Nob Hill, Russian Hill, and South Beach—lovely as they are—didn’t stand a chance. San Francisco’s priciest housing market at the start of May belongs to the occasionally chic, hardly affordable, always elite Pacific Heights. Would these hedges lie?

For this most recent analysis, research and analytics outfit NeighborhoodX looked at two metrics for consideration: the average price per square foot for the neighborhood, and the range of prices per square foot.

"Most analyses only look at a metric like median listing price, which by itself doesn't allow as granular or meaningful a comparison across neighborhoods. Especially is one neighborhood has larger properties than another, which can skew median listings, even if prices per square foot are the same," says NeighborhoodX founder Constantine Valhouli.

Exclusions included foreclosures, short sales, income-restricted (affordable) housing, and properties primarily listed as development sites or where the value is in the land rather than the building (for example). Furthermore, the analysis removed certain listings with incomplete or contradictory data.

The price range for San Francisco overall only includes the neighborhoods that were analyzed. So lesser-known, more colloquial neighborhoods (e.g., Little Hollywood, La Lengua) were not used.

Keeping this in mind, the price range for neighborhoods that have been analyzed is $345-$4,207 per square foot. Valhouli adds, "That range represents the most affordable market-rate property in Outer Richmond to the most expensive property in Pacific Heights.”

Behold: