SF Condo Prices Jump 23% as 15 Romolo and Levain Bakery Expand

San Francisco’s condominium market posted a 23% year-over-year surge in median prices in September—with 66% of units selling above asking price—amid a busy Tuesday of Bay Area real estate, culinary, cultural, and Peninsula city council developments reported by Hoodline, KTVU FOX 2, and The Almanac.

San Francisco Condo Median Prices Rise 23% as Nob Hill Full-Floor Unit Lists for $5 Million

According to a Compass market report cited by Hoodline, San Francisco’s September condo median price jump of 23% year-over-year was accompanied by a 27-percentage-point increase in the share of condos selling over list price, reaching 66%. That followed an August in which closed condo sales rose 11% year-over-year to 214, median price climbed 22% to $1.23 million, and active listings fell 36%. In the single-family segment, 92% of San Francisco homes sold above asking price in September, with a 14.9% year-over-year median sale price increase over the three months ending in September.

Rising rents and an influx of artificial intelligence workers have pushed more buyers toward larger condominiums, highlighted by a full-floor, 2,400-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bathroom residence on the 22nd story of the 42-unit 1963 high-rise at 10 Miller Place on Nob Hill, which hit the market at $5 million after last selling for $4.5 million in 2022.

North Beach’s 15 Romolo Reopens After 27 Months; Levain Bakery Heads to Santana Row

In hospitality and dining news on both ends of the bay:

• 15 Romolo in North Beach (Hoodline): Closed since August 2024 for plumbing and electrical upgrades inside its 114-year-old building at 15 Romolo Place off Broadway, the 65-seat bar founded in 1998 by Jon Gasparini and Greg Lindgren in a former Basque Hotel restaurant space is preparing to reopen in mid-November. Owners Jon and Kelly Anne Gasparini have added air conditioning, roomy rounded booths seating up to seven people, and a 1951 Seeburg jukebox spinning Blondie, Otis Redding, and Patsy Cline, while their 24-year-old son, Giovanni Gasparini, takes over the kitchen with a Basque-inspired menu alongside classic base cocktails.
• Levain Bakery at Santana Row (KTVU FOX 2): Founded in 1995 on Manhattan’s West 74th Street by triathletes and bakers Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald, New York City’s Levain Bakery announced it will open its first Northern California shop next summer at Santana Row in San Jose, bringing its signature 6-ounce crispy-outside, gooey-center chocolate chip walnut and coconut caramel cookies to the Bay Area.
• Taylor Mac’s Bark of Millions (Hoodline): Pulitzer Prize nominee and MacArthur Fellow Taylor Mac is returning to the Bay Area for two performances of Bark of Millions—the queer-history rock opera created with composer Matt Ray and costume designer Machine Dazzle that previously played UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall in February 2024—accompanied by a new two-volume book, Bark of Millions: Queer Songs for the Living Library of the Deviant Theme, published Sept. 29, 2026, by Black Dog & Leventhal.

Menlo Park Weighs $19M–$45M Housing Subsidy Gap and Palo Alto Approves Creek Fencing Carve-Out

On the Peninsula, city councils in Menlo Park and Palo Alto grappled with major land-use decisions:

• Menlo Park Downtown Affordable Housing (The Almanac): Ahead of the Nov. 3 vote on Measure P—which would require voter approval to redevelop downtown parking lots—an independent financial analysis by Strategic Economics found that three developer proposals to build at least 345 affordable housing units (for households earning 15% to 80% of area median income) and 556 replacement public parking spaces across three city parking lots under a 55-year, $1-a-year ground lease face a funding gap of $19 million to $45 million (nearly $20 million for Alliant, more than $19 million for Related California/Alta Housing, and $45 million for Presidio Bay). Mayor Betsy Nash and Councilmembers Drew Combs, Jennifer Wise, Cecilia Taylor, and Jeff Schmidt debated potential funding tools including paid downtown parking, a parking benefit district, an enhanced infrastructure financing district, a sales tax or general obligation bond, or a storefront vacancy tax.
• Palo Alto Stream-Protection Ordinance (Hoodline): The Palo Alto City Council approved an updated San Francisquito Creek stream-protection ordinance that establishes 150-foot setbacks in newly defined foothills and baylands subareas, retains a 25-foot central-subarea setback for residential-estate properties between Foothill Expressway and Highway 101, clarifies rules for properties separated by a floodwall (such as Silicon Valley International School, represented by Mindie Romanowsky), and grants Edgewood Drive homeowners an exception to build fences up to the creek bank—reversing a five-foot setback rule after Edgewood Neighborhood Alliance representative Daniel Hansen cited years of trespassing and encampment concerns.