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redwood city neighborhood guide · property nerds® at compass
Friendly Acres, Redwood City Homes for sale, recent sales and a Property Nerd’s guide
Redwood City's east side between Woodside Road and Marsh Road: a grid of older homes around Taft School and Andrew Spinas Park, light industry, Stanford Redwood City and Highway 101.
Friendly Acres by the numbers
friendly acres by the numbers · live from the mls
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Calculated in your browser from MLS data for Friendly Acres (approximate outline traced from the boundary streets). Sales are single-family homes, townhomes and condos.
homes in friendly acres · live from the mls
Homes for sale, for rent and recently sold in Friendly Acres
Every active listing, rental and closed sale in Friendly Acres from the MLS, updated automatically, with a map of the neighborhood outline.
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Listings come from MLSListings and other MLSs through IDX and show their listing brokerage; confirm details with the listing agent. The map outline is the neighborhood boundary used by our listing search (Friendly Acres (approximate outline traced from the boundary streets)); it may not match every local definition.
the story
How Friendly Acres came to be
Friendly Acres is one of the 17 neighborhood associations Redwood City adopted in 2017, and the city's map of it runs from Woodside Road southeast to Marsh Road with Highway 101 through the middle. The name goes back at least to 1939. County newspaper headlines from 1939 and 1945, reproduced by a local history blog, already use it; the 1945 story covers a proposal for an airport off Marsh Road that was turned down after objections from Friendly Acres and Atherton. The city library's local history collection notes a Friendly Acres branch library that ran from a room at Fire Station No. 3 from 1952 to 1960.
The Woodside Road end grew up around industry. Stanford bought buildings in the former Ampex research-and-development park between Bay Road and Broadway at Highway 101 in 2005, and the 35-acre Stanford Redwood City campus opened in 2019; Stanford's outpatient clinics occupy other buildings on the same former park. The blocks along Broadway, Charter Street and Douglas Avenue are still a mix of warehouses, offices and service businesses, and Andrew Spinas Park sits where the industrial blocks meet the houses.
Water has shaped the Marsh Road end. The Atherton Channel runs along the Marsh Road edge before it passes under Highway 101, and the regional flood agency says businesses and mobile home parks served by the Bayfront Canal and Atherton Channel flooded more than 40 times in 70 years, most recently in 2017. Its fix, twin underground culverts that send overflow into the Ravenswood ponds, finished construction in January 2022 and was complete in December 2023.
streets and homes
The streets and the houses
The houses sit in a tight grid between Bay Road and the freeway. Hoover Street, Page Street and Rolison Road run parallel to Highway 101, and numbered avenues (2nd through 10th, then 15th through 18th) and Haven Avenue cross them. Short side streets fill the gaps: Wayne, Jones, Friendly, Odessa and Delmar courts, Michael and Dodge drives, Yarnall and Saint Mary's places, Rose Avenue and Florence Street near Marsh Road. County parcel maps put the median single-family lot at about 6,200 square feet, and the middle half fall between about 6,000 and 7,000.
Expect small, older houses and plenty of second units. Listing records we checked show a single-level 1947 house on 17th Avenue on a 7,140 sq ft lot and a 1939 house on Hoover Street with three studios behind it. County use codes count roughly 610 single-family homes, about 50 more with an ADU, and about 270 parcels with two units, about 90 of them recorded as single-family houses converted to two units. With that many second units, the permit history matters as much as the floor plan.
Across the freeway, East Bayshore Road is lined with mobile-home parks, a Caltrans maintenance yard and businesses. Redwood City's housing plan maps four parcels there for mobile-home preservation, two already zoned Mobile Home and two marked for rezoning to it. One small mobile-home pocket on East Bayshore Road near Haven Avenue is unincorporated county land with Redwood City addresses.
streets in friendly acres
- Hoover Street
- Page Street
- Rolison Road
- Haven Avenue
- 2nd Avenue
- 5th Avenue
- 8th Avenue
- 10th Avenue
- 15th Avenue
- 16th Avenue
- 17th Avenue
- 18th Avenue
- Florence Street
- Michael Drive
- Wayne Court
- Jones Court
- Friendly Court
- Odessa Court
- Delmar Court
- Yarnall Place
- Saint Mary's Place
- Dodge Drive
- Rose Avenue
- Broadway
- Charter Street
- Douglas Avenue
- Bay Road
- East Bayshore Road
- Marsh Road
- Woodside Road
parks and places
Parks, shops and landmarks near Friendly Acres
- park
Andrew Spinas Park
A city neighborhood park of about 1.8 acres at 2nd Avenue and Bay Road. The city's park inventory lists two tennis courts, a half basketball court, a tot lot and an all-ages play area, picnic tables and restrooms.
- park
Taft School fields
Taft School's campus on 10th Avenue has ball fields and a multi-use field that show up in the city's park inventory as school-owned fields.
- park
Hoover Park
Redwood City's 10-acre community park sits just across Bay Road from the Woodside Road end, with Hoover Pool, a baseball field, soccer fields and picnic areas in the city's inventory.
- landmark
Stanford Redwood City
Stanford's 35-acre office campus opened in 2019 between Broadway and Bay Road, on the former Ampex research-and-development park; Stanford puts it about a mile from downtown Redwood City. It is a workplace rather than a public park.
