San Francisco’s multifamily market opened 2026 with a stronger pricing story and clear signs of renewed buyer competition. In the 2 to 4 unit segment, the median sales price jumped 17.1 percent year over year to $2,060,000, while price per square foot rose 13.4 percent to $660. Even more telling, sellers received an average of 117.4 percent of list price, up from 101.1 percent last year, and 59.0 percent of sales closed over asking. That is a meaningful shift in a category that often reflects both owner-user demand and long-term investor confidence.
The 5-plus unit segment also strengthened, with the median sales price rising 12.5 percent to $2,700,000, price per square foot increasing 10.3 percent to $417, and price per unit up 3.4 percent to $335,769. Activity was more mixed, with contracts down 25.0 percent, but closed sales up 18.2 percent and inventory down 7.7 percent from last year. Sellers also performed better than they did a year ago, with 35.9 percent of buildings selling over list price, nearly triple last year’s share. Because San Francisco’s multifamily market includes a relatively small number of highly varied buildings across very different neighborhoods, broad quarterly swings should be read with some caution. Still, the direction of the data is encouraging.
The bigger story is that the fundamentals behind multifamily ownership are improving. Apartment rents have been rising, office activity has improved, and the city’s AI-driven employment base continues to bring confidence back into the market. Lower borrowing costs compared with last year are also helping buyers re-engage. For multifamily investors, the combination of stronger rents, better seller performance, and improving sentiment makes Q1 feel less like a temporary bounce and more like a healthier reset for San Francisco income property.
