San Francisco housing hits $1,110

San Francisco housing is expensive again in the old-school, chest-tightening way. Not just “still pricey,” but moving fast enough that the city’s comeback now has a very specific number attached to it — $1,110 per square foot. That matters because San Francisco spent the last few years being cast as the place remote work broke. Now the market is saying something different: money and demand are bunching back up in the urban core. (redfin.com) ### What actually hit $1,110? That figure is Redfin’s median sale price per square foot for San Francisco, and it was up 9.2% from a year earlier. The same snapshot showed a median sale price of $1.7 million, up 19% year over year, with homes selling in about 14 days and drawing four offers on average. That is not a sleepy market. It is a market where buyers are starting to act like they’re afraid waiting will cost them more. (redfin.com) ### Why are people tying this to AI? Because the rebound is showing up in the places where high-paid tech workers actually want to live. CNBC tied the move to AI hiring and investor interest, and Piper Sandler used that setup to upgrade Essex Property Trust, arguing the landlord should benefit as San Francisco rents and housing demand improve. Basically, the (redfin.com)ments, condos, and neighborhood-level bidding pressure. (cnbc.com) ### Is this a Bay Area boom? Not really. That is the useful wrinkle here. The Real Deal, citing Zillow data via the San Francisco Chronicle, said typical condo values rose in only eight Bay Area ZIP codes from March 2024 to March 2025 — and all eight were in San Francisco. The gains were modest, but the pattern matters more than the size. Strength is concentrated, not broad. (therealdeal.com) ### Why does that concentration matter? Because it tells you this is not a simple “everything is recovering” story. It looks more like a demand funnel. Capital and high-income buyers are flowing toward a small set of neighborhoods with short commutes, good housing stock, and status value. When only a handful of ZIP codes are rising while the wider region stays soft or mixed, the signal is that the comeback is selective. (therealdeal.com) ### So is San Francisco fully back? Parts of it are. Zillow’s broader home-value measure for San Francisco was up 5% over the year through March 31, 2026, with homes going pending in around 13 days. That is healthier than the city’s post-2022 mood suggested. But the catch is that “back” does not mean balanced(therealdeal.com)res — feel the squeeze first. (zillow.com) ### What does this mean for renters and buyers? It means the ladder gets steeper. If AI firms keep clustering jobs in San Francisco, more workers will compete for a housing stock that was already tight. Buyers face higher entry prices. Renters face landlords with more leverage. And employers that want junior talent nearby may discover that compensation has to rise j(zillow.com)t story. (cnbc.com) ### Does one number tell the whole story? No — but this one is a strong tell. Price per square foot cuts through the distortion you get from changes in home size or mix. When that number jumps to $1,110 and the hottest condo ZIP codes are all inside San Francisco, the message is pretty clear: demand has returned to the city faster than supply can respond. (redfin.com) ### Bottom line San Francisco’s housing rebound is real, but it is narrow and unequal. AI is helping pull wealth and demand back into the city. The same force making San Francisco feel “hot” again is also making it harder to afford. (cnbc.com)