The 9 Best Neighborhoods to Live in the Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area is known for its hilly geography, iconic Golden Gate Bridge, thriving tech hub, cable cars, and all-around color. San Francisco is truly a city that has it all, and it instills a deep loyalty in its long-time residents–how could it not?

With big tech companies like Google, LinkedIn, Tesla, Microsoft, Mozilla, Y-Combinator, and many other HQ-ing here, San Francisco is the perfect place for a smooth blend between high-flying tech opportunities and a breezy waterfront lifestyle.

Rudyard Kipling wasn't wrong when he said: 'San Francisco has only one drawback–'tis hard to leave.'

If the San Francisco hills don't get you, the fog will. But, the viewpoints, hiking trails, and charming sidewalks more than make up for it. The Bay Area is one of those places that once someone settles in, they'll hardly want to leave. Its waterfront views and salty breeze, its cable car trolleys with their charming bells, and the great mix of old and new architecture make the Bay Area and San Francisco a delightful place to call home.

All of the greatness that San Francisco and the Bay Area bring comes at a price–a pretty high price tag if we're honest. It means homes in desirable locations are becoming harder to come by. That's why we've written this neighborhood guide because, at Bungalow, we know the nooks and crannies of the Bay Area, and we want you to find the right nest to call home.

To help you find a great neighborhood—that's not too steep on its geography or price–we've compiled a list of 9 top neighborhoods to consider. What's more, we've built a ranking system for each one to help you make this decision feel as easy as rolling down-hill:

• Atmosphere: nightlife & entertainment, shopping & restaurants, and beauty & parks

• Amenities: schools, public transit, and points of interest

• Experience: safety, affordability, and walkability

The end result is a prioritized list of the best places to move to in the Bay Area, California.

Why should you listen to us? With top renting places all over the USA, trust us when we tell you we know what each city has to offer.

Perfect for young professionals that can afford the waterfront views and high-rise living.

The Embarcadero neighborhood and the Financial District are true highlights of the San Francisco Bay area. What this area lacks in affordability and late-night entertainment, it makes up for with tons of things to do during the daytime and waterfront views hot enough to brew your coffee over.

This area gets a well-deserved four in Points of Interest and five for Shopping and Restaurants—both scored out of five. There are plenty of restaurants and cute little cafés to get your grind on during the day.

You've got the Exploratorium–with exhibitions all year round– the Waterfront Restaurant, the Pacific Heritage Museum, and the Ferry Building–all great for those days when you want to escape the 9-to-5 stress—'now that's a way to make a living.'

For cinema and theater lovers, the area has two great choices, the Embarcadero Center Cinema and the Gateway Theater. Home to some of San Francisco's rising stars, the theater is close to the Sydney G. Walton Square, a charming little park full of public art.

Less of a theater hopper, more of a shop-’til-you-dropper? Embarcadero’s got you. Within walking distance, you'll find Union Square, one of the largest shopping areas in the country.

Although the schools in the area are good, there aren't many to choose from–giving it a 3/5 in our Schools score. This area probably isn't your go-to if you're looking to start a family any time soon.

If you're looking for a high-rise building, free sea-salt facials on your waterfront strolls, don't mind quieter nights in; this area might just be what you're looking for.

Embarcadero/Financial District's Rankings:

Rankings: Weighted rankings were determined by scoring neighborhoods on a scale of 1-5 in the following categories, with 5 being the best.

• Affordability: 💸 💸

• Beauty & Parks: 🌳 🌳 🌳

• Nightlife & Entertainment: 🎉 🎉

• Points of Interest: 📍📍📍📍

• Public Transit: 🚃 🚃 🚃

• Safety: ✅ ✅ ✅

• Schools: 🍎 🍎 🍎

• Shopping & Restaurants: 🛍 🛍 🛍 🛍 🛍

• Walkability:🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️

Perfect for young, single professionals and students as trendy as they are artsy.

Mission is one of those iconic neighborhoods in San Francisco. Its streets are colored with amazing street art, and the smell of delicious tacos on each corner speaks to the Hispanic heritage of the region.

Mission used to be a neighborhood with old authentic Mexican taco stands, but the inflow of affluent tech heads to the area has brought some novel new hipster eating spots to town–helping it achieve a perfect score in Shopping and Restaurants.

