Mateo, Belmont, and Foster City, is by far the strongest ward in the SF and SF West Stakes. It's probably just as strong or stronger than most of the wards in the Menlo Park Stake (the next stake south). Their Sunday attendance is almost double the second largest ward in either stake. They have a huge primary and a decent-sized youth program for the area.

It's an expensive place to live, but Foster City and Belmont are family-oriented towns with very highly rated schools for the area. Parts of San Mateo, usually up in the hills, also have great schools. The stretch of towns from San Bruno down to San Carlos seems to be the sweet spot between the lousy housing situations of the city and the largely too expensive parts of the Palo Alto area.

We've lived on the Peninsula for six years. I work in Burlingame, which has the best schools for the area, but is pretty exclusive. We rented for a year in Foster City, two years in San Mateo, a year in Burlingame, and now are in San Bruno. We came from Utah (my wife was born and bred in Utah Valley) and at first we vowed to leave ASAP due to the high cost of living, but we have absolutely fallen in love with it. We keep adding things to our family to-do list faster than we can check them off. If you have any questions, feel free to send me a boardmail.