- shopping
Marsh Road and Woodside Road ends
The Marsh Manor shops cluster on Florence Street near Marsh Road, and a warehouse-style grocery and the main post office are in the light-industrial blocks toward Woodside Road.
- park
Bedwell Bayfront Park (Menlo Park)
Across Highway 101 at 1600 Marsh Road, about 0.7 mile (straight-line) from the Marsh Road edge: a park on a former landfill with a paved 2-mile loop trail on the Bay Trail.
schools and commute
School districts and getting around
School districts
Census school district maps put all of Friendly Acres in the Redwood City School District (TK-8) and the Sequoia Union High School District. Taft School (PreK-5) is inside the neighborhood at 903 10th Avenue, and Hoover School (PreK-8) is about a quarter mile beyond the Woodside Road end at 701 Charter Street (straight-line). Sequoia Union's comprehensive high schools include Sequoia High at 1201 Brewster Avenue and Menlo-Atherton High, each a little over a mile from the nearest edge (straight-line). Attendance boundaries change, so check the exact address with each district before you rely on a school.
Getting around
- Caltrain: Redwood City station (1 James Avenue, served by local, limited and express trains) is about 0.9 mile from the Woodside Road edge and about 2 miles from the middle of the neighborhood (straight-line); Menlo Park station is about 1.6 to 2.1 miles.
- US 101 runs through the neighborhood, with interchanges at Woodside Road (SR 84) on the west edge and Marsh Road on the east edge. Woodside Road also runs west to I-280, about 3 miles (straight-line).
- Bay Road runs the full length of the south edge from Woodside Road to Marsh Road, and Broadway runs west from the Woodside Road end toward downtown.
- SamTrans: the city's 2019 stop map shows stops on Bay Road, Broadway, Florence Street and East Bayshore Road; check SamTrans for current routes. Routes 270, 276, 278 and 296 all connect at the Redwood City station.
- Bikes and walking: Bedwell Bayfront Park's loop trail and the Bay Trail are across 101 off Marsh Road, about 0.7 mile from the east edge (straight-line).
nerd notes
Buying or selling in Friendly Acres: what we check
Buying here
- Check the FEMA flood zone for the exact address. On the current county panel (06081C0302F, effective April 5, 2019), roughly 40 percent of the neighborhood is Zone AE with a base flood elevation of 10 feet, mostly the bay side of 101, the Broadway and Charter Street blocks and parts of Hoover Street, 2nd and 5th avenues; the eastern grid (15th to 18th avenues, Michael Drive, Wayne Court, Florence Street) is largely Zone X. Ask for an elevation certificate and an insurance quote early.
- Confirm what each unit is. With about 270 two-unit parcels and many converted houses, pull the city permit history for any duplex, rear studio or ADU before you count its rent or square footage.
- Look at the block, not just the house: Highway 101, Woodside Road, the Stanford campus and light-industrial lots on Broadway, Charter Street and Bay Road all sit within a few blocks of homes. Check zoning on neighboring lots with the city's planning division.
- For a mobile home on East Bayshore Road, read the park rules and space terms, confirm whether the home is taxed as real property or registered as personal property, and check whether the park is in the city or in the small unincorporated county pocket near Haven Avenue.
- Houses from the 1930s and 1940s deserve the full inspection list: foundation and drainage on low ground, older wiring and panels, the sewer lateral, and any additions done without permits.
Selling here
- Put the flood facts up front: the FEMA zone for the address, an elevation certificate if you have one, and a note that the Bayfront Canal and Atherton Channel project was finished in December 2023.
- Document every unit. Buyers here will ask whether the rear studio or second unit is permitted, so have the city's permit records and any ADU approvals ready.
- Lead with location specifics: about 0.9 to 2 miles to Redwood City Caltrain, both 101 interchanges on the neighborhood's edges, and the Stanford Redwood City campus within walking distance of the west blocks.
- Give the real lot size from county records. Lots here cluster around 6,000 to 7,000 square feet, so a larger or deeper lot is worth stating with its dimensions.
nerd noteCommissions are always negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what's included.
faq
Friendly Acres questions, answered
Is Friendly Acres in Redwood City?
Yes. It is one of Redwood City's 17 neighborhood associations and uses ZIP 94063. North Fair Oaks across Bay Road is unincorporated county, and one small mobile-home pocket on East Bayshore Road near Haven Avenue is county land with Redwood City addresses, so check the jurisdiction on any address at the edges.
Is Friendly Acres in a flood zone?
Parts of it. FEMA's current map shows roughly 40 percent of the area in Zone AE (base flood elevation 10 feet), mostly on the bay side of 101 and near Broadway, Charter Street and parts of Hoover Street, while the eastern grid is largely Zone X. Check the exact address.
Which schools serve Friendly Acres?
The Redwood City School District for TK-8 and the Sequoia Union High School District for high school. Taft School is on 10th Avenue inside the neighborhood. Attendance boundaries change, so confirm the exact address with each district.
What is the big campus on Broadway?
Stanford Redwood City, a 35-acre Stanford office campus that opened in 2019 between Broadway and Bay Road on the former Ampex research park. Stanford's outpatient clinics are on the same former park.
How far is Caltrain?
Redwood City station is about 0.9 mile from the Woodside Road edge and about 2 miles from the middle of the neighborhood (straight-line). Menlo Park station is about 1.6 to 2.1 miles.
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