Business Survivability in Fairfax, San Francisco
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Fairfax is a Veterinary Clinic with a 74.4% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.
Quick Summary
- Survivability Score: the projected chance a business type lasts two or more years at a specific address
- Best business: a Veterinary Clinic in Fairfax (74.4% average survival rate, 90.0% at best locations)
- Town rank: #4 of 6 towns around San Francisco
- Town average: an average Survivability Score of 66.3% across the business types ranked here
- Coverage: This ranking carries one row per business type and neighborhood. Its score is the projected chance of lasting two or more years, averaged across the price points StreetSpring scores separately in the tool (most types have 5). The 10 business types here are base types; the tool offers 500+ business types, counting each type at each of its price points.
- Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data
- Detailed methodology
Last reviewed: October 2026 by Robert Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring
In this article:
- Summary
- Is Fairfax a good place to start a business?
- How to find the best location
- Best businesses to open
- How much money could a business make?
- What businesses should open next?
- Frequently Asked Questions
Summary
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Fairfax is a Veterinary Clinic with a 74.4% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a 90.0% chance; next is a Chiropractor Office with a 73.6% chance, followed by a Clothing Store with a 70.0% chance.
Is Fairfax a good place to start a business?
StreetSpring ranks Fairfax #4 of 6 towns around San Francisco, with an average Survivability Score of 66.3% across the business types ranked there.
- The gap between the best addresses and the average for the top-ranked business type in Fairfax is 15.6 points on the two-year chance.
- That said, the same business types at the worst-fit addresses in Fairfax can drop substantially below average. The survivability gap between the best and worst addresses in a single neighborhood can be 20 points or more.
- The 5.5% housing vacancy rate in Fairfax comes from the Census American Community Survey and describes homes and apartments, not shops or offices.
Employment and housing vacancy figures sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey.
How can you find the best location to open a business in Fairfax?
StreetSpring's Fairfax data goes block by block (not just neighborhood averages) so you know which specific storefront gives your concept the strongest foundation. Here is the top survivability address for a Veterinary Clinic in Fairfax, per StreetSpring's 2026 model:
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis of hundreds of location-specific factors, this area offers the highest projected survivability for a Veterinary Clinic in Fairfax. Even the best-ranked neighborhoods contain locations that underperform, and the worst-ranked ones have hidden gems. Factors evaluated include competition at every distance band, consumer spending forecasts, mobility patterns, and market share projections.
Check if this location is still available →
What are the best businesses to open in Fairfax?
| # | Business type | Chance of lasting two or more years at a good address |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Veterinary Clinic | 89.6% |
| 2 | Chiropractor Office | 88.7% |
| 3 | Clothing Store | 84.1% |
| 4 | Convenience Store | 83.6% |
| 5 | Hair Salon | 83.6% |
| 6 | Coffee Shop | 83.6% |
| 7 | Spa | 83.6% |
| 8 | Bar | 83.1% |
| 9 | Laundromat | 83.1% |
| 10 | Gym | 83.1% |
Ties at a good address: Convenience Store, Hair Salon, Coffee Shop and Spa are tied; Bar, Laundromat and Gym are tied. A tie is a tie: the rank column is the published file's order, which looks at the average and the best address next.
Highest Survivability in Fairfax
- #1 Veterinary Clinic is ranked #1 for top businesses to open in Fairfax: 74.4% chance on average, best at 90.0%, challenging at 59.8%.
- #2 Chiropractor Office: 73.6% on average across Fairfax; best at 89.6%, challenging at 59.4%.
- #3 Opening a Clothing Store in Fairfax shows 70.0% average survivability. Top locations reach 85.0%; lower-end sites show 51.7%.
- #4 Convenience Store (Ranked #4): 71.9% average in Fairfax. Best-case storefronts: 84.6%. Challenging locations: 52.2%.
- #5 Hair Salon is ranked #5 for top businesses to open in Fairfax: 71.4% chance on average, best at 84.0%, challenging at 53.8%.
Strong Performers in Fairfax
- #6 Coffee Shop: 70.6% on average across Fairfax; best at 83.6%, challenging at 53.0%.
- #7 Opening a Spa in Fairfax shows 67.0% average survivability. Top locations reach 84.0%; lower-end sites show 50.7%.
