Episode 2 · Property Types & Supply Dynamics
Visitacion Valley Houses: Size, Age, Land and Assessments
Visitacion Valley sits in the southeast corner of San Francisco, and it is a place of small houses on small, even lots, many of them built in the years around the Second World War. This guide covers what is built here: how big and how old the houses are, how much of the assessed value sits in the land, how long owners hold on, and how California's tax cap shapes the assessments.
💡 Key Insights & Takeaways
- Of the 3,689 residential parcels in Visitacion Valley, 3,438 are houses, 199 are buildings of two to four units and 18 hold five or more units.
- The median house has 1,247 square feet of living space on a 2,495-square-foot lot, and 81.9% of houses have a single storey.
- The median house was built in 1947, and 68.9% of the houses built before 1950 have one bathroom.
- Land makes up a median 58.8% of a house's assessed value, and land outweighs the building on 62.6% of houses. These are assessed values, not market values.
- The median house with a dated transfer last changed hands 22.2 years ago, and that is a floor, because the transfer dates end in December 2024.
Visitacion Valley is mostly small, older houses, and two of the same size, on the same size of lot, carry assessed values 3.03 times apart as of 30 September 2026. The year each last changed hands sets that gap, because Proposition 13 resets the value at a sale. An assessed value is not what a house would sell for.
The Visitacion Valley houses at a glance, as of 30 September 2026.
| Measure | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Houses as a share of residential parcels | 93.2% | n = 3,689 parcels |
| Median assessed value of a house | $408,726 | Proposition 13 assessed value, not market value; n = 3,438 houses |
| Houses built before 1950 | 57.3% | n = 3,428 houses with a build year |
| Dated houses held 20 years or more | 54.6% | A floor, because transfer dates end in December 2024; n = 2,356 dated houses |
What kind of homes are in Visitacion Valley?
Nearly every home in Visitacion Valley is a house of its own. As of 30 September 2026, 3,438 of the 3,689 residential parcels are houses, 93.2% of the total. The rest is a thin layer of small apartment buildings and condominiums. Of the 220 multi-family parcels, 199 are buildings of two to four units and 18 hold five or more units. There is no vacant residential land among those parcels.
Residential parcels in Visitacion Valley by type, as of 30 September 2026.
| Type | Parcels | Share of residential parcels |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | 3,438 | 93.2% |
| Condominiums with no lot of their own (a townhouse on its own lot counts as a house) | 31 | 0.8% |
| Multi-family buildings | 220 | 6.0% |
| Vacant residential land | 0 | 0.0% |
| All residential parcels | 3,689 | — |
How big are Visitacion Valley houses and lots?
The median house has 1,247 square feet of living space on a 2,495-square-foot lot, as of 30 September 2026. Half of the houses measure between 1,020 and 1,629 square feet, with a quarter smaller and a quarter larger, and 68.4% are under 1,500 square feet. The lots barely vary in size: 88.5% are under 3,000 square feet and 96.7% are under 4,000. The median house has a floor-area ratio of 0.513, which means its living space equals about half the area of its lot.
Most houses sit on one level. 81.9% of houses have a single storey and 18.1% have two or more. The median house has one bathroom, 53.2% have exactly one, and 14.0% have three or more. A bedroom count exists for only 1,189 of the 3,438 houses, 34.6%, so the bedroom figures describe that group and not every house. Within that group the median is three bedrooms, 60.1% have three or four, and the most common layout is two bedrooms with one bathroom, at 22.9%.
House size and layout in Visitacion Valley, as of 30 September 2026.
| Measure | Value | Houses counted (n) |
|---|---|---|
| Median living space | 1,247 square feet | 3,415 |
| Living space, half of houses between | 1,020–1,629 square feet | 3,415 |
| Median lot | 2,495 square feet | 3,438 |
| Half of lots between | 2,000–2,639 square feet | 3,438 |
| Single storey | 81.9% | 3,413 |
| Median bathrooms | 1 | 3,423 |
| Median bedrooms, where a count exists (34.6% of houses) | 3 | 1,189 |
How old are Visitacion Valley houses?
The median house was built in 1947, and 57.3% of houses went up before 1950, as of 30 September 2026. The 1940s alone account for 34.7% of houses, and only 1.8% have been built since 2000. The build year goes a long way toward setting the bathroom count. 68.9% of the houses built before 1950 have one bathroom, so a list that starts at two bathrooms rules out most of the older houses. The data carries no renovation dates, so it cannot tell you which of these houses have been updated.
Is it the land or the house you pay for in Visitacion Valley?
On most houses here the land carries more of the assessed value than the building. As of 30 September 2026, land outweighs the building on 62.6% of houses, and land makes up a median 58.8% of a house's assessed value. The median house is assessed at $229,959 for the land and $173,140 for the building. Proposition 13 fixes that split at each house's last sale, so a low building value often marks a long hold rather than a small or worn building. These are assessed values, not market values.
That same pattern makes the count of houses that could be rebuilt hard to pin down. On land share, building value, build decade and floor-area ratio, 845 houses, 24.6%, score as strong candidates for rebuilding. That is a ceiling, not an estimate, because without renovation dates every house counts as never updated. On the four conditions the data can actually test, 234 houses, 6.8%, qualify.
What does a Visitacion Valley house cost to hold under Proposition 13?
The median house carries an assessed value of $408,726 as of 30 September 2026, and that figure says more about when a house last changed hands than about the house. Proposition 13 sets the assessed value at a sale and lets it rise no more than two percent a year until the next one. Across all houses, those that last changed hands from 2020 to 2024 carry a median assessed value 2.99 times that of houses last changed hands before 2000. Hold the house constant, at 1,000 to 1,499 square feet of living space on a lot of 2,000 to 2,999 square feet, and the gap holds. The transfer dates end in December 2024, so the latest group stops there.
Median assessed value of Visitacion Valley houses by when they last changed hands, as of 30 September 2026. These are Proposition 13 assessed values, not market values.
| Last changed hands | Median assessed value | Houses (n) |
|---|---|---|
| Before 2000 | $342,294 | 856 |
| 2020 to 2024 | $1,025,100 | 289 |
| No transfer recorded since 1987 | $138,679 | 1,082 |
| Same size and lot, before 2000 | $339,564 | 284 |
| Same size and lot, 2020 to 2024 | $1,028,044 | 98 |
When you buy, your own assessed value resets at that sale. A neighbor's or a seller's assessed value tells you about the year they bought, not about the house you are weighing. The data carries no tax amount, so this page states none.
How long do owners hold Visitacion Valley houses?
The median house with a dated transfer last changed hands 22.2 years ago, as of 30 September 2026, and that is a floor, because the transfer dates end in December 2024. Every hold figure here runs short by the gap between that last date and the end of September 2026, and a recent buyer still shows under the owner before them. Another 31.5% of houses, 1,082 in all, show no transfer since the dates begin in 1987. Those houses are left out of the hold figures, and some may have been held even longer.
How long dated Visitacion Valley houses have been held, as of 30 September 2026. Transfer dates end in December 2024, so every figure is a floor; n = 2,356 dated houses.
| Held | Share of dated houses |
|---|---|
| 10 years or more | 80.5% |
| 20 years or more | 54.6% |
| 30 years or more | 26.4% |
55.4% of houses carry the homeowners' exemption, which an owner files on a main home. That makes the share a floor under owner occupancy, not a count of it. Houses with the exemption have been held a median 23.6 years against 19.7 for those without. They also carry a lower median assessed value, $378,812 against $452,028, because a longer hold means an older base year, the year Proposition 13 last set the value.
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