Forest Hill Extension, San Francisco: Homes, History & Local Life

Forest Hill Extension is one of San Francisco’s quietest surprises: a 1910s-era planned “residence park” whose streets were laid out by the same landscape engineer who designed Forest Hill proper, yet whose smaller lots and slightly more modest homes have always made it the more accessible sibling. The neighborhood sits on the southeastern flank of a broad hillside between Dewey Boulevard and Laguna Honda Boulevard, and it shares the same Forest Hill Muni Metro station that its more famous neighbor donated 21 lots to secure, making it one of the best-connected car-free pockets on the west side of The City.

Is Forest Hill Extension right for you?

Forest Hill Extension draws buyers who want the quietude and green-street feel of a planned residence park without the full premium of Forest Hill or St. Francis Wood. Homes are single-family detached, lots are real, and the streets. Kensington Way, Vasquez Avenue, Garcia Avenue, Edgehill Way. are low-traffic and mostly owner-occupied. According to neighborhoods.com, the median sale price in Forest Hill Extension has been tracked around $2.1 million, with closed prices ranging from roughly $1.45 million to $3.55 million. The buyer pool here tends to be families and move-up buyers who want proximity to good public schools and the Muni Metro without paying the absolute top of the west-side market. Glen Park and West Portal are both reachable in under 15 minutes. If you need walkable retail out your front door, this isn’t that block. but if you want a house with a yard and a real street tree and a quick subway ride downtown, Forest Hill Extension makes a strong case.

How do you get around Forest Hill Extension?

The Forest Hill Muni Metro station (K Ingleside, L Taraval, M Ocean View) sits at the edge of the neighborhood at Laguna Honda Boulevard, one of the oldest subway stations west of Philadelphia, according to Wikipedia. Trains run weekdays from 5 a.m. to midnight and weekends from 5 a.m. to midnight per SFMTA. Downtown Civic Center is roughly 15 minutes by trai. The Financial District via the underground tunnel is under 20. Bus service is limited within the neighborhood itself: the 36 Teresita and connections along Laguna Honda Boulevard offer surface options, but most residents use the Metro station as their primary transit node.

Walk Score: 68. Transit Score: 72. Bike Score: 53. Source: walkscore.com, Forest Hill (the walkscore.com parent neighborhood).

There is no BART service in this neighborhood.

The terrain includes genuine hills, particularly toward Edgehill Way, making cycling a workout rather than a casual option.

For two-career households: one partner commuting to the Financial District can be downtown in under 20 minutes by Metro. A partner commuting to UCSF Parnassus can take the 44 O’Shaughnessy from Laguna Honda. A South Bay commute via Caltrain requires a bus or rideshare connection to a Caltrain station, adding meaningful time.

The history of Forest Hill Extension

Forest Hill Extension was platted in 1912 as part of the same grand residence park concept that gave rise to Forest Hill proper. Both were laid out by landscape engineer Mark R. Daniels, who designed the streets as a single composition: Forest Hill’s curvilinear roads on the northwest side of Dewey Boulevard, and the Extension’s more linear streets on the southeast side, according to the SF Office of Historic Preservation’s residence parks study. Construction began in the Extension on May 8, 1913. The land was formerly part of Adolph Sutro’s vast holdings, the same eucalyptus-planted hillside estate that underlies several west-side neighborhoods.

Ownership of the Extension parcels was held by J. H. Spring, Alfred Meyerstein, and C. S. Hawkins, with early marketing by O. A. Brown Building Company and Buckbee, Thorne & Co., per the same SF residence parks study. The Lang Realty Company, which had also developed Balboa Terrace, took over active building in the 1920s and constructed most of the homes standing today. Harold G. Stoner. the same architect who worked on Merced Manor and Lakeside. designed model homes for Lang’s marketing campaigns.

Like Forest Hill and other residence parks of the era, the Extension carried racially restrictive deed covenants excluding Japanese, Chinese, and Black residents. Those covenants became unenforceable after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1948 Shelley v. Kraemer ruling and are void.

The shared entrance to both Forest Hill and Forest Hill Extension, at Pacheco Street and Dewey Boulevard, features mirrored seat walls, a triangular planting bed, and a grand stair. a physical reminder that the two neighborhoods were conceived as one place, even if they’ve always had slightly different price points.

What does the housing look like in Forest Hill Extension?

