Foster City, California
Foster City is a master-planned city located in San Mateo County, California, United States. Foster City is sometimes considered to be part of Silicon Valley for its local industry and its proximity to Silicon Valley cities. There are many notable companies headquartered in Foster City, such as Gilead Sciences, Zoox, and Replit. Visa and Sledgehammer Games were formerly headquartered in Foster City.
The 2020 census put the population at 33,805, an increase of more than 10% over the 2010 census figure of 30,567.
Foster City contains at least 10 bridges of which seven cross its lagoon, two go across Highway 92 and one is the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge which crosses the San Francisco Bay.
Foster City is one of the United States’ safest cities, with an average of one murder per decade.
History
Foster City was founded in the 1960s, built on the existing Brewer Island in the marshes of the San Francisco Bay on the east edge of San Mateo, enlarged with engineered landfill. The city was named after T. Jack Foster, a real estate magnate who owned much of the land comprising the city and who was instrumental in its initial design. His firm, Foster Enterprises, now run by his descendants, relocated to San Mateo in 2000 and is still active in real estate affairs throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.The first residents moved into Foster City on March 7, 1964. Charles Zerbe, a San Francisco firefighter with a wife and two young sons, paid $23,500 for his four-bedroom house on Pilgrim Drive.
In the early 1960s, the first homes built in Foster City were sold for under $18,000. By the late 1960s, the average home price was just under $30,000. United States census data shows the median household income for Foster City residents in 1970 was $30,000 and in 1980 was $60,000. As of 2020, the median household income for Foster City was $161,000. In 2024, the average home value was $1,926,381.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of, of which is land and is water. The total area is 80.90% water. Foster City has ongoing issues with water intrusion from the San Francisco Bay and is potentially subject to permanent inundation as the sea level rises. A project to improve the existing levee with a steel-reinforced wall has been underway since FEMA designated the entire area as a floodplain making residents subject to much higher flood insurance rates.Climate
Foster City, like most of the peninsula, has a mild warm-summer Mediterranean climate, with warm, dry summers and cool, wet winters. The warmest month of the year is September, with an average daytime temperature of and an average nighttime temperature of, while the coldest month of the year is January, with an average daytime temperature of and an average nighttime temperature of.Demographics
2020
The 2020 United States census reported that Foster City had a population of 33,056 with 12,243 households. The 2020 median home price in Foster City was $1,439,375. The population density was. The racial makeup of Foster City was 13,171 White, 818 African American, 39 Native American, 16,715 Asian, 30 Pacific Islander, 394 from other races, and 1,889 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2,605 persons. 52% of the population was born in the United States, and 22% of the population are naturalized citizens.The Census reported that the median household income was $163,322, 3.2% of the population was below the poverty line, out of the total population 2.5% of those under the age of 18 and 5.1% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.
For those over the age of 25, 96% had a high school diploma or higher, 71% had a bachelor's degree, and 36.6% had a graduate degree or professional degree.
2010
The 2010 United States census reported that Foster City had a population of 30,567. The 2009 median home price in Foster City was $1,025,000. The population density was. The racial makeup of Foster City was 13,912 White, 576 African American, 29 Native American, 13,746 Asian, 189 Pacific Islander, 575 from other races, and 1,540 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1,995 persons.The Census reported that 30,458 people lived in households, 52 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 57 were institutionalized.
There were 12,016 households, out of which 4,256 had children under the age of 18 living in them, 7,127 were opposite-sex married couples living together, 963 had a female householder with no husband present, 316 had a male householder with no wife present. There were 531 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 75 same-sex married couples or partnerships. 2,807 households were made up of individuals, and 860 had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.53. There were 8,406 families ; the average family size was 3.04.
The population was spread out, with 6,913 people under the age of 18, 1,526 people aged 18 to 24, 9,801 people aged 25 to 44, 8,223 people aged 45 to 64, and 4,104 people who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.0 males.
There were 12,458 housing units at an average density of, of which 6,958 were owner-occupied, and 5,058 were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.8%; the rental vacancy rate was 3.5%. 18,423 people lived in owner-occupied housing units and 12,035 people lived in rental housing units.
EconomyHeadquartersAround 1993 Visa Inc. began consolidating various scattered offices in San Mateo, California to a location in Foster City. Visa's headquarters were in Foster City, and Visa became Foster City's largest employer. Visa owns four buildings at the intersection of Metro Center Boulevard and Vintage Park Drive. As of 2009 it employed about 3,000 people at the complex. During that year Visa signed a 10-year lease agreement for the top three floors of 595 Market Street in San Francisco and moved its top executives there. Visa continued to keep employees at the Foster City offices. As of 2009, after the headquarters move, the Foster City facilities remained the company's center of employment, and those buildings housed 2,400 employees as of 2009.Other companies with headquarters in Foster City:
Arts and culture
Foster City also has:
GovernmentIn the California State Legislature, Foster City is in, and in.In the United States House of Representatives, Foster City is in. , Foster City's Mayor is Stacy Jimenez. Other councilmembers include Art Kiesel, Suzy Niederhofer, Patrick Sullivan, and Phoebe Venkat. Former Mayor Sam Hindi was the first Palestinian-American Mayor in the history of California. Former Mayor Sanjay Gehani was the first Mayor for Foster City of Indian descent. Former Mayor Richa Awasthi was the first female minority and female immigrant Mayor for Foster City. In 2020, former Mayor Herb Perez was recalled by a majority of Foster City voters. Perez was the first city councilperson to be recalled since 1977. According to the California Secretary of State, as of February 10, 2019, Foster City has 16,568 registered voters. Of those, 7,336 are registered Democrats, 2,756 are registered Republicans, and 5,977 have declined to state a political party. |