Where to live in San Francisco: All about the West Portal and St. Francis Wood neighborhoods

#westportal #stfranciswood #sanfranciscorealestate
Learn about living in West Portal, a San Francisco neighborhood, real estate, home sales and price data, local features, and more.
Are you looking for an area in San Francisco that has a small community feel yet is really close to downtown and I-280? Then look no further than West Portal and St. Francis Wood.
My name is Ruth Krishnan with The Krishnan Team. If you enjoy this content please feel free to subscribe to our channel below and share it with some friends.
Today I'm going to be taking you around West Portal and St. Francis Wood and I'm going to share with you a little bit about the population, the real estate stats a little bit about the schools and a little bit about the parks and what to do around the "downtown" area of West Portal.
West portal was developed in the 1910's and 1920's and acted as a staging area for the Twin Peaks Tunnel which connected the Western neighborhoods to the downtown. St. Francis Wood was developed during the same period by the Mason McDuffy company who accented the area with graceful streets lush parks and classic monuments. The style of architecture here can range anywhere from thatched cottages to English medieval manors.
West Portal is bordered by Inner Parkside to the northwest and Stern Grove to the west. East and south of West Portal are a smattering of small neighborhoods which include Forest Hill, Sherwood Forest and of course St. Francis Wood.
Though West Portal maintains the feel of a small town you will find everything that you need here from dentist to barber shops, to hardware shops to tons of little boutique dining experiences. There's some great grocery stores located close by and if you don't mind hopping in your car you can head over to Stonestown where they've just put in a brand new Whole Foods and a really fantastic cinema.
St. Francis Wood feels unlike any neighborhood in San Francisco. The houses are so far apart, I often feel like I'm
in Southern California especially on a sunny day when I'm driving through this neighborhood. It's absolutely stunning.
West Portal and St. Francis Wood are located near a lot of parks including Aptos Park, Mount Davidson Manor which is a great place to take a walk. And there is Carl Larsen park which has some great baseball diamonds, basketball and tennis courts and do not forget Stern Grove. Stern Grove has some of the best free concerts in the city and if you haven't ever made it to one you should get there as soon as possible. It is a not to miss San Francisco experience.
There's no shortage of eateries along West Portal Avenue where you can find everything from Indian, to Italian to sushi, to burgers and you can get yourself a great salad at Squat and Gobble or Lemonade as well.
In and around the area you have some of the best public and private schools in the area. First off in a 5 minute drive you've got SF State. Also you've got Clarendon which is a primary school that is ranked very, very
highly in San Francisco. Additionally you have Lowell which is one of the top magnet schools in the country.
A lot of the buyers moving out in this direction are coming from places like Noe Valley. At the time of filming this the average price per square foot in Noe Valley is around $1,500 to $1,600 a square foot. In contrast, in St. Francis Wood the top price point is about $1,400 a square foot and you can get something sometimes as low as $1,100 depending on how much work it needs.
In West Portal the price point is a little bit lower than St. Francis Wood generally around $1,100 topping out around $1,300 a square foot. The closer that you get to West Portal Avenue where it's walkable, the higher the price per square foot you will see.
West Portal consists mostly of single family homes and there's some older apartment buildings along the avenue. St. Francis Wood is comprised of 561 uniquely designed single family homes on approximately 127 acres that includes a children's playground tennis and basketball courts and over 7 miles of parkways.
I hope you've enjoyed another episode of Where Should I Live in San Francisco. If you have a favorite neighborhood in San Francisco that we haven't yet covered feel free to leave it in the comment section below and we'll be sure to add it to our list of neighborhoods to cover.
And if you have any questions about buying or selling in San Francisco please reach out to us we'd love to help you. Thanks for watching our videos.
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[@DrWenChannel]

Can you cover Merced Manor and Parkside? Thanks!

[@livinginsanfranciscoca]

We can absolutely add it to the list!

[@AlvaSudden]

I'm interested in mass transit options. I lived in the Bay Area for 25 years, mostly without a car, and in my opinion it was not just possible it was desireable to use MUNI, buses, and BART.

[@livinginsanfranciscoca]

Thanks for the idea! We will do a video on this!