Serramonte

Serramonte is not known for much. In fact, it is a model of middle-class transparency. The district is located directly south of San Francisco and within the lessor known Daly City. It is also situated along the San Francisco peninsula, with close proximity to both the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay. However, the area is regularly foggy with misty (seaside) mornings.

Serramonte’s residential area is made up of little boxes on a hillside. Each house, for the exception of small house front designs here and there, is exactly the same as the one sitting directly next to it. They are typically boxy, well-groomed, two-story residences that sit on small, thin properties. Houses are clustered together in tight rows, situated on long, newly-paved streets that curve around the hillside. At the peak of some hills, you can get a panoramic views of the surrounding Daly City. And for nicer homes, they are predominately grouped around Callan Boulevard and towards the southwestern portion of the neighborhood.

Serramonte Shopping Center is one of Daly City’s largest commercial areas. It is located on the southern edge of the neighborhood and boasts everything from large department stores (like Target and JC Penney) to a couple smaller boutique stores. For your dining options, the shopping quarters also provides a couple chain restaurants and fast food joints (the typical commercial facilities you’d expect in a bland middle-class mall).

For commuters, residents typically take Interstate 280, which reaches up into busy downtown San Francisco. Other options include Daly City Bart and Colma Bart Station, which are both nestled at the north and south corners of Serramonte respectively. The neighborhood is also adjacent to a plethora of cemeteries in Colma. The district is eerily called “the city of the silent” because the number of dead drastically outweigh the number of the living.

If you like to shop until you drop, then you have definitely found heaven. Or at least a place to house your earthly remains after your orgy of materialism. With Colma’s graveyards just next door this is one neighborhood that can really offer you complete cradle to grave services.

All joking aside, Serramonte and its eponymous mall, has definitely become a destination for south SF residents looking for some retail therapy and good deals. The large suburban style mall has everything from a JC Penny and Macy’s to staple mall restaurants like the Elephant Bar and Outback Steakhouse. If you are into the big mall experience like it is 1985—then welcome to the Serramonte Center.

Serramonte is not just the mall, however. You may not know that the Chinese Cemetery, for example, is actually in Serramonte and not Colma.

Serramonte also has a fairly big residential area just to the south of the Serramonte Center. The area—filled with fairly nice boxy homes with ground floor garages and second story bay windows—has been really hit hard by the Foreclosure Crisis. Four of five homes in Serramonte are on the market due to foreclosure right now. (That might actually be a conservative estimate.)

The homes here are actually fairly nice—not jawdropping, but very solid for the most part. The majority date from the 1970’s and you can also find a number of condos up on the northeastern end of the neighborhood. With the median price being around $425K, they are relatively reasonably priced as well.

One of the benefits of this section of Daly City as well is that nearby El Camino High School is a really strong school with above average academics and programs. (Though you will want to make sure this will be the school your kids attend and not Daly City’s Jefferson High School whi is pretty terrible academically. )

Overall, this is probably the most family friendly neighborhood in Daly City.