Detached single-family homes make up virtually the entire neighborhood. The dominant styles are Craftsman bungalows (some dating to 1913-1920, like the documented example at 10 Edgehill Way, built 1923 per Flickr/sftrajan, stucco Mission Revival, and 1920s-30s Period Revival variants including Flemish cottages and Spanish Colonial. Lots are smaller than Forest Hill proper but still meaningful. typically large enough for a real rear yard. The SF residence parks study notes the Extension was designed with narrower streets divided into upper and lower lanes with medians on Kensington Way, Vasquez Avenue, and Garcia Avenue, a distinctive streetscape feature that gives the neighborhood a European boulevard quality.

Attached homes and flats are rare to nonexistent in the Extension’s core. The deed restrictions prohibited flats and apartments, and most of that original stock survives in single-family form. Some basement-level in-law units have been added over the decades, which is common across west-side neighborhoods.

Multi-unit buildings are absent from the residential core. The neighborhood’s edges near Laguna Honda Boulevard have a scattering of small apartment buildings from the mid-20th century, but the interior streets are overwhelmingly single-family. Recent sales tracked by neighborhoods.com show homes ranging from 1,010 to 3,528 square feet, built between 1915 and 1994. The Extension typically prices at a discount to Forest Hill proper, given smaller average lot and home sizes.

Where locals eat, drink, and shop in Forest Hill Extension

Forest Hill Extension has no commercial district within its boundaries. Daily commercial life runs primarily to the West Portal Avenue corridor a short walk or drive south.

West Portal Avenue holds a four-block strip with neighborhood Irish bars, Italian wine bars, Thai kitchens, bakeries, family Italian restaurants, and a long-running independent bookstore. Gold Mirror Italian Restaurant (1969) is the closest historic anchor. Most Forest Hill Extension households build their week around West Portal for daily-use dining and small retail, with longer drives reserved for the broader Inner Sunset or Stonestown options.

Forest Hill Extension Pros:

• Planned residence park streetscape with medians, mature trees, and low through-traffic
• Forest Hill Muni Metro station provides fast, reliable access to downtown and UCSF
• Predominantly single-family detached homes with real yards
• Bordering Glen Canyon Park and proximity to Twin Peaks open space
• Lower price point than Forest Hill proper while sharing the same transit access

Forest Hill Extension Cons:

• Limited walkable retail within the neighborhood itself
• Hilly terrain on the Edgehill side makes cycling difficult
• No BAR. A south Bay commute requires a connection to a Caltrain station
• Small neighborhood with a thin resale market. comparables can be limited
• Traffic on Laguna Honda Boulevard during commute hours

What’s the Forest Hill Extension market doing?

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Forest Hill Extension is a thin market. only a handful of homes sell in most years. which means single sales can move the numbers significantly in either direction. Reach out: luba(at)lubasf(dotted)com

Forest Hill Extension frequently asked questions

What is Forest Hill Extension like to live in?

Forest Hill Extension draws buyers who want the quietude and green-street feel of a planned residence park without the full premium of Forest Hill or St. Francis Wood. Homes are single-family detached, lots are real, and the streets.

Who is Forest Hill Extension right for?

Homes are single-family detached, lots are real, and the streets. Kensington Way, Vasquez Avenue, Garcia Avenue, Edgehill Way. are low-traffic and mostly owner-occupied. According to neighborhoods.com, the median sale price in Forest Hill Extension has been tracked around $2.1 million, with closed prices ranging from roughly $1.45 million to $3.55 million.

How do you get around Forest Hill Extension without a car?

Forest Hill Extension has a Walk Score of 68, Transit Score of 72, and Bike Score of 53. The Forest Hill Muni Metro station (K Ingleside, L Taraval, M Ocean View) sits at the edge of the neighborhood at Laguna Honda Boulevard, one of the oldest subway stations west of Philadelphia, according to Wikipedia. Trains run weekdays from 5 a.m. to midnight and weekends from 5 a.m.

What kind of homes are in Forest Hill Extension?

Detached single-family homes make up virtually the entire neighborhood. The dominant styles are Craftsman bungalows (some dating to 1913-1920, like the documented example at 10 Edgehill Way, built 1923 per Flickr/sftrajan, stucco Mission Revival, and 1920s-30s Period Revival variants including Flemish cottages and Spanish Colonial. Lots are smaller than Forest Hill proper but still meaningful. typically large enough for a real rear yard.

What’s one thing people don’t know about Forest Hill Extension?

Forest Hill Extension was platted in 1912 as part of the same grand residence park concept that gave rise to Forest Hill proper. Both were laid out by landscape engineer Mark R.