Best PlacesHaight-Ashbury, San Francisco, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

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Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco ranks 398th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.

#398
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
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of 5,983 neighborhoods
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The best neighborhoods in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
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BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%Walkability
Top 3%Biking
Top 3%Transit
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco with other neighborhoods.

Where Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco ranks high

  • WalkabilityBetter than 99% of neighborhoods
  • BikingBetter than 98% of neighborhoods
  • TransitBetter than 97% of neighborhoods
  • Health outlookBetter than 97% of neighborhoods
  • Household income$175,255 median, better than 96% of neighborhoods

Where Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco ranks low

  • Cheap childcare$2,439 a month, better than only 1% of neighborhoods
  • Crime safetyBetter than only 8% of neighborhoods
  • Short commute31.8 minutes each way, better than only 13% of neighborhoods
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of neighborhoods
  • Low vacancyBetter than only 21% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco

A household needs to earn about $376,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $175,255, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$376,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$8,774
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $1,447,436 home
Median rent
$2,865
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$7,380
Property tax$912
Homeowners insurance$482

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco's effective rate of 0.76%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco

Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco runs younger than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
36
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
12%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.0
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1812%
18 to 3435%
35 to 4925%
50 to 6416%
65 and older12%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco.


Who works in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, and how

Work in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco centers on professional & technical and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
41%
above the national average
Unemployment
2.1%
below the national average
Job growth
+1.7%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Professional & technical33%
Education10%
Health care & social10%
Information8%
Hospitality & food6%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 24%
  • Work from home 41%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 35%

Life in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco

Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco has more parkland per resident than 73% of neighborhoods. The coast is about 4 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
72
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 44.4 per 10,000 residents, more than 62% of neighborhoods
Coffee shops
18
about 11.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 80% of neighborhoods
Parkland
64 acres
about 4.0 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 73% of neighborhoods
To the coast
4 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, month by month

Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco sees roughly 224 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 74 degrees. January highs sit near 60, with lows near 46. The comfortable stretch runs April through November.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January60°53°46°
April68°57°49°
July74°62°56°
October75°62°54°

Flying in and out of Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco

San Francisco International sits about 11 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 26.5 million passengers in 2025, with 193 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
SFO
San Francisco International, about 11 miles
Airport size
Large hub
9th-busiest in the US, 193 nonstop destinations
Average drive
16 min
from the area, with no traffic

Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Common questions about living in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco

Is Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco ranks 398th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on walkability, biking, and transit, and lowest on childcare costs and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $1,447,436. The overall cost of living runs about 57% above the national average. Set against a $175,255 median income, cost of living beats 86% of neighborhoods.

Is Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco safe?

Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco is safer than 8% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $938 per resident a year.


Compare Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.