Although this part of San Francisco is becoming a very trendy and hipster area, with fresh murals springing up like California poppies, it still holds on to a lot of history. In fact, the name is thanks to the Mission San Francisco de Asís, built in 1776 and commonly known as Mission Dolores. It's a Spanish Californian mission and is the oldest structure in the city!

You'll also find the famous Dolores Park, a perfect weekend hangout where you can enjoy stunning skyline views of the big city. With nearly 16 acres of comfy grass, this will be your go-to spot to go sunbathing or drinking with your friends. A perfect way to enjoy the sunny or foggy days in the city.

If you want to ride your Mission bike, keep it to the daytime. Nighttime can be a bit rough around some areas–but hey, if it had perfect security throughout the night, it wouldn't just be one of the best neighborhoods in the city, but in the world–take our word for it.

From tacos to tech, Mission is the heart of the hip side of the city. With its cultural attractions, vibrant arts community, breathtaking street murals, and a variety of bars and cafés, this is the place to be if you're young, single, and ready to mingle–Spicy edition.

Mission District's Rankings:

Rankings: Weighted rankings were determined by scoring neighborhoods on a scale of 1-5 in the following categories, with 5 being the best.

• Affordability: 💸 💸

• Beauty & Parks: 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳

• Nightlife & Entertainment: 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉

• Points of Interest: 📍📍📍📍

• Public Transit: 🚃 🚃 🚃 🚃

• Safety: ✅ ✅

• Schools: 🍎 🍎 🍎

• Shopping & Restaurants: 🛍 🛍 🛍 🛍

• Walkability:🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️

Perfect for young families looking for a central yet quiet neighborhood in the Bay Area.

Both Glen Park and Noe Valley are perfect areas for young families; the only difference is the affordability. Noe Valley offers grand luxurious homes, while Glen Park homes are smaller and cozier. Besides that, both neighborhoods offer the same things: good schools, quiet nightlife, a small-town feel, and foggy mornings.

Billy Goat Hill, situated on the north side of Glen Park, is perfect for getting a bird's-eye view of the city. Not far from it, you'll find the Walter Haas playground, packed with basketball courts perfect for shooting some hoops for those competitive parents reliving the glory days. Up in Noe Valley, the main hub is 24th street. It's full of artisanal goods stores, yoga studios, and the heart of this neighborhood: a Whole Foods!

This area is centrally located in San Francisco. Although it has some parking shortages, public transportation is good to connect you to other parts of the city–getting a four out of five in our Public Transit score. It also gets a 4/5 for its walkability since you'll find everything you'll need within walking distance.

Music lovers will be happily surprised by what's on offer. There are weekend jazz concerts at Bird & Beckett, a local bookstore, and Glen Park hosts the Glen Park Festival–proceeds go to benefit kids' programs for schools and community organizations in and near the neighborhood.

Full of nature, peace, and quiet, Glen Park and Noe Valley only has one disadvantage, and its name is Karl. Karl the fog. It even has a Twitter account because the fog in San Francisco is a personality to be reckoned with.

Glen Park & Noe Valley's Rankings:

Rankings: Weighted rankings were determined by scoring neighborhoods on a scale of 1-5 in the following categories, with 5 being the best.

• Affordability: 💸 💸 💸

• Beauty & Parks: 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳

• Nightlife & Entertainment: 🎉 🎉

• Points of Interest: 📍📍📍

• Public Transit: 🚃 🚃 🚃 🚃

• Safety: ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅

• Schools: 🍎 🍎 🍎 🍎

• Shopping & Restaurants: 🛍 🛍 🛍 🛍

• Walkability:🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️

Perfect for young professionals and students of the University of California at San Francisco.

If you love sushi, Bay Area nature-views, and foggy-headed mornings, this is the area for you! These three neighborhoods not only share their proximity to the beautiful Golden Gate Park, they all offer great walkability, beautiful tree-lined streets and are some of the safest areas in the city.

The Golden Gate Park is modeled after New York City's famous Central Park. It's not only the biggest park in San Francisco, but some claim it's the best city park in the country—we'll let you decide. A few things are definitely not up for debate: it's the largest man-made park in the world with over 1000-acres. It's also the third most visited park in the US, with 13 million visitors per year. Living in any of the neighborhoods that are walking–or biking–distance from this park is truly special.

Although the Golden Gate Park is great to visit during the day, at night you might want to wander somewhere else—it's not the safest of places. Thankfully, the neighborhoods south of the park don't share this trait and are pretty safe during the day or night.

