The average price of a new vehicle today is $47,000.

For that kind of money back in 2009 you could have bought a home in Manteca and still have $2,000 left over.

The home, though, would have to have been a 944-square-foot unit with two bedrooms and one bathroom at the Cherry Lane Condos saddling its namesake street just before it meets up with Union Road and Crom Street.

Today, that unit is one of three that have gone pending for the same price — $220,000.

The Cherry Lane condos are the bottom of the bottom when it comes to Manteca’s resale housing market if you exclude offerings in mobile home parks.

Since 2008 when the apartment complex built in 1975 was converted to condos it has consistently served as the ground floor for resale prices for the Manteca housing market.

Today, the median  price of pre-existing homes that secure offers and sell in Manteca was at $598,000. That figure represents is a mixed bag of McMansions, homes under 1,000 square feet, houses that are 5 years old and houses that are 55 years old.

Given all of the condos at Cherry Lane are either 944 or 941 square feet and were built at the same time, it makes the price over time more of an apple to apple comparison that an apples to oranges thing.

That said, just like there are dozens upon dozens of varieties of apples, some of the condos have been kept in better shape, some have recent upgrades or some have a more desirable location.

The $220,000 for the unit mentioned above was the highest price that specific unit has ever fetched.

It was purchased for $168,000 as a newly minted condo in February 2008.

It lost more than 70 percent of its value when it sold for $49,900 in October 2009 as the housing market was nearing the bottom of  its freefall during the mortgage crisis that triggered the Great Recession.

The condo changed hands in November 2013 for $75,000

It sold for $120,000 in September of 2018 to an investor who flipped it two months later for a $174,500 as their timing came as housing prices had one of their biggest surges in recent years.

There are two other Cherry Lane condo units currently listed — one for $250,000 and another for $254,000,

The Bulletin started tracking the complex sales shortly after they came on the market in September 2006 as the median resale price for a resale home in Manteca hit $410,000. It was just $3,000 away from the market's peak before liar loans triggered the housing collapse to send the country into recession.

The reason the Cherry Lane Condos were a significant moment in Manteca history did not have much to do with the fact they were the first condo conversion of an apartment complex in the city.

 It had more to do with people willing to pay $220,000 for heavily-aged 800-square-foot homes accessed from alleys. That was the same price the initial Cherry Lane condo sales started at in 2006.

That — and the fact almost nothing was available for under $300,000 — made the conversion of the apartments into condos at Union Road and Cherry Lane look appealing to those desperately trying to buy shelter.

It was a much different story two years later.

What was once the hottest residential property in Manteca was on the bottom of the heap in terms of the price at the close of escrow based on transactions recorded during 2008.

The condos that once sold for $233 per square foot went begging even as late as the second quarter of 2012 for as little as $39.50 per square foot.

Several units were being offered for sale in Mach 2012 ranging from $37,200 to $45,000. The lowest asking price represented an 83.14 percent decline in value in six years.

The Cherry Lane condo sellers were the most realistic after the housing bubble burst. In 2008, they quickly dropped to $60,000 — a drop twice as sharp as conventional housing — prompting a flurry of sales.

They hit bottom in January of 2010 when units that sold closed escrow for $44,900.

At that point the condos had plunged 78.6 in value over four years compared with overall housing values in Manteca that had dropped 57 percent during the same time going from $413,000 to $178,000.

Today based on most recent sales the Cherry Lane condos are earning 10 to 20 percent more than the peak value of $220,000 in 2006.

While the three units that have gone pending for the identical price of $220,000, others have gone for more in the past nine months.

That includes one for $263,769 in a prime location with the latest upgrades.

The variation in price is underscored by the fact the three $220,000 pending sales, are near the Union Pacific Railroad tracks.

The condos are still the affordable alternative for those trying to find affordable shelter in the current housing market where a two bedroom and one bathroom apartment at Laurel Glenn on Button Avenue in Manteca that went for $790 a month in 2005 and $1,188 a month in 2014 is now commanding $1,870 a month. The Laurel Glenn two bedrooms and one bathroom floor plan at 750 square feet is 290 square feet less than the Cherry Lane condos.

The highest priced two bedroom, one bathroom apartment in Manteca is at The Atherton near Bass Pro Shops on Atherton Drive that features 722 square feet. It rents for $2,145

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com