Boats and Boat Parts

If you like themed neighborhoods with street names all based on one guiding principle, you will probably love this neighborhood. The streets here are named after, as the name indicates Boats and Boat Parts. Thus you get Schooner, Catamaran, Outrigger, Spinnaker, Mainsail, Hull, Galley, Helm etc.

But what is it like actually living in Boats and Boat Parts? Is like sailing on calm seas or is it like a being trapped on an island after a 3-hour tour? A-three-hour-tooour!

On the edges of the neighborhoods it is mostly apartment buildings. Rents have thrown down anchor at about $2000/month for both 1 and 2 bedroom with the former being slightly below that mark and the later being just above.

There are also a fair number of condos here which go for less than $400K for the most part, which means that this is a fairly affordable area if you are okay with living in a condo.

At the center of the neighborhood there are a number of single family homes. I’m not sure what they go for—none of them are currently on sale, but I assume they are closer to a $1 million.

Overall this is a pretty cool neighborhood like most of those in Foster City, although it does perhaps have too many condos.

While its strange name, Boats and Boat Parts is an affluent Foster City community nestled between the winding canals and Central Lake runoffs that separate itself from the rest of the city. Yet, what separates it from the most communities is that it is convenient living to both Silicon Valley and San Francisco job markets and a couple blocks from the vast San Francisco Bay. Geographically speaking, it is bounded by Beach Park Boulevard, Foster City Boulevard and Shell Boulevard, making up about .4 square miles of residential terrain.

Boats and Boat Parts is an inviting and rather wealthy community. It is located within the extensive canal system of Central Lake and saturated with col-de-sacs, making it a rarely visited neighborhood by its surrounding locals. If you’re driving around the area, you’ll notice the quaint, newly paved streets, flat land area and a great family-friendly environment. For the perspective resident, the typical home is one-story in size with medium sized, squarish properties. They allocate enough space for an attached two-car garage and a driveway to fit two more. Nicer, larger homes are situated along Catamaran Street, Windjammer Circle and Trysail Court. They provide shallow, grassy and relatively well maintained front yards that mark an above average appeal.

According to the 2010 US Census, the bulk of homes are just above the $1 million dollar mark, while median rents are upwards of $2,000/month (there are also may housing units/condominiums that scatter the area). Boats and Boat Parts’ most isolated condos are situated along Beach Park Boulevard. It provides large parking lots and charming landscaping that surrounds the area. And with a population of over 3,000 residents, most rake in somewhere around $113,000/year.

Although Foster City doesn’t have much of a downtown district, Boats and Boat Parts harbors two small commercial areas. They are both situated along the neighborhood’s outer limits, but only include a grocery market and a handful of neighborhood restaurants. For recreation, there is a small neighborhood park that centers the community’s quarters. The area provides an outdoor basketball court and grassy terrain for dog walkers.