On the outskirts of Forest Knolls, you'll find the University of California San Francisco Parnassus Campus. This means the whole area is perfect for students and caters to a younger crowd–trendy cafés, budget restaurants, and a few lively college bars.

Unfortunately, this area only gets a three out of five in points of interest, since besides the park and its amenities, there isn't much more to do. This means that for a night out or a culture-packed weekend, you're better off visiting other areas in San Francisco.

Known for its Asian and Mexican restaurants, its cozy cafés and bars, wherever you are, you'll be at a walking distance from the next hospitality hotspot to blow your mind. This is especially the case if you like sushi, as many say this area is the sushi lover's dream. Live that California dream…roll.

Also one of the foggiest neighborhoods in the city, be prepared to miss out on some of the California sunshine thanks to Karl the fog. However, stay ready to enjoy the nature, shops, galleries, and restaurants that this sushi-loving area offers.

Inner Sunset, Forest Knolls, & Golden Gate Heights' Rankings:

Rankings: Weighted rankings were determined by scoring neighborhoods on a scale of 1-5 in the following categories, with 5 being the best.

• Affordability: 💸 💸 💸

• Beauty & Parks: 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳

• Nightlife & Entertainment: 🎉 🎉 🎉

• Points of Interest: 📍📍📍

• Public Transit: 🚃 🚃 🚃 🚃

• Safety: ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅

• Schools: 🍎 🍎 🍎 🍎

• Shopping & Restaurants: 🛍 🛍 🛍

• Walkability:🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️

Perfect for young professionals wanting to live near the waterfront and enjoy some iconic San Francisco views.

Russian Hill and Nob Hill are at the heart of San Francisco's happening areas. The only downsides here are safety; at night, you might want to be careful. Plus, the schools, although the ones you can find here are good, there aren't many in the area. However, if these two things aren't high on your list of deal-breakers, then read on.

In the middle of Russian Hill you'll find one of San Francisco's postcard views: the famously crooked Lombard Streets. A major tourist attraction–hey, an opportunity to mingle with travelers, local and international. What's great news is that since this is the only major tourist attraction in the area, you'll have idyllic San Francisco vibes without the traffic or TikTokkers.

This area will have you in shape in no time; as cute as it is, it's also full of hills. Be ready for calves fit for Thor. The many hills in the area will give you some incredible views of the Golden Gate and Bay bridges, and other big city landmarks. With skylines that'll make your mouth water, restaurants that will keep your belly full and hills to keep you fit, it's not a bad deal!

Nob Hill, sometimes referred to as 'Snob Hill' has an affluent reputation dating back to the Gold Rush when railroad barons–also known as nobs–built their mansions on these hills. The area retains a sense of wealth and privilege, some of the fanciest hotels of the Bay Area can be found on these streets.

Russian Hill and Nob Hill are great neighborhoods that offer museums, views, and restaurants to spend your days in awe of living in San Francisco. Need more? North Beach, Fisherman's Wharf, Union Square, and the Marina are all within walking distance.

There truly is nothing like waking up at the top of a hill, opening the window to look at the bay views and hear the distant cable car bells. Live here, pay the price tag for it, and that's how you'll wake up every day–not bad!

Nob Hill & Russian Hill's Rankings:

Rankings: Weighted rankings were determined by scoring neighborhoods on a scale of 1-5 in the following categories, with 5 being the best.

• Affordability: 💸 💸

• Beauty & Parks: 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳

• Nightlife & Entertainment: 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉

• Points of Interest: 📍📍📍📍

• Public Transit: 🚃 🚃 🚃 🚃 🚃

• Safety: ✅ ✅

• Schools: 🍎 🍎

• Shopping & Restaurants: 🛍 🛍 🛍 🛍 🛍

• Walkability:🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️

Perfect for young professionals wanting to live at the heart of Silicon Valley.

Mountain View is just south of Palo Alto, and it's one of the main cities in Silicon Valley. It's home to Google and its parent company, Alphabet's Headquarters, the Googleplex, and plenty of other world-famous tech companies. The Googleplex is a conglomerate of over 20 buildings open to the public–a great place to wander around and be wowed by its spacious green spaces, creative public art, and Silicon Valley-expected self-driving cars.

Mountain View is not San Francisco, but this doesn't mean it isn't a nice place to live. Especially since Google employees' dollars have reinvigorated and renewed the city's commercial areas.

