Here’s an interesting tidbit: Fifty percent of the home buyers at River Islands at Lathrop are coming from Mountain House and Tracy,

The rest are a mixture of Northern San Joaquin Valley and Bay Area residents.

River Islands Project Manager Susan Dell’Osso noted the Mountain House and Tracy transplants are using their equity to move to the planned community.

It could also signal a trend for the 10,800-home project that was launched due to solid growth in the Bay Area and the prospect for it to continue for years to come. That trend is that River Islands for the initial several years may be a haven for locals in Mountain House, Tracy, Manteca, Lathrop, and even Ripon who may want to use their restored equity and hungry buyers from the Bay Area to leverage a lifestyle change via buying at River Islands at Lathrop.

But the biggest game changer is yet to come.

It’s hard to envision a high concentration of true “million dollar homes” in the South County given today’s housing market.

Lathrop, though, is positioned to have 990 of them as part of River Islands at Lathrop that will also include a town center, and business park.

River Island will offer those who can afford true executive-style housing the unique draw of recreating a river habitat with unparalleled direct river access with a 300-foot wide super levee that will be turned into a greenbelt park.

Those 990 home sites are on the levee with views of the greenbelt park plus river as well as being above — and looking over — the rest of River Islands. That will provide rare million dollar views of the river, the Delta, the Sierra, the Coastal Rangers and the interior of River islands. You’ll even be able to see Mt. Shasta on a clear day

True executive housing is essentially an economic draw for not just Lathrop but Manteca as well.

Retail consultants, office developers, and real estate professionals all agree that Manteca and Lathrop need executive-style housing to hit the promised Mother Lode of high paying white collar jobs and high-end stores. And River Islands will provide it.

There are interior golf courses as well as lakes that will have executive-style housing plus urban-style condos above retail and restaurants planned along the town square just of the San Joaquin River.

River Islands  also includes provisions for more than 2.2 million square feet of space an employment center.