Happy Halloween Folks! For those of you who are unaware of this Foster City has a really fantastic Halloween party for kids of all ages, commonly referred to as “Halloween Safe Streets”. If you have kids you’re probably going there already, if not check it out just for fun…and if you live on those streets, sorry! Today’s contest is simple, name one of the soon to be closed off “safe streets”. Extra credit if you can name the subdivision.  This weeks winner will receive a $30.00 gift card to Noah’s Bagels . All the rules of the road are right there to see on the left hand margin as well as on the bar above. All correct answers will be posted on Monday morning. Any and all preferably amusing jokes, kind of humorous barbs and any and all Halloween banter will be published immediately along with all wrong answers. By the way, how about that new color? Today only. Have a great time tonight, as well as a fantastic weekend! 

Nine years ago our daughter Christina was born with an extremely rare genetic skin disorder called Epidermolysis Bullosa , or EB for short. EB essentially is a condition whereby these kids are born without a protein that all the rest of us have that allows us to absorb friction. Because of this inability Christina, and other kids like her, blister. She’s particularly susceptible on her hands and feet and walking in shoes is a big challenge. She can walk around the house pretty well, or in her classroom at school, but lots of walking is highly problematic. Places like the Mall or the Airport or Disneyland will probably always require her to be in a wheelchair. Fortunately, Christina was born with the mildest form of EB (simplex) and she’ll live a normal life span. I forget all of the time that she has a disability…mostly because she’s such an incredible pistol! Seriously, anybody we know that’s gotten to know her is always comes away moved by what a character she is. She doesn’t inspire alot of pity, that’s for sure!

Various groups connected to EB have chosen this time of year, and this week in particular, to raise awareness about this condition and thereby seek help in working towards a cure for it. Unfortunately, there are many kids that are not as fortunate as Christina is. Garrett Spaulding, pictured above, is a young boy who we know who suffers from a much worse form of EB (recessive dystrophic). Garrett’s skin is so very fragile that he needs to be bandaged head to toe 24/7. He blisters both internally and externally. Kids like Garrett often don’t live past their 20’s. I really want to express this completely without hyperbole…I don’t believe that there is a more horrific disease in this life than RDEB. These kids literally live in constant pain. It’s astonishing, yet to meet the Spauldings is to truly experience both courage and grace in human form. There’s a wonderful photographer by the name of Andre Hermann who took the picture above and on whose website can be found a photo essay about these folks. Just click on his name, then scroll over “portfolios” until you see the tab “stories”. Click on it and you’ll find more on Garrett.

If you would like to learn more about EB and maybe participate in ending this disease please click here:

http://www.ebkids.org/

If you happen to see a little girl dressed as an angel (completely out of character, I promise!) in a wheelchair at “safe streets” tomorrow night come on over and say hi.

OK, I have to say right here at the outset that this post is a bit of a rant.  A buddy of mine told me a week or so ago about a new burger joint that opened in San Mateo on El Camino, in what used to be a hubcap store, called Jacks Prime. I’ve been to this place 3 times now…it’s fabulous! Incredible burgers, real thickly battered onion rings, great fries and shakes. Everything feels like homemade. Every time I’ve been there the place has been packed too. It begs the question in me…why can’t somebody in Foster City do this?  If you want a burger, and want to stay in FC you go to McDonalds, Carl’s Jr or (God forbid!) the IHOP. You used to be able to get one at Portofino Grill…but they went out of business last month!

Of course, it’s not confined to burger joints. In the last couple of years San Carlos has added Town , Absolute, Rumi , Pilita , Saffron , Spasso , Azure , 888 Ristorante Italiano , Refuge and the new wine bar called The Cask plus a remodeled Piacere . Now I’m not including dessert joints like Vanilla Moon , Cowabunga Creamery , Harmony Yogurt and Red Mango . Seriously, these are all fairly recent additions! Why can’t Foster City get one of them?  I’m not even going to mention the new places in downtown Redwood City (formerly a ghost town) or San Mateo. Belmont even has a few exciting new restaurants. That’s right, Belmont. OK, Redwood Shores is worse. 

It’s not that I’m trying to bash the existing restaurants in Foster City either. I LOVE Turtle Bay and I would definitely go out of my way for Sweet Basil , I’d just like to see more of them. Foster City certainly has the demographics to support them. If you want a nice night out, I’ll bet you don’t stay in Foster City…do you? I’m only half joking when I say that Foster City’s real estate values would stand a better chance of maintaining their value if there were more restaurant choices.

The truth is that I’ve been feeling this post coming for a long time and kept avoiding it because I was hoping for good news, but no such luck. Can you tell I’m kind of a foodie? I guess if you saw me you could! Lesley, my wife can sure tell…much to her chagrin!

The Foster City gallows, said Mr. Toler. I wonder how many kids (and teachers, staff..etc) could relate? Actually Audobon is a great school and Friday’s foto showed a portion of it’s auditorium. In no way should it be construed as similar in any way to a place for torture and cruel and unusual punishment. Steve got it right first, but he’s ineligible since winning last week, so the $30.00 gift card to Boston Market goes to Ed Batac. Congratulations Ed!! Thanks also to Linda for getting the answer right. Good job you guys! Thanks for playing, see you again this Friday…Halloween!

