What You’ll Find

Cole Valley wraps around the southeast corner of Golden Gate Park, just below Haight-Ashbury. Cole Street, its commercial thoroughfare, has a number of quaint mom-and-pop shops, including Cole Hardware and the gourmet spot Say Cheese.

There are also a number of popular restaurants, including Zazie, a French bistro whose weekend brunch has become something of an institution; upscale Mexican Padrecito; and Beit Rima, a newcomer with Palestinian cuisine. At The Ice Cream Bar, an Art Deco-style soda fountain with a 1930s vibe, employees wear bow ties and all the sweets are made from scratch.

Image 451 FREDERICK STREET | A two-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath house, built in 1900 and listed for $1.55 million. 415-370-5277 Credit... Peter Prato for The New York Times

The N Judah Muni Metro light rail line has stops at Carl Street and Cole Street, as well as at Carl Street and Stanyan Street.

What You’ll Pay

With classic Victorian rowhouses and less than a fifth of a square mile of land, Cole Valley has high prices and limited inventory. But following a trend seen across San Francisco, home values are cooling.

“Cole Valley is very expensive because, for one thing, very little comes on the market. People who are there are there to stay,” said Marc Dickow, a partner at Core7 Real Estate and the 2020 president of the San Francisco Association of Realtors. “And it’s beautiful. I haven’t gone into a single house in Cole Valley that wasn’t, like, wow.”

In 2019, the median price for single-family homes and condos in Cole Valley was $1.55 million, down from a median of $1.8 million in 2018 and $2.43 million in 2017, according to the San Francisco Association of Realtors.