San Francisco guide · Tier A · Rank #5 of 27
House hacking in San Francisco (Visitacion Valley / Portola / Sunnydale).
The lowest price band citywide with one HOPE SF project delivering now and a second large master plan entitled: a value-plus-delivering-catalyst combination, tempered by one long-stalled site.
Status check: Verified 2026-07-14: Sunnydale construction is continuing (Amani completed 2025; Cielo and Luca underway, completion 2027).
What's actually happening in 94134
- Delivering
Sunnydale HOPE SF: ~1,770 units (775 replacement affordable, ~200 additional affordable, ~694 market); approved Jan 2017, phased, and delivering now (~392 complete plus ~170 under construction; counts WARN); T-Third adjacent. SF Planning Sunnydale HOPE SF
- Entitled; stalled
Schlage Lock / Baylands North: ~1,674–1,679 units entitled July 2014 on a 15-year horizon, with zero vertical construction as of Oct 2025 (~$11M spent on the Schlage HQ reno, $35M on site cleanup). Model it as a 2029+ bet with real delay risk. SF Planning Visitacion Valley / Schlage Lock Plan
- Operational; upgrades in 2026
T-Third Sunnydale terminus: direct (if long) single-line rail to Downtown and Chinatown, with 2026 signal-priority improvements. SFMTA T-Third Improvements
The numbers
- Median price
- ~$898K April-2026 list median (Redfin/Movoto)
- Market rent
- ~$2,900/mo affordable tier
- Property tax (San Francisco County)
- 1.183% combined effective (SF Treasurer FY2025-26, consolidated city and county); new buyers pay about 1.183% of purchase price in year one, then assessed value rises at the 2%/yr Prop 13 cap until resale
- Per-bed rent band
- $1,050–1,550/mo per room
- ADU rent band
- $2,200–2,800/mo (ADU or in-law)
- Whole-home rent band
- $4,000–5,200/mo whole-home
- Underwriting vacancy
- 4.0–4.5% underwriting vacancy
- Appreciation scenarios
- 2 / 4 / 6 %/yr (conservative / base / upside)
Lowest list median in the city; the delivering Sunnydale build thickens local demand. Appreciation basis: Conservative if Schlage stays stalled; base if Sunnydale keeps delivering; upside if Baylands breaks ground after 2029. Rent bands are city-level medians; confirm the specific parcel before trusting any of them. Run your own scenario in the calculator.
The house-hack angle
Portola and Visitacion Valley single-family homes and small-multi at the metro's lowest basis, renting to a workforce-family tenant pool. FZP reach into Leland Ave and Bayshore Blvd is unconfirmed (WARN).
What breaks it
- Schlage Lock has sat entitled with no vertical work for over a decade: real patience and delay risk
- Single-line rail with a long headway to downtown
- Near-term appreciation leans on Sunnydale delivery while Baylands stays stalled, and the delivery counts are WebSearch-sourced (WARN)