- #8 Bar (Ranked #8): 70.4% average in Fairfax. Best-case storefronts: 83.6%. Challenging locations: 52.5%.
- #9 Laundromat is ranked #9 for top businesses to open in Fairfax: 69.4% chance on average, best at 84.0%, challenging at 52.0%.
- #10 Gym: 63.2% on average across Fairfax; best at 83.1%, challenging at 49.8%.
Top 3 Compared Nationally
- Veterinary Clinic: See how this compares to other cities →
- Chiropractor Office: See how this compares to other cities →
- Clothing Store: See how this compares to other cities →
How much money could a business in Fairfax make?
Best location vs. average location
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, identifying the optimal address for your business type in Fairfax starts with the Revenue Capture Score, the most important factor in choosing a location: StreetSpring's estimate of the revenue a business can capture at that address.
How StreetSpring calculates location value
- StreetSpring calculates survivability for each business type separately at each address, so the best location for your concept may differ from the neighborhood's overall top-ranked site.
- Location is the part of a new business you can compare address by address before committing.
- When the question is money, the Revenue Capture Score comes first: it is StreetSpring's estimate of the revenue a business can capture at a specific address.
- StreetSpring's precision goes beyond the neighborhood: it scores survivability at the exact address for every major brick-and-mortar business category.
What businesses should open next in Fairfax?
The top businesses to open next in Fairfax:
- Veterinary Clinics: 74.4% average survival rate, 90.0% at the best address
- Chiropractor Offices: 73.6% average survival rate
- Clothing Stores: 70.0% average survival rate
Even the best-ranked neighborhoods contain locations that underperform, and the worst-ranked ones have hidden gems. Our models are built using machine learning trained on millions of commercial real estate data points. StreetSpring scores 500+ business types: 153 base business types, most of them at 5 price points, which is 569 type-and-price combinations you can choose in the tool. The 5.5% housing vacancy rate in Fairfax describes the neighborhood as a whole; survivability still depends heavily on choosing the right address within it. These rankings are a snapshot; StreetSpring regularly recalculates survivability for every location in Fairfax, incorporating the latest competitive openings, closures, and spending data: check current locations now.
See the Survivability Score for your new business
Related Articles:
- See the San Francisco Business Survivability Rankings
- See the San Francisco Neighborhood Survivability Rankings
- Explore Veterinary Clinic survivability across San Francisco neighborhoods
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the most common questions about opening a business in Fairfax.
What type of business should you rent your Fairfax storefront to?
Our 2026 survivability data for Fairfax shows that Veterinary Clinics, Chiropractor Offices, and Clothing Stores rank as the top tenant categories for minimizing vacancy risk.
- Location is the part of a new business you can compare address by address before committing.
- StreetSpring's precision goes beyond the neighborhood: it scores survivability at the exact address for every major brick-and-mortar business category. Landlords can use StreetSpring to match their exact address to the tenant types most likely to stay open and paying rent for two or more years.
Related: See How Landlord Representatives in San Francisco Can Reduce Vacancy & Increase Tenant Longevity
Should you rent your Fairfax storefront to a Veterinary Clinic?
StreetSpring's data confirms a Veterinary Clinic as the highest-survivability tenant type for Fairfax. The best addresses show a 90.0% chance of lasting more than 2 years; less optimal addresses score around 59.8%.
- StreetSpring's precision goes beyond the neighborhood: it scores survivability at the exact address for every major brick-and-mortar business category.
What should I consider when opening a business in Fairfax?
In Fairfax, the first step in your site-selection decision is checking the Survivability Score of the specific address you're evaluating.
- Revenue Capture Score is the top factor to weigh before signing a lease, because it measures how much of the local customer spending a business at that address can win.
- StreetSpring's proprietary algorithms power these predictions.
- Start with a free 10-minute trial: check the current survivability score for any Fairfax address on StreetSpring.
See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.
StreetSpring's AI platform has analyzed thousands of business openings to identify success patterns. Aggregated survivability rankings for San Francisco are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.
Full dataset for San Francisco: /resources/data/san-francisco-survivability-scores-2026.csv: includes all business subtypes, all neighborhoods, survivability scores, and tier assignments. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.