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% Typical, 81.4% Best)
- Town rank: #3 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: November 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, and 81.4% Best; next is a Chiropractor Office with 80.4% Best, followed by a Convenience Store with 78.7% Best.
Is Fairfax a good place to start a business?
Fairfax is ranked number 3 of 6 towns around San Francisco to start a business, with an average 66.3% chance of lasting two or more years across the business types ranked there.
- For the top-ranked business type, 81.4% Best is 7.0 points above 74.4% Typical in Fairfax.
- Still, those same business types at weaker addresses in Fairfax can score well below the neighborhood mean. Even the most viable concept here requires the right address to reach its potential.
- Housing vacancy in Fairfax sits at 5.5%, a Census figure that StreetSpring's model reads for every business type it scores here.
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?
With StreetSpring, location selection in Fairfax moves from guesswork to a precise, address-level survivability score for any business type you're considering. The map below highlights the highest-survivability address for a Veterinary Clinic in Fairfax:
The highlighted area represents the address in Fairfax that StreetSpring's 2026 analysis ranks highest for a Veterinary Clinic survivability. For the most current predictions, visit StreetSpring to analyze your specific location in real-time. StreetSpring's scoring incorporates hundreds of inputs, including competitive quality and density, projected consumer spending, Revenue Capture Score, and local demand patterns.
Check if this location is still available →
What are the best businesses to open in Fairfax?
| Rank | Business type | Best | Typical | Worst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Veterinary Clinic | 81.4% | 74.4% | 67.3% |
| 2 | Chiropractor Office | 80.4% | 73.6% | 66.9% |
| 3 | Convenience Store | 78.7% | 71.9% | 65.0% |
| 4 | Hair Salon | 77.9% | 71.4% | 64.9% |
| 5 | Clothing Store | 77.6% | 70.0% | 62.4% |
| 6 | Bar | 77.4% | 70.4% | 63.5% |
| 7 | Eye Care Center | 77.4% | 70.9% | 64.5% |
| 8 | Coffee Shop | 77.1% | 70.6% | 64.1% |
| 9 | Cafe | 77.0% | 70.3% | 63.5% |
| 11 | Day Care Center | 75.5% | 68.3% | 61.1% |
Best and Worst are the average results for the better and the worse of two addresses picked at random in the place: a weighted average of every scored location in which the best locations count the most for Best and the weakest count the most for Worst. Typical is the average address. Best is shown for a smaller space (half the standard size) and Worst for a larger one (half again as large), at the metro's median asking rent, using the same rent rule as our tool; Typical is at the market rent.
The rank column is the published file's rank within this place; a skipped number is a business type the file ranks here that this list leaves out to keep any one business family from filling it.
Highest Survivability in Fairfax
- #1 Veterinary Clinic: 74.4% Typical across Fairfax; Best 81.4%, Worst 67.3%.
- #2 Opening a Chiropractor Office in Fairfax shows 73.6% Typical survivability, 80.4% Best and 66.9% Worst.
- #3 Convenience Store (Ranked #3): 71.9% Typical in Fairfax. Best: 78.7%. Worst: 65.0%.
- #4 Hair Salon is ranked #4 for top businesses to open in Fairfax: 71.4% Typical, 77.9% Best, 64.9% Worst.
- #5 Clothing Store: 70.0% Typical across Fairfax; Best 77.6%, Worst 62.4%.
Strong Performers in Fairfax
- #6 Opening a Bar in Fairfax shows 70.4% Typical survivability, 77.4% Best and 63.5% Worst.
- #7 Eye Care Center (Ranked #7): 70.9% Typical in Fairfax. Best: 77.4%. Worst: 64.5%.
- #8 Coffee Shop is ranked #8 for top businesses to open in Fairfax: 70.6% Typical, 77.1% Best, 64.1% Worst.
- #9 Cafe: 70.3% Typical across Fairfax; Best 77.0%, Worst 63.5%.
- #11 Opening a Day Care Center in Fairfax shows 68.3% Typical survivability, 75.5% Best and 61.1% Worst.
Top 3 Compared Nationally
- Veterinary Clinic: See how this compares to other cities →
- Chiropractor Office: See how this compares to other cities →
- Convenience 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, prioritizing survivability score in your site-selection process 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
- Site-specific factors can dramatically alter outcomes even within the same neighborhood.
- Location is the part of a new business you can compare address by address before committing.
- StreetSpring's Revenue Capture Score, the revenue a business can capture at a specific address, is the factor that matters most when comparing locations.
- Two storefronts on the same street can have different survivability scores: StreetSpring calculates each one individually.
What businesses should open next in Fairfax?
The top businesses to open next in Fairfax:
- Veterinary Clinics: 74.4% Typical, 81.4% Best
- Chiropractor Offices: 73.6% Typical, 80.4% Best
- Convenience Stores: 71.9% Typical, 78.7% Best
For the most current predictions, visit StreetSpring to analyze your specific location in real-time. StreetSpring's accuracy is built on studying businesses that serve more than 180 million+ Americans across 24 cities. 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 93.4% employment rate in Fairfax is a key signal of consumer health, and the 5.5% housing vacancy rate is another Census characteristic the model reads for the rankings above. The data behind these rankings is updated regularly, so the best available storefront in Fairfax today may score differently than it did last month: check StreetSpring's live tool for the current picture.
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?
The analysis is clear: in Fairfax, Veterinary Clinics, Chiropractor Offices, and Convenience Stores consistently score highest on survivability, giving landlords the best chance of retaining tenants for two or more years.
- Location is the part of a new business you can compare address by address before committing.
- Two storefronts on the same street can have different survivability scores: StreetSpring calculates each one individually. StreetSpring can show you which specific address in your portfolio scores highest for each tenant type.
Related: See How Landlord Representatives in San Francisco Can Reduce Vacancy & Increase Tenant Longevity
Should you rent your Fairfax storefront to a Veterinary Clinic?
Yes, our 2026 model ranks a Veterinary Clinic first among business types for Fairfax storefronts, with 81.4% Best and 67.3% Worst.
- Two storefronts on the same street can have different survivability scores: StreetSpring calculates each one individually.
What should I consider when opening a business in Fairfax?
When evaluating potential locations in Fairfax, start with the Survivability Score. It accounts for competition, spending, mobility, and market share in a single figure.
- StreetSpring's proprietary Revenue Capture Score, the revenue a business can capture at a specific address, is the factor that matters most when choosing where to open.
- These predictions are generated by StreetSpring's proprietary machine learning system, validated against hundreds of thousands of real business outcomes.
- 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 studied businesses serving more than 180 million+ Americans, giving its predictions a scale of validation unmatched in site-selection tools. 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.