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Movie stars show off their glamorous mansions in Beverly Hills and Malibu, but many of the Golden State’s most opulent residences are in the San Francisco Bay Area. A diverse housing inventory—elegant townhomes in cosmopolitan neighborhoods, magnificent waterfront estates, and splendid wine country villas—accommodates a wide range of lifestyles.

At press time, there were approximately 600 homes priced at more than $3 million in the Bay Area (including Napa Valley, but excluding San Jose). 52 properties were priced in excess of $10 million, including a 20,600-square foot villa in San Francisco’s exclusive Pacific Heights neighborhood, listed at $65 million.

TRI Coldwell Banker’s Malin Giddings, who specializes in the tony San Francisco neighborhoods of Pacific Heights, Presidio Heights and Russian Hill, acknowledges significant price declines, but reports the entry point for a single-family home with no views and some required maintenance is still about $3.5 million. “For a recently renovated home in a beautiful location, you should expect to spend $6-8 million,” she says, noting those properties offer at least 6,000 square feet, but still no views. Showcasing spectacular Golden Gate vistas, however, is a full-floor co-op listed at $8.5 million, which Giddings considers the finest on the West Coast. Such premier properties are still scarce, but more available than at the height of the market. “San Francisco has declined less than other cities, and we still have unbelievable demand…We’ll come back first,” insists Giddings.

Olivia Hsu Decker, of Decker Bullock Sotheby’s International Realty, reports a significant increase in sales since June 2009 and believes 2010 could be a year of recovery. Her firm dominates the $5 million-plus market in Marin County, where the communities of Tiburon and Belvedere (just north of the Golden Gate Bridge) are among the most coveted. One of Hsu Decker’s listings, a spectacular Belvedere estate, is priced to sell at $48 million after a reduction from $65 million. That kind of price-slashing is an anomaly, however, and she reports that some $10 million properties in San Francisco have been selling at or above asking price. “Buyers know they’re in the driver’s seat and are shopping longer than in the past,” observes Hsu Decker, adding, “The majority of my work is to bridge the big gap between the buyer’s offering price and the seller’s unrealistic expectations.”

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