How Hosting the Super Bowl Reflects San Francisco’s Architectural Revitalization
Since i Seattle Seahawks be prepared to face off against The New England Patriots on Sunday, Super Bowl LX host city San Francisco is preparing to showcase its latest revitalization after years of facing major economic and quality of life challenges.
Since he took office a year ago, the Mayor Daniel Lurie he was busy cleaning up the city, from dispersing the homeless to fighting drug use and car break-ins.
An estimated 1.3 million travelers are expected to pass through San Francisco International Airport on Feb. 10, with as many as 90,000 visitors attending Super Bowl-related events, giving Lurie, a tough-on-crime Democrat, an opportunity to present the city’s revitalized image to a global audience.
“With the eyes of San Francisco, I hope that we will deliver a fun and safe week for our residents and visitors,” Lurie said in a press conference at the beginning of Super Bowl week on Monday. “San Francisco is in the middle of nowhere, and I couldn’t be happier.”
By 2025, overall crime in San Francisco is down 30 percent citywide and 40 percent downtown, violent crime down 22 percent and car break-ins down 22 percent, according to Lurie’s administration.
San Francisco’s homelessness crisis, which has made the city a national symbol of failed progressive policies for critics, has also begun to decline.
According to the latest data from the Department of Emergency Management released this summer, there were 165 tents across the city, down 85% from 1,108 in 2020.
At the same time, fatal drug overdoses have been on the decline. By the end of 2025, 621 accidental overdose deaths were recorded in the “Golden City,” down from a record 810 in 2023.
San Francisco’s AI-fueled boom
Now, the city is ready to show the country and the world how far it has come.
“San Francisco knows this is their chance to change the narrative,” the real estate agent John Solaeguiwith Compass, tells Realtor.com®.
The change began with the election of Lurie, whom Solaegui described as the “party leader” of the city.
Although San Francisco’s renaissance is still in its early stages, businesses, professionals, and real estate buyers have begun to take notice, giving the local real estate market a welcome boost fueled by Silicon Valley’s artificial intelligence boom.
“The vibe has completely changed in San Francisco in the last year or so,” Solaegui said. “And then lately, the market has shifted into high gear. And the general line is that AI money is in full swing in San Francisco.”
The agent explains that at the beginning of last fall, the founders and employees of AI companies have started buying, taking houses and condos all over the city, which shows the renewed confidence in San Francisco.
“The biggest driver in our recovery market right now is that there are more buyers,” Solaegui said. “There are just more buyers than homes for sale, so there’s an imbalance there.”
How the San Francisco housing market has changed
The latest housing data analyzed by Realtor.com researchers confirms the agent’s observation: Although housing prices have softened throughout the San Francisco metro, the pace of sales has risen, listings spend less time on the market in December than last year and inventory is solid—signs of growing demand.
“Nearly all mid-sized ZIP codes with adequate data show lower inventory levels compared to last year, just as prices have fallen significantly, which is likely helping to bring buyers back into the market,” said Realtor.com’s chief economic analyst. Hannah Jones.
However, two ZIP codes—94105, which includes parts of the expensive financial district and South of Market (SoMa), and 94133, which includes popular parts of North Beach, Chinatown, and Telegraph Hill—stand out, posting annual price gains of more than 50%.
For example, in December, the average home for sale in the 94133 ZIP code was listed for about $3.5 million, up from $2.3 million a year ago.
“In these areas, listing prices per square foot also rose significantly, up 24.9% in 94105 and 14.3% in 94133, making them notable sellers amid the price softening in central San Francisco,” Jones said.
The median home listing price for the greater San Francisco metropolitan area stood at $872,000 in December, down 2% from a year ago, according to the latest monthly housing market report from Realtor.com.
Solaegui advises clients looking to buy in San Francisco to be fully prepared and have their finances in place, as homes move quickly and bidding wars are common—especially for trophy properties.
The agent’s client list includes not only buyers from the US, but also from all over the world looking to buy real estate in San Francisco this year.
“I have many clients who were born in other countries who came here to start a new company or to make a new life,” he said.
“San Francisco attracts a special kind of person,” he adds. “It attracts people who are strong and creative and willing to take risks.”
The new mayor fights crime
Lurie, a 48-year-old political newcomer and heir to the Levi Strauss clothing fortune, defeated the incumbent.London Breedone of the Democratic Alliance, in November 2024 after making crime reduction and renewal the focus of his campaign.
In a recent interview on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” Lurie said his administration is committed to refocusing government on basics and common sense, with public safety at the center.
“Nowadays, if you come to San Francisco to commit a crime, we will arrest you and we will prosecute you,” said Lurie. “If you come to San Francisco to sell drugs or to do drugs, we will prosecute you.”
Solaegui says the mayor’s strategy has paid off.
“Safety is the basis for anyone who chooses a place to live and a home,” he said. “They want to make sure that their family and their friends are safe.”
The agent points out, however, that past media portrayals of San Francisco as a lawless city full of hypodermic needles were inaccurate.
“San Francisco is a collection of neighborhoods, and there are some neighborhoods that have those problems, but there are a lot of neighborhoods where the average person lives that is safe, even during the worst of the news that we’ve had,” Solaegui said. “When people hear the story that the roads are not safe, they believe it and may hesitate to buy a house.”
Lurie has worked to combat that perception with daily social media posts promoting San Francisco, even as he acknowledges challenges remain.
“I will not sit here and say that you cannot go down a few of our streets and see some of the things you saw a few years ago, but we have been very successful,” he said in an interview.
As part of his approach to improving city life, Lurie also focused on getting rid of outdated or ineffective laws that have long angered San Franciscans.
It’s been a year since he took office as mayor, Lurie has repealed the law that says homeowners must build a screen or fence to protect neighbors if they want to park their car there, the New York Times reported.
Another city ordinance dropped under Lurie’s leadership in response to business complaints required restaurant owners wishing to use candles in their restaurants to go to the city’s permit office, candle in hand, light it, and wave a napkin over it to prove it won’t burn.
In the grand scheme of things, both are small fixes, but for Lurie, the small, everyday details add up—and can make a real difference in voters’ lives.