Boothbay Park is one of Foster City’s biggest, with 11.21 acres of just about everything. A ballfield, tennis courts, great kids play area, basketball court, volleyball court, a covered picnic area and lots of large open green space. It’s located at Edgewater and Boothbay. It’s a real popular place on the weekend! Here’s a map link:

BoothBayParkMap

I’m not sure how to even make a joke out of this…maybe I ought to just play it straight for once? I have no doubt many of you have seen this building, from time to time, on daily basis. The question is…what it this place? This weeks winner receives a $30.00 gift card to Boston Market in that little strip center across the street from Costco. Of course you can use it at any Boston Market…but let’s keep the business in Foster City. Anyway, all the rules of the game are available on the left hand margin as well as above on the bar. The winner and all other correct answers will be announced on Monday morning. Any and all silly quips, semi obnoxious barbs and any jokes that are worthy will be published immediately along with all wrong answers. Have fun and I hope you all have a great weekend! Thanks for playing!

Maybe the most effected price range right now in the Mid Peninsula is the range beginning at $1.3mil and going up. When I say the Mid Peninsula I mean Foster City, San Mateo, San Carlos, Belmont, Redwood Shores and Redwood City. In those areas right now there are 115 single family homes actively for sale upwards of $1.3mil. There are only 15 pending sales in that range in those communities…or13%. In the same communities there are 419 single family homes actively for sale under $1.3mil, and 183 pending sales…or 44%. That’s quite a distinct gap! Now if you’re only looking at Hillsborough, Atherton and Burlingame (obviously pricier areas) there are 112 single family homes for sale with 21 pending sales…or 19%. It’s become real obvious to me exactly how slow the upper range is in our communities because I have a house listed in San Carlos for $1,699,000 and holding Open Houses there has become a nice, quiet place to watch the 49ers without being disturbed. It’s real, real slow.

In Foster City right now there are 10 active listings over $1.3 and 2 others that are just slightly under it. That’s out of 33 active listings. As the picture above suggests…the air is getting kind of thin up at that altitude. If we manage to see a reduction of 30 year fixed rate jumbos in the coming months I suspect we’ll experience a bit of a thaw in this range…but we’ll see. Most likely it’s simply an issue of confidence and spending “large” is certainly a scary thing to do right now. I also realize that “large” is certainly a relative thing too…and the blanket of fear hasn’t gone away either.

What’s the good news? The fact that there are 219 total pending sales on single family alone is one of those, can’t be understated, good signs for the future kinds of facts. There are buyers out there…and I’ll bet most of them are getting good deals right now.

Since September 15, when Lehman went belly up and AIG got bailed out and the stock market started it’s decent, there have been 15 properties sell in Foster City. I personally know of 4 properties in Belmont and San Carlos that had multiple offers and went over asking in the last two weeks. We’ll see how Foster City does with these recent sales. If all of these homes are selling now, in these circumstances, and some are even getting overbids that certainly would argue against any 25% reductions in values around here. We’ll see.

I saw the article below from the Associated Press yesterday and it talks about a little boom in recent home sales in SoCal…check this out:

LOS ANGELES —  Southern California home sales jumped 65 percent in September from a year ago, as plummeting prices fueled by foreclosures lured more buyers, a real estate tracking firm said Monday.

Last month’s median home price in the six-county region fell 33.2 percent to $308,500, compared to $462,000 in September 2007, according to San Diego-based MDA DataQuick.

The September median price was 38.9 percent below the peak $505,000 median posted in spring and summer of last year.

John Husing, an economist with Economics & Politics Inc., a consulting firm, said the ample supply of discounted, foreclosed homes has kept downward pressure on prices.

Once foreclosures start drying up, prices will stabilize, but that could take another year, he said.

“The flow of foreclosures is enough to meet demand,” he said.

Foreclosure resales amounted to half of all transactions last month, easily pushing sales beyond the dismal, record lows of a year ago, when a credit crunch began slamming the brakes on home financing.

“The pitifully low September 2007 sales numbers weren’t tough to beat,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president.

The September sales figures largely reflect purchase decisions made during the summer, making it hard for analysts to predict how the recent meltdown in the financial markets will affect the housing market.

“The numbers don’t reflect the sheer terror of the last three weeks,” Husing said.

Tom Adams, a broker with Century 21 Adams & Barnes in Monrovia, a Los Angeles suburb, said the rocky stock market may have driven more people to real estate. He said his October sales have increased significantly.

“I think people may be seeing real estate as a safer investment than paper,” he said.

Sounds pretty good to me! Here’s the thing…there have been very, very few foreclosures in Foster City. It’s not a surprise that values have remained relatively stable. There hasn’t been the kind of downward pressure on home prices here because there have been so few foreclosures. This isn’t Daly City where over half of the 187 active single family homes are short sales or foreclosures.

By the way, that Savage Chickens blog is great! I added it to the blogroll on the left! Many thanks to Doug Savage!

It, indeed, is Parkside Towers. Formerly the Inktomi “Mausoleum”, and now almost full up with tenants…most of whom were mentioned by a number of you! Great job everybody! Both Steve Toler and Ed Batac were there with the correct answers within a minute or so freom my posting the picture…but Steve got there a fraction sooner and thus wins the $30.00 gift certificates to Round Table Pizza. Also answering correctly this week were Alex, Boom, Ryan, Haber, Asif, Dana, Richard, Erika, Patrick and Jessica Schackne. Thanks for playing you guys! Come on back thie Friday when we do it all over again!

I have to admit that when I first looked for some info on the Bay Trail I was surprised to learn how very extensive it is and how much of San Francisco Bay is covered by this trail. (Almost all of it!). Check out this map… BayTrailMap  Certainly, the Bay Trail is an integral part of Foster City life and it’s used frequently by residents and non residents alike. It’s a fascinating place with several micro climate like personalities, from Werder Pier to Oracle…it’s simply an amazing place. If you’re unfamiliar with FC and want to know how to get there, just drive east on Hillsdale until it becomes Beach Park and you’ve found it. It may be the most popular place in Foster City.