San Francisco, California, USA

It’s easy to leave your heart in San Francisco. With the city’s iconic cable cars clanging along its rolling hills, San Francisco is a sophisticated sensory assault of sights and sounds.

Opera buffs can delight in world-class performances at the San Francisco Opera while art lovers have the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the de Young, for starters. Whatever one’s ethnicity, background or gender preferences, San Francisco has a museum devoted to it, with local institutions artfully conveying the history and culture of Jewish, Mexican, Indian, African, Asian, Italian and GLBT life. And, yes, there’s even a museum devoted to the cable car.

For sheer kickback from city life, Golden Gate Park offers everything from rugby to archery and Koret Children’s Quarter for family fun. Every path in the park leads to a photo op, the Pacific Ocean foremost among them.

San Francisco is a city of neighborhoods with top-rated public, charter, private and parochial schools and a pedestrian-friendly retail landscape that boasts everything from haute couture to haute cuisine. The Bay Area, one of the country’s largest metro regions, has some of the highest income levels in California. Against this backdrop, magnificent residences make for living luxuriously in San Francisco.

Among the city’s most exclusive neighborhoods are Presidio Heights, Russian Hill (known worldwide for Lombard Street, the “crookedest street in the world”) and Pacific Heights, where breathtaking mansions contribute to its status symbol appeal. Eight-figure price tags are not uncommon for estates here, especially those with views stretching from the Golden Gate Bridge to Alcatraz to the East Bay Hills. Nearby, sprawling Mediterranean-styled villas characterize Sea Cliff, a small, affluent community perched above the Pacific.

A strengthening economy, increased consumer confidence and diminishing housing inventory makes San Francisco one of the healthiest housing markets in the U.S.