South San Francisco, CA Townhome for Sale

South San Francisco is a dense Peninsula suburb where midcentury homes, landscaped lawns and a cozy downtown district skirt the edge of San Bruno Mountain and the San Francisco Bay. And while it may feel small compared to its northern neighbor, it’s home to some of the world’s biggest biotech companies, including the corporate headquarters of Genentech. “Biotech has been a big boost to the city and its real estate values. It’s also enabled the city to improve its downtown, build new parks and invest in city amenities,” says Realtor Stephen Marshall of Christies International Real Estate, who lives in nearby San Bruno. The city has come a long way from its founding era. For much of the 20th century, it was known as the “Smokestack capital of the Peninsula” and “The Industrial City” because of its many factories, shipbuilders and manufacturing plants. That began to change in the 1970s and 80s as factories were replaced by major biotech companies like Genentech, Amgen, Exelixis and many others. So robust is this high-tech industry that the city bills itself “the birthplace of biotechnology.” These tech juggernauts are the city’s largest employers, but it still feels like a small