Hi,

Me and my wife are first time home buyers and planning to buy a townhome 3bd/3ba. We have narrowed our search between FOster City and Palo Alto. Palo Alto is a more expensive, but most home in both cities are really old. Palo Alto has some new ones coming up (again somewhat expensive).

We do not plan to stay more than 7 years in the first home, any advice which one might be better for which reasons - I am sure lot of people have considered the same two cities..

Thanks in advance.

I've lived in Foster City as a renter until very recently, and in Mountain View adjoining Palo Alto. 

I'm not sure what you mean by "most home in both cities are really old" - there was no Foster City before the 1960s and so there are no really old homes there, although it's also geographically constrained and there is very little present construction (or newer than the 1980s.)

Some of Palo Alto is much newer, but Palo Alto proper has been filled up for a while - what little newer development there is in Palo Alto propert is either high-density infill or on the periphery.  There's also quite a bit of genuinely old housing stock, in a few areas.

Palo Alto has more of a small city feel, more cosmopolitan and much more to do (although it's all expensive, for the most part) and some college town atmosphere with Stanford there.

Foster City has much more of a suburban feel, some great parks, a few good restaurants, and not much to do.

Both have above average schools for the peninsula, although Palo Alto's are more variable (Foster City is much smaller.)  On the other hand, Foster City does not have its own high school.

For townhouses, you may also want to look at San Mateo and Mountain View, although in both cases if school district is a factor there are better and worse parts.