I hosted a waterfront open house in Foster City this past weekend. More than 20 groups came through. Nobody asked about the house.
Not about square footage. Not about the finishes. Not even about the roof.
Some were moving from the South Bay. Some were helping adult children buy. Several had been waiting specifically for a waterfront home — not a house in Foster City, a house on the water in Foster City, which is a much shorter list. And one neighbor stopped by to tell me they’ve lived there for 48 years.
I wrote a short post about it afterward, and it got more response than I expected. I think that’s because the questions were so honest. So here they are, with the answers I gave in the backyard — and a few things I checked afterward.
“Can I take a boat from the lagoon out to the Bay?”
No. And this is the question I most want buyers to ask before they fall in love, not after.
Foster City’s lagoon is a man-made, enclosed system of roughly 218 acres. It was built as the city’s drainage system first and a place to paddle second. Bay water is let in through intake gates and moved back out by a pump station — the water gets through; a boat doesn’t.
On the lagoon itself, the city’s rules are short: sail, electric, or paddle power only. No gas or diesel motors, and a 5 mph limit for everything on the water.
What that gets you is quiet. You can carry a kayak from the lawn to the water and be out before most of the street is awake. What it doesn’t get you is a slip for a powerboat and a run out under the San Mateo Bridge. If that’s the dream, it’s a trailer and a launch ramp somewhere else — and it’s better to learn that on a Sunday afternoon than during the inspection period.
“What does the HOA actually cover?”
In Foster City there isn’t one answer. Some neighborhoods have an active association, plenty of single-family streets have none, and townhome and condo complexes almost always do. So my first answer is always: let’s read the documents for this house.
On a waterfront lot, though, the question behind the question is usually this: who is responsible for the edge? The seawall or bulkhead along the lagoon, the dock if there is one, the strip between the patio and the water. Depending on the property, that can sit with the owner, an association, or some combination. It’s the one maintenance item on a lagoon house that has no equivalent on an inland house, so I want it answered in writing and looked at by an inspector who knows what they’re looking at.
“How is the new Osaka supermarket?”
Osaka Marketplace opened last December at Edgewater Place, in the space the old Lucky used to occupy.
It sounds like a small question. It isn’t. Someone asking about the grocery store is asking what a Tuesday looks like here — where dinner comes from, how far it is, whether every errand means the car. A waterfront home is a weekend picture. The grocery store is the other five days.
“With rates where they are, cash or finance?”
I’m not a lender or a financial advisor, and the right answer depends on things I shouldn’t guess at: what that cash is doing now, how much you want in reserve after closing, and your tax picture. That conversation belongs with a lender and a CPA, ideally before you write an offer.
What I can speak to is the offer side. Foster City is not a slow market right now. In August, single-family homes there closed at a median of 104% of list price, after about 18 days on average, with 0.8 months of inventory — the tightest supply of the eight cities I track. That was on 11 sales, so read it as a direction rather than a precise number.
In a market like that, a strong, fully underwritten financed offer can still compete. But a cash buyer with clean terms has an edge on certainty and timing, and sellers notice. Whether that edge is worth tying up the cash is exactly the lender-and-CPA question.
“Would you actually live on the water?”
This one usually came a little more quietly. It’s my favorite question, because it isn’t really asking whether the view is beautiful. Everybody can see that it is. It’s asking about the life that comes with it.
My honest answer: yes — for the right person, after checking three things.
The lagoon. Know what it is and what it isn’t. It’s calm, quiet, and made for paddling. It isn’t the open Bay. Swimming is allowed, but the county monitors the water and advisories do happen, so check before you plan a summer around it. You’ll also be sharing it with a lot of geese.
The levee. Foster City is built on filled marshland, and the whole city relies on its levee. In early 2024 the city finished a roughly $90 million levee improvement project, funded by the Measure P bond voters approved in 2018. It raised about 6.5 miles of Bayfront levee, typically by around six feet, with allowances for sea level rise. The point was to keep the levee’s FEMA accreditation, which is what keeps the city out of a mandatory flood-insurance zone. That matters — but confirm the flood zone for the specific address and get an insurance quote anyway.
The orientation. Which way the backyard faces decides more about living on the water than the square footage does. It decides where the sun is at dinner, whether the afternoon wind off the Bay lands on your patio or your roofline, and whether the evening light is on the water or in your eyes. An open house is a Sunday afternoon. Come back at 6 p.m. on a weekday before you decide.
The house gets people through the door. The real decision is everything around it.
The question I’d add
If I were buying on the lagoon, I’d ask the neighbor. Not the listing agent, not the brochure — the person who has watched that stretch of water for decades. How it changes with the seasons. Where the wind comes from in June. What they’d do differently if they bought again. Most people are happy to tell you. The 48-year neighbor certainly was.
If you’re weighing a waterfront home in Foster City — or trying to decide whether the water is worth it at all — tell me how you’d actually use it. I’ll tell you honestly whether it fits, or whether a different street does. There’s more on the city itself in my Foster City guide, or call or text me at 650-866-9266.
And if you’d been standing in that backyard, what would you have asked?
Lagoon rules, flood-zone designations and insurance requirements can change; confirm them with the City of Foster City and for the specific property. Market figures are from the KW Advisors San Mateo County Market Report, September 2026 edition (August 2026 activity), sourced from MLS Listings Inc., InfoSparks, and Trend Graphix; deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Nothing here is financial, lending, or insurance advice.
