Best-Value Neighborhoods in Foster City, CA

The Islands is one of Foster City's smallest neighborhoods, just a handful of blocks tucked between Shell Boulevard and the water. There are single family waterfront homes on the western side, but the bulk of the neighborhood is condos and townhomes, which makes it one of the more accessible ways to get a Foster City address. ... See Full Page

Sea Colony is the biggest neighborhood in Foster City and the one most completely organized around the water. It occupies the southern end of the city, where the lagoon system and Belmont Slough meet, and the design pushes the water into almost every block. ... See Full Page

You probably will not live in Vintage Park, but there is a decent chance you will work here, and a very good chance you will end up here anyway. This is Foster City's jobs district, sitting at the northwest corner of the city. ... See Full Page

Dolphin Bay is Foster City's answer to balance. Primarily single family homes, some still carrying their original 1970s bones, others taken down to the studs and rebuilt into something you would not guess from the street. Like most of the city, a good number of homes back directly onto the water with dock access. ... See Full Page

Bay Vista is the part of Foster City that architecture people come looking for. Those flat-roofed houses are Eichlers, built between 1963 and 1968 when the town was brand new, and this is the largest tract of them in the city. They sit intermixed with other contemporary homes on the streets and cul-de-sacs between Gull Avenue and Beach Park Boulevard. Post-and-beam construction, glass walls, atriums, and the whole indoor-outdoor idea, right at the eastern edge of Foster City between the lagoon and San Francisco Bay. ... See Full Page

Metro Center is Foster City's engine room, and it makes no attempt to be charming about it. This is where the office towers are, where the big-box shopping is, and where a large share of the city's daytime population actually shows up. ... See Full Page

Carmel Village is where Foster City goes a bit more upscale. It runs between the lagoon and the Bay, and your odds of ending up waterfront, or at least with a real view, are better here than in most of the city. ... See Full Page

Treasure Isle sits at the dead center of Foster City and functions as its downtown, to the extent that a planned lagoon city has one. Residential, retail, and office all share the same boundary, and it is one of the very few neighborhoods here where living, working, and shopping within walking distance is actually plausible rather than aspirational. ... See Full Page

Marina Point is the Foster City neighborhood that is least about the water, which in this city is almost a personality. Aside from a couple of apartment complexes and a handful of homes, life here happens inland, and the neighborhood is better for it in ways people do not expect. ... See Full Page

Street by street, Harbor Side puts more people on the water than almost any other neighborhood in Foster City. You will find a mix here: single family homes, townhouses, and condos, which is unusual for a neighborhood this waterfront-heavy and one reason it is a more attainable way into lagoon living than the isles in Carmel Village. ... See Full Page

Isle Cove is built around coves and waterways rather than a straight lagoon frontage, and the effect is that the whole neighborhood feels a little like its own island. Streets curl in on themselves, the water keeps reappearing where you did not expect it, and there is a real sense of being tucked in. ... See Full Page