This weekend’s warmer weather made me wish I could turn on the air conditioning at times—but I don’t have AC. I started thinking about the time I hosted an open house circa 2003 in Noe Valley and meeting two buyers from San Diego. Their first question was whether the property had air conditioning. I smiled and told them that we didn’t typically need air conditioning in San Francisco due to the The Bay’s natural cooling system.
Flash forward to 2024, and that question doesn’t seem so humorous anymore. I think the 2020 summer from hell involving wildfire smoke and warm temperatures motivated homeowners to install AC. In general, our older houses and small condo buildings don’t often have central air. However, many large, newer construction buildings do—especially in Mission Bay, South Beach, South of Market/Yerba Buena, Financial District, the Mission and Hayes Valley. (That lovely unit shown above is 580 Hayes #406, which was constructed in 2018 and has central air. Photo courtesy Compass)
For the record, I did sell a house in Portola in 2017 that had air conditioning. And I showed a 1930s house in the Mission last week that also had it. I think it can be a useful perk, especially if you happen to be selling your house during a heat wave.