Condo vs House vs TIC vs Co-op vs BMR in San Francisco

Decide what you are buying before you decide where. In San Francisco the ownership type, not the floor plan, determines which lenders will finance you, what insurance you can get, how much control you have and how fast you can sell. A buyer with a conforming pre-approval who falls for a TIC or a non-warrantable condo has a deal that dies in underwriting.

Single-family homes: control and full responsibility

You own the land, the building and every problem in it. No HOA, no dues, no votes, and the widest pool of lenders and insurers. In exchange you carry the roof, the foundation, the sewer lateral and the seismic work alone, and in SF the building is often a century old. The median detached house has been running around $1.9 million (early-2026 monthly medians; check current figures), so most house buyers are also jumbo borrowers; see conforming vs jumbo.

Single-family homes are exempt from SF's rent increase limits under the state Costa-Hawkins Act, but SF's just-cause eviction rules still apply to a tenant living in one, which matters if you buy a house with a tenant in place.

Condos: shared walls, shared budget, lender rules you do not control

A condo gives you your own parcel plus a share of the common areas, governed by an HOA that sets dues, maintains the building, carries the master insurance and votes on special assessments. You get one vote.

The lender issue is warrantability. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will only buy loans on projects that pass their rules, and the common fails are:

• Pending litigation involving the HOA (narrow exceptions for minor, non-monetary disputes)
• Commercial space over roughly 35% of the project
• One entity owning more than a couple of units in a small project or more than 20% of a larger one
• Significant deferred maintenance or unsafe conditions, rules tightened after the 2021 Surfside collapse
• A budget that puts less than 10% of assessment income into reserves
• Special assessments without documentation that the project stays solvent

Owner-occupancy ratios matter more to investors and some jumbo lenders than to a primary-residence conforming loan. A non-warrantable condo is financeable through a portfolio lender at a higher rate and larger down payment; the point is to know which you are buying before offer day. How to read HOA documents covers the numbers.

TICs: one title, many owners, a discount for a reason

A tenancy in common is a building where several owners hold undivided percentage interests in a single title, and a recorded TIC agreement assigns each owner the exclusive right to occupy a specific unit. Most SF TICs are converted Victorian and Edwardian flats in Districts 5, 6, 7 and 9.

Financing is the defining constraint. Modern TICs use fractional loans: each owner has a separate note secured only by their own interest, so a co-owner's default does not foreclose on you. But fractional loans come from a handful of local portfolio lenders, carry a rate premium over conventional loans that local guides have put at roughly half a point to a point and a quarter (check current quotes), and have no conforming, FHA or VA equivalent. The TIC agreement governs everything from who pays for the roof to what happens if a co-owner stops paying, which is why you need a TIC attorney and a fractional lender on your team early.

Because of all this, TICs trade below comparable condos; local guides commonly cite 10% to 20%. Conversion to condos is tightly restricted in SF, and units legalized under the city's unit legalization program cannot convert at all, so treat conversion as upside rather than the plan. TIC conversion and ADUs covers the rules after you own.

Co-ops: shares, a board and a short list of lenders

In a housing cooperative you own shares in a corporation that owns the building and hold a proprietary lease on your unit. The board can interview and reject buyers, limit financing and restrict subletting, and only a small number of lenders write share loans. SF co-ops are concentrated in older buildings on Nob Hill, Russian Hill and Pacific Heights and sell at a discount to condos for the same liquidity reasons TICs do.

BMR units: an affordable price with lifetime strings

The Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development sells below-market-rate units through a lottery to households that meet income limits, counted against the area median income tier assigned to the unit and adjusted for liquid assets. You must be a first-time buyer, meaning no ownership interest in residential property in the last three years, and complete homebuyer education.

The restrictions last for the life of the property: MOHCD sets your resale price, you must buy and refinance through a MOHCD-approved lender, you cannot layer the BMR restriction into the resale price, and the unit is meant to be your home. MOHCD has issued temporary waivers on resale eligibility: an August 2024 announcement let resale applicants qualify with income up to 20% above the unit's AMI tier as a one-time waiver that does not carry to future sales, and those adjustments were set to lapse on June 30, 2025 unless extended, so as of 2026-10-25 check the current rules. BMR units carry full HOA dues, which can be a large share of your monthly cost. SF and California assistance programs covers the lottery and the down payment help that can stack with it.

Two-to-four unit buildings: owner-occupant plus landlord

Buying a duplex, triplex or fourplex and living in one unit became far more accessible when Fannie Mae cut the minimum down payment for owner-occupied 2-4 unit homes to 5% in November 2023, from 15% for two units and 25% for three and four (high-balance and manually underwritten loans are excluded). Rental income can help you qualify.

The trade is that you become an SF landlord on day one. Buildings with a certificate of occupancy before June 13, 1979 are under rent control, and since 2020 just-cause eviction protections cover every rental unit in the city regardless of age. Pre-1978 wood-frame buildings with five or more units and three or more stories (or two over a basement) also fall inside the mandatory soft-story retrofit program. Before you offer on anything with a tenant, read buying a tenant-occupied home.

New construction, lofts and live-work

New towers in SoMa, Mission Bay and Dogpatch come with warranties, modern seismic design, the highest dues per square foot and real construction-defect litigation risk in their first decade. Older live-work lofts carry zoning quirks: some were permitted with occupancy conditions that affect financing and resale, so get the permit history and have your lender confirm project eligibility before you write.

Comparison and decision guide

A simple decision path:

• Need maximum control and plan to hold ten-plus years: single-family, budget permitting.
• Want central, newer, lower maintenance: a warrantable condo, after a full HOA review.
• Priced out of condos in the neighborhood you want, and comfortable with a long hold and co-owners: a TIC with an attorney-reviewed agreement.
• Income-qualified and planning to stay: enter the BMR lottery while continuing a market search.
• Comfortable being a landlord and want rent to carry the mortgage: a 2-4 unit building, tenant situation fully vetted.

Whatever you choose, check what that type actually sells for on your target blocks with the comps tool; the discount between types is visible in closed sales. If you later work with one of this site's agents, the buyer-side commission is how the site is paid; this comparison is the same either way.