Foster City is the newest town on this part of the Peninsula and the most deliberate. It was built from the 1960s on Brewer Island, in the marshes at the edge of San Francisco Bay, by the developer T. Jack Foster, whose name it carries; the first residents moved in on 7 March 1964, and the first house went for $23,500. The city incorporated in 1971. Of its nearly twenty square miles, only about four are land.
The lagoon is the thing people buy here for — 218 acres of enclosed water with houses along it and seven bridges over it. Only electric, wind or human-powered boats are allowed on it, which keeps it quiet; a dragon-boat club and an outrigger canoe club both paddle there. Leo J. Ryan Memorial Park has the amphitheatre, the boardwalk and boat tie-ups.
There is no Caltrain station in Foster City — the line runs through San Mateo and Belmont to the west, and the freeway exit signed for the city, Hillsdale Boulevard, is in San Mateo. What the city does have is Highway 92 and the San Mateo–Hayward Bridge, so it is the natural place to live if one of you works in the East Bay. Gilead and Visa are both based here.
Photo: King of Hearts, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Foster City, in the questions people ask us.
Do I have to buy flood insurance in Foster City?
Not at the moment. The levee improvements began in October 2020 and were finished in February 2024, paid for by the $90 million Measure P bond that voters passed in 2018. Flood insurance is not mandatory today for owners with federally backed mortgages, and anyone can buy it voluntarily. The city filed a Letter of Map Revision with FEMA in February 2024 asking to have the classification formally returned to moderate risk; that review is still outstanding, so do not treat the paperwork as finished.
Is there a Caltrain station in Foster City?
No. The nearest stations are in San Mateo, and the US-101 exit signed "Foster City" — Hillsdale Boulevard — is in San Mateo as well.
Can I keep a boat behind the house?
On the lagoon, yes, as long as it is electric, wind or human-powered. Petrol engines are not allowed, which is exactly why the water stays quiet.
Is there a high school in Foster City?
No. Elementary and middle schools are in the San Mateo-Foster City School District; high school students go to a San Mateo Union High School District school, assigned by address.
I have held a California real estate license since 1989, and in that time the Bay Area has changed almost beyond recognition. What has not changed is how a good move happens: through someone who knows the neighbourhoods, knows the people, and can make the right introduction at the right moment. I call myself a real estate consultant as well as an agent because most of the job is advice — when to sell, what to fix, which town suits the way you live — and the connections I have made since 1989 are there to be used for my clients.
A consultant, an agent and a connector.
Marisa Roman Wachhorst
