The Mission District

The second neighborhood in our District 9 series that we will be exploring is the Mission District. The Mission, named for the Mission Dolores which was the first church in San Francisco built in the late seventeen hundreds, is now known for its colorful and vibrant mix of Latin Culture, artists, and most recently young professionals. Although it began as a working class neighborhood for Irish, German, and Italian immigrants, since mid century there has been a huge settlement of Mexican, Central, and South American families which has created the Mission District as we know it today. It is also a popular neighborhood with the city's artist community because of its past affordability, but prices went up with the dot com boom and young professionals came into the picture. This wonderful mix of people has an equally diverse collection of businesses to support their needs. There are many commercial areas in the neighborhood: 24th St, Mission St, Valencia, and 16th St just to name a few. There are too many types of businesses to name ranging everywhere from taquerias where you can have a taco for two dollars to a local designer's shop where you can buy a beautifully made pair of pants for two hundred dollars.

Housing

The average price of a home in the Mission is $814,548 according to trulia.com. This is just a tiny step above the average price in Bernal. The difference is that the majority of the housing is condominiums or TICs. The average price has actually gone down in the second quarter, as condo prices in general in San Francisco went down a little over 5% from the first quarter to the second quarter according to the National Association of Realtors. There are currently 57 available residential listings in the Mission; only 4 are single family homes, 38 are condos, TICs and lofts, and 15 are multi unit buildings. The prices presently range from a $210,000 studio TIC on Woodward Street to a $3 Million dollar, 8200 square foot, amazing live/work space on 15th Street. What will the average price get you? How about this for a great value; a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1870 square foot, two level condominium at Bryant and 23rd for $829,000! The price has just been reduced by $20,000, AND the seller is offering a credit of $5,000 towards the buyer's closing costs. Now that's something you don't see all the time in San Francisco. What's wrong with it you ask? Just because something has been sitting on the market longer than usual doesn't necessarily mean there is something wrong with the property. More often than not it is just overpriced. I think with this property in particular, Bryant is not the coziest of streets which may discourage some buyers, and as they say, "This property is not a drive by" which means that the building's exterior may not be as wonderful as what you will find inside.

Other Amenities

Another very important feature of the Mission is it's two BART stations on 24th St and 16th Street. This makes the neighborhood very accessible from all over the Bay Area. There are also quite a few bus lines that run through the neighborhood. Schools are no exception to the diversity of the neighborhood including public, private, Catholic, and charter schools. Parks are scattered throughout, as are community gardens, and we can't forget the beautiful and colorful murals for which the Mission is known.