The San Francisco cottage where Gavin Newsom spent his early years has sold for $5.85 million, closing in just 14 days after hitting the market for $4.5 million. The two-bedroom, two-bath home at 1284 Stanyan St. sits on two parcels in Upper Cole Valley across from Sutro Forest, and it fetched multiple all-cash offers before the deal closed.
According to The San Francisco Standard, the sale price works out to more than $4,000 per square foot for a home measuring less than 1,500 square feet. That's more than double the property's 2019 sale price of $2.8 million, and nearly $2 million above what the seller paid in 2025, per the same report. The home was purchased by Neiman in 2019 and by McBride in 2025, according to the same report.
The property's two lots total nearly 10,000 square feet, the Standard reports — though a 2019 listing described the lot as having more than 10,000 square feet, according to SFGate. One parcel opens directly onto Belgrave Avenue, a street where a new home fetched $22 million in 2019, the Standard notes. The home itself includes a separate studio and a Japanese soaking tub, and a small finished cabin on the second parcel offers flex space as an artist studio, according to its Compass listing, which shows the sale closed on October 22.
A Family Home With Deep Roots
The Stanyan Street house was originally owned by Newsom's maternal grandfather, Arthur Menzies, who worked as a horticulturalist at the San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park and died in 1973 — a native plant garden there is named in his honor, per the Standard's report. Newsom lived in the home with his parents, sister, and the family's first pet, an otter named Potter, in the late 1960s; Newsom has recalled that Potter used to sleep curled up in his childhood bed.
Newsom's parents divorced in 1972, and public records preserved by the assessor-recorder's office show his mother sold the home that same year. The family that bought it from her lived there for more than four decades, adding redwood cladding harvested from Marin in 1979. The home dates to 1951, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, which also notes a 1967 election record listing Newsom's parents at the address around the time of his birth — though it remains unclear exactly how long Newsom himself lived there as an infant.
Dan Slaughter, who told SFGate in 2019 that a previous owner's son looked like a younger Gavin Newsom, recalled that Newsom's father, William Newsom, once told the family there must be something in the water. The current sale closed with Frank Nolan of Vanguard Properties representing the buyer, identified as the Sutro Trust; Nolan did not reply to a request for comment, the Standard reports.
Land Value Drove the Deal, Agent Says
Listing agent John DiDomenico of Compass said the Newsom connection initially drew attention, but land value and potential ultimately drove the property's price, according to the Standard's report. DiDomenico said San Francisco is at an all-time pricing high and that property values are likely to keep climbing in the coming months, per the same account.
The Stanyan Street sale lands amid a broader run-up in San Francisco home prices. A 65-foot-wide lot with approved plans sold for $5.75 million in April, the Standard notes, while a 617-square-foot cottage on Liberty Hill reportedly sold for $6 million — about $10,000 a square foot — according to the San Francisco Business Times. The outlet separately reported in April that the city's median house price had reached a record $2.15 million.
Newsom's Other Real Estate Moves
The sale comes as Newsom, who is completing his second term as governor, and his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom have been active in the real estate market themselves. The couple bought a $9 million home in Marin in 2024 and listed their home just outside Sacramento, in Fair Oaks, for $7.5 million in August. That Fair Oaks property remains on the market and would set a neighborhood record if it sells for close to its asking price.