The main hub in Mountain View is Castro Street, located between Alma St and El Camino. It's filled with restaurants, bookstores, and coffee shops, making it the perfect place to hang out on the weekend.

If Castro Street doesn't satisfy your need for entertainment, you'll also have the Computer History Museum, the NASA Ames Research Visitor Center–there's a real moon rock in it–Eagle Park, Stevens Creek trail by the Bay, and the Shoreline Park and Lake, all great ways to destress after a week of hard work.

Silicon Valley is usually pretty expensive, thanks to the fancy tech population that lives in the area. However, Mountain View is seen as one of the starter towns of the Bay Area and Silicon Valley since it isn't as expensive as, say, Palo Alto, and still has great tech firms, nature and other amenities to make life that much splendid.

If you're a young professional working in tech, Mountain View is the place to be. There are headquarters and offices for all the top companies like Google, Y-Combinator, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Mozilla, and tons of startups for you to sink your teeth into. Take a bite; life here is sweet.

Mountain View's Rankings:

Rankings: Weighted rankings were determined by scoring neighborhoods on a scale of 1-5 in the following categories, with 5 being the best.

• Affordability: 💸 💸 💸

• Beauty & Parks: 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳

• Nightlife & Entertainment: 🎉 🎉 🎉

• Points of Interest: 📍📍📍📍📍

• Public Transit: 🚃 🚃 🚃

• Safety: ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅

• Schools: 🍎 🍎 🍎

• Shopping & Restaurants: 🛍 🛍 🛍 🛍 🛍

• Walkability:🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️ 🚶🏽‍♀️

Perfect for young professionals wanting to live inside a San Francisco postcard.

Top three, here we go! What makes the San Francisco Bay Area beautiful is the waterfront views, the Golden Gate, and the hilly city. North Beach and Fisherman's Wharf offer all of these, alongside some of the most touristy destinations in the city. If you don't mind dodging a selfie stick or two, this is the area for you.

Fisherman's Wharf is San Francisco's number one destination, and its Pier 39 is the most visited attraction in the city. Living here, you'll have this attraction just around the corner, and it will soon become your favorite place to wander weekdays and weekends.

If you're looking for amazing Italian restaurants that not only serve great pasta but have you overlooking the waterfront, North Beach will be your go-to. The Italian heritage of this neighborhood weaves itself into checkered tablecloths and treat-yo-self gelato parlors.

The North Beach and Fisherman's Wharf neighborhoods get perfect scores in all of your Transport and Walkability categories, as well as in its Beauty and Entertainment categories.

The categories that see it fall short of first place are the schools, sadly not that much offer, and its affordability. Tourists push prices up at local restaurants and stores, and living in the city's best area will always come at a price. But, like we said, if you have the patience and the pocket for the tourists, this one is worth it.

North Beach & Fisherman Wharf's Rankings:

Rankings: Weighted rankings were determined by scoring neighborhoods on a scale of 1-5 in the following categories, with 5 being the best.

• Affordability: 💸

• Beauty & Parks: 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳

• Nightlife & Entertainment: 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉

• Points of Interest: 📍📍📍📍📍

• Public Transit: 🚃 🚃 🚃 🚃 🚃

• Safety: ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅

• Schools: 🍎 🍎 🍎

• Shopping & Restaurants: 🛍 🛍 🛍 🛍 🛍

• Walkability:🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏽‍♀️

Perfect for young, single professionals with an open mind and ready to live in an iconic neighborhood.

If you ever wanted to live in one of the proudest LGBTQ+ communities in the States, this neighborhood is for you. Not only does Castro host an amazing Pride Parade, but the streets are full of rainbows: flags, stickers, and even zebra crossings–wait, rainbow street crossings.

Not only are Castro's residents colorful, but the variety of architecture it has makes it a true piece of eye candy. Victorian, Queen Anne, Gothic, Mission, and Tudor revival are just some of the architecture styles in the neighborhood that bring history to life.

Ample choice of bars and restaurants make the neighborhood's nightlife vibrant and help it score a perfect five on our books. However, don't start the night too early since things come alive later in the evenings. It also caters mostly to the LGBTQ+ crowd, so if you're looking for something else, Market Square is just around the corner.

In terms of things to do, you'll find the Castro Street History Walk, a series of twenty historical fact plaques about the neighborhood. There's also the GLBT Historical Society Museum, the Sparks art gallery, and the Rikki Streiter Field. That last one is named after a leader of San Francisco's LGBTQ+ movement that lived from 1922 to 1994.

