San Mateo-Foster City Real Estate News

If you live or work -- or want to live or work -- in San Mateo County, you're invited to join a unique discussion about long term housing solutions. The dialogue provides an opportunity to increase understanding, exchange perspectives, and express your views on housing choices in San Mateo County. A unique citizen-driven effort to engage the people of San Mateo County in decision making about housing issues has been taking place this year and it's called Threshold 2008. Threshold 2008 believes that by including more people in the discussion housing, San Mateo County's leaders will be in a better position to understand what decisions the informed public will support to sustain our communities. Threshold 20008 does not advocate for any specific policy agenda or development project. They provide an inclusive forum to build the public voice on housing choices.

Earlier this year Threshold2008 conducted a weekend of public discussions and then followed up with many online opportunities where San Mateo County citizens had the chance to talk about their vision for our County.  What may be the final opportunity for you to have your say will take place this coming Saturday morning on November 15th at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, 1700 South El Camino Real.  There's free parking and refreshments and you can join in the discussion between 10 AM and 12:30 PM.  There is a catch though, you have to preregister to attend.  It's easy to do.  Register at here or call 650-655-5851.

If you're interested in learning what went on at the Countywide Assembly read about it here.  Join in and be part of the public voice.  We have some serious choices to make for San Mateo County. Every single city in the County is involved with this process.  Don't stand on the sidelines.  Get involved!!  You can afford to devote 2 and a half hours to help make a differene.

Get ready! Friday night should be clear and cool, as usual, perfect weather for the annual 4th of July fireworks. Foster City celebrates the 4th of July in Big Style.  Start your morning off with the annunal Lion's Club pancake breakfast, enter your kids in their own parade and plan on spending the day around Leo Ryan Park enjoying the holiday. Play games on the grassy meadow, picnic while listening to the musical entertainment that will take place during the afternoon and have a safe and sane 4th.  The Foster City Lion's Club will be selling food all day long.  It's a major fundraiser for them, so help them out and buy breakfast or lunch at the park. 

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Last year, here, I wrote about the possibility of FEMA updating their flood maps for San Mateo and Foster City and including Foster City into a flood zone.  The maps came out last month and FEMA released preliminary drafts of revised Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) for the entire County of San Mateo. 

FEMA Has New Methodology

They have determined that a section of levee within the City of San Mateo does not meet FEMA's requirements for adequate flood protection.  Because of these changes in their methodology being used to generate flood plain data, the revised maps show all of Foster City to be in a Special Flood Hazard Zone, or Zone A.

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FOSTER CITY

Known as the City of Blue Lagoons, Foster City's lagoons were built to resolve an engineer problem when the city was first being developed.  Foster City is located on land originally known as Brewer's Island, which was originally marshland that had dried out after dikes and levees were constructed near the turn of the 19^th Century.  It was then a diary farm for several decades.

In 1958, developer T. Jack Foster purchased the land with the idea of creating a planned community, a popular idea at the time.  However, the silty clay mud sat at sea level.  The Army Corps of Engineers estimated it would take 45 million cubic yards of fill to raise the land to bring it up to eight to twelve feet needed to build on.  But a local engineering firm came up with a novel solution - raise the land four or five feet and create a central drainage basin to impound the water before it was pumped back into the bay. The concept worked and Foster City now has, as its centerpiece, a 218 acre lagoon that winds its way through the city.  The drainage basin still works perfectly even with severe storms battering the area some winters.

The city is home to about 30,000 residents.  This was the first planned community in the western United States.  There are single family houses, townhouses, condominiums, and apartments running in various areas of the city and many sit along side the water.

The city sits half way between San Francisco and San Jose making it a great place to live if one commutes.  The San Mateo Bridge is at the eastern part of the city and when the bridge first opened the 12-miles span was the longest bridge in the world. 

The schools belong to the San Mateo-Foster City Elementary District and the three elementary and one middle school test high.  There is no high school in the city so students have their choice of any of the San Mateo Union High School schools nearby.

There are parks everywhere and several with beaches allowing for water play.  Boating on the lagoons is only done with electric power, sail boats or paddle boats.  The Bay Trail wanders along the shoreline of the bay and is well used all year long.

Foster City is a great place for families with much to do outdoors.

Yesterday I was asked when I was going to report on Foster City.  I’m pleased to give you a picture of what’s going on now.  There aren’t a lot of homes for sale in Foster City right now with only 16 single family homes are on the market this week.  Altos Research’s data was for last week, with 19 homes for sale.  Housing prices have jumped since January of 2008, and this is simple economics here with supply and demand.  Foster City really does sit in the middle of the Peninsula making it easy to commute north to the City, south to the Valley or into the east bay.  It was the first planned community in California.

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