Areas and Suburbs in San Francisco

Comprised of more than 110 neighbourhoods, San Francisco has more to offer than a lot of other cities in the world. Whether it be for its architectural design, closeness to nature or international crowd, anyone can find their happiness in this city and call it home.

Choosing and writing about the best places to live in San Francisco is not an easy task as we all have different criteria and expectations as to what a great neighbourhood is.
 
Some will consider the best neighbourhood as being the one which has everything within walking distance. As such, here is the list of the top 10 neighbourhoods according to their walk score:

• Chinatown
• Financial District
• Downtown
• Northbeach
• Mission
• Nob Hill
• Pacific Heights
• South of Market
• Western Addition
• Haight-Ashbury

Some people will state that the price of real estate reflects the best neighbourhood to live in. While this statement is not always true, here are the 10 most expensive neighbourhoods according to Zillow Home Value Index in July 2010:

• Seacliff ($2.2M)
• Presidio Heights ($1.9M)
• Marina ($1.23M)
• Pacific Heights ($1.13M)
• Noe Valley ($1M)
• Inner Richmond ($988K)
• Castro-Upper Market ($916K)
• Haight-Ashbury ($899K)
• Russian Hill ($890K)
• West of Twin Peaks ($887K)

Finally, you can also take into account the 10 most populous neighbourhoods in SF:

• The Mission (58K)
• Western Addition (51K)
• Outer Sunset (48K)
• Downtown (39K)
• Outer Richmond (37K)
• Excelsior (36K)
• Inner Richmond (35K)
• Bayview (33K)
• Parkside (27K)
• Bernal Heights (27K)

As you can see, depending on the criteria mentioned hereabove, the results are all different.

Personally, it really depends what you are looking for. If you have a family, a dog, want nature, a trendy place, a peaceful one, the neighborhood will differ.