Psst, a neighborhood's favorite is Hot Cookie, where they sell cookies and brownies by the pound! You're welcome, and you didn't hear it from us.

The neighborhood is fully walkable–getting a perfect score in Public Transit and Walkability– which is great because parking isn't great here. Average violent crime, but above Bay Area-average property crime gives it a 3/5 in our Safety score.

This neighborhood gets a three out of five in Schools because although there are good schools, there isn't that much variety unless you're willing to travel a bit further.

Additionally, if you're planning on bringing kids or having them soon, just be prepared for some interesting conversations early on in life–there's a wide variety of sex shops, drag queen bars, and nudists also walk freely through this neighborhood (they do cover their private parts).

Castro's Rankings:

Rankings: Weighted rankings were determined by scoring neighborhoods on a scale of 1-5 in the following categories, with 5 being the best.

• Affordability: 💸 💸 💸

• Beauty & Parks: 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳

• Nightlife & Entertainment: 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉

• Points of Interest: 📍📍📍📍

• Public Transit: 🚃 🚃 🚃 🚃 🚃

• Safety: ✅ ✅ ✅

• Schools: 🍎 🍎 🍎

• Shopping & Restaurants: 🛍 🛍 🛍 🛍 🛍

• Walkability:🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏽‍♀️

Perfect for young professionals wanting to live a true Bay Area lifestyle.

Here we are, at the top of the top! Marina and Cow Hollow are the best neighborhoods to live in San Francisco, according to our rankings. The area gets an almost perfect score through all categories and a 41 out of 50 overall. Not bad, Marina and Cow Hollow, not bad at all.

The Marina is located right on the waterfront, so the views here have no comparison, and Cow Hollow is just south of the Marina. Both are upscale, where people dress up and go out to hoity-toity bars and restaurants, but let this not scare you away. There are still some affordable places to live here–at least affordable for Bay Area standards.

The streets of Marina and Cow Hollow are scenic, not just for the expansive bay views, but thanks to the epic "Billionaires' Row" that hosts truly astonishing homes to keep you focussed on you.

The area is super walkable; you've got boutiques, restaurants, and bars, to city landmarks all within walking distance. Plus, commuting to other parts of the city is easy thanks to public transportation.

The area is packed with young people, but it isn't as hip and trendy as the Mission or Castro neighborhoods.

For the sporty folk, you're in luck. There are tons of yoga studios and gyms, as well as the Chrissy Field and Golden Gate Promenade, where you can go for a run along the water or just play fetch with your furry friends–and your dogs.

Thanks to its location, if you work or like to go to the North Bay, you'll have easy access to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Marina and Cow Hollow are truly great areas that showcase what's so good about living in the Bay Area: fantastic water views, unique attractions, and great people–it comes at a price, but we think it's well worth it.

Marina & Cow Hollow's Rankings:

Rankings: Weighted rankings were determined by scoring neighborhoods on a scale of 1-5 in the following categories, with 5 being the best.

• Affordability: 💸 💸

• Beauty & Parks: 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳

• Nightlife & Entertainment: 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉

• Points of Interest: 📍📍📍📍📍

• Public Transit: 🚃 🚃 🚃 🚃

• Safety: ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅

• Schools: 🍎 🍎 🍎 🍎

• Shopping & Restaurants: 🛍 🛍 🛍 🛍 🛍

• Walkability:🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏽‍♀️

Time to dive into the numbers of our top neighborhoods for the Bay Area, California. Let's get the bad news out of the way first, affordability isn't great, scoring an average 2.3 out of 5. It's hardly surprising, but if you're considering moving to San Francisco and the Bay Area, you'll need to prepare your wallet, legs, and try to get into that lucrative tech scene. Now that's out of the way, let's look at the highs. The Bay Area achieved an average of four or higher in its Walkability, Public Transit, Beauty and Parks, Shopping and Restaurants, and Points of Interest categories—scoring out of five it's amazing! The Bay Area averaged at 36.9/50 on our best neighborhoods to live in the USA ranking. Despite not being the most affordable place in the US, the Bay Area clearly has everything that you'll need, and if you work in any of the big tech companies, the investment might not be too bad to make. If you've ever wanted to live in one of the most iconic areas in the world, crave a booming job marketplace, and want to be at the center of innovation, then the Bay Area could be your next chapter.