%, as strong matches, as of 15 October 2026. That is a ceiling and not a count of houses likely to be rebuilt. The county keeps no dates for remodels in San Francisco, so the screen treats every house as never remodeled, and a remodeled house can still match.
The screen looks at four things: how much of the assessed value is land, how small the building value is, how early the house was built, and how little of the lot the house covers. If you drop the never-remodeled assumption, 2.6% of houses still meet three of those four.
Why do two similar Inner Mission houses carry assessed values 4.1 times apart?
The year someone bought sets the assessed value more than the house does. Proposition 13 caps the yearly rise in a house's assessed value at two percent, and it resets the value when the house changes owners or is newly built. Assessed values are the county's estimates, not market value and not what a house would sell for.
Take houses of 1,000 to 1,499 square feet on lots under 4,000 square feet. Those last transferred from 1983 to 1999 have a median assessed value of $372,711 (n = 121 houses). Those last transferred from 2020 to 2025 have $1,538,751 (n = 61 houses). That is 4.1 times as much (n = 182 houses).
The county's latest recorded transfer is dated 14 February 2025, so the later group runs only to that date.
Table 3. Inner Mission median assessed value of houses by year of last transfer, as of 15 October 2026. Assessed values are the county's estimates under Proposition 13 and not market value.
| Houses compared | Last transferred 1983 to 1999 | Last transferred 2020 to 2025 | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Same size band, 1,000 to 1,499 square feet on lots under 4,000 square feet | $372,711 (n = 121) | $1,538,751 (n = 61) | 4.1 times (n = 182) |
| All houses | $375,872 (n = 244) | $1,518,192 (n = 204) | 4.0 times (n = 448) |
| All houses, per square foot of living area | $290 (n = 242) | $1,149 (n = 152) | 4.0 times (n = 394) |
Land carries most of the value. The median house has 60.0% of its assessed value in land (n = 1,370 houses), and land is worth more than the building on 68.0% of houses. On 11.6% of houses the building value is under $50,000 (n = 1,371 houses). The median house is assessed at $670,700 (n = 1,370) and $392 per square foot of living area (n = 1,120).
Who owns Inner Mission houses, and for how long?
49.0% of Inner Mission houses carry the homeowners' exemption (n = 1,371 houses), as of 15 October 2026. The exemption is a $7,000 cut in assessed value that an owner claims on the home they live in, so it is a floor under owner occupancy and not a full count.
Houses with the exemption have a median assessed value of $536,597 (n = 672), against $818,776 (n = 698) for houses without it, or 34.5% lower. That gap reflects when owners bought and not the exemption itself. Among houses last transferred in the two newest periods, exempt houses are assessed lower, and among the two oldest periods they are assessed higher. These are the county's estimates, not market value.
A hold is the time from the last recorded transfer to 15 October 2026. Among houses with a transfer date, the median hold is 15.4 years (n = 948 houses). Of those houses, 67.8% have been held more than 10 years, 39.5% more than 20 years and 18.5% more than 30 years. Houses with the exemption have a median hold of 20.0 years (n = 460), against 11.9 years (n = 488) without it.
Every hold is understated by about 20 months. The latest transfer in the county's list is dated 14 February 2025, and none is recorded in the 12 months before the as-of date. Also, 30.9% of houses have no transfer date, and the hold figures cover only the houses that have one.
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