Manteca home builders are seeing a growing number of buyers from San Joaquin County’s $1 million plus resale community — Mountain House.

A survey of three new home sellers puts the percentage of buyers from Mountain House between 5 and 8 percent.

 If that is reflective of all new home sellers, that means easily  40 to 50 new homes a year have those who decided to pull up stakes from the rolling terrain at the base of the Altamont Hills to the heart of the Northern San Joaquin Valley.

It is easy to understand why.

There is a home in Mountain House  on Atwood Court with 3,353 square feet featuring four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms on a 6,591 square-foot lot that sold for new in 2017 for $648,184.

It has gone pending for $1,399,000.

When it closes escrow, the owner — before a commission is paid — will clear $750,816.

They could turn around and buy the highest base Raymus Home in Manteca with 2,899 square feet new for $791,000.

And as builder Toni Raymus notes, there is more to moving from Mountain House to Manteca than taking your equity and basically eliminating a mortgage.

Manteca — even with community facilities districts — is significantly less costly when it comes to annual property taxes.

The buyer of the Atwood Court home in Mountain House will have an annual property tax bill approaching $30,000.
By contrast a home selling for $800,000 in Manteca will have an annual tax burden in the neighborhood of $10,000.

“People also tend to forget Manteca is a nice place to live,” Raymus said.

She added that often gets lost in day-to-day conversations things such as traffic and growth.

Purchasers of homes in Manteca who have sold their Mountain House property has been a steady and slightly growing trend for the past year.

That’s because the cost of a home is more than just mortgage payments. It also involves taxes, lifestyle preferences, and access to amenities.

The Mountain House to Manteca trend comes as the median price of a previously owned California home last month surpassed the $900,000 mark for the first time ever.
Mountain House is above that average at $999,998. So is Livermore at $1.2 million and Pleasanton at $1,449,000.

Lathrop is at $741,000, Tracy at $720,952, and Ripon at $699,000.

To get below the Manteca median of $623,929 you need to head toward either Modesto at $469,900 or Stockton at $450,000.

The $904,210 statewide average resale home comes as the average fixed rate 30-year mortgage is at 7.09 percent, more than double than in 2021.

Prices increased 11.4 percent in the past year.

The median point where half the homes sold for more and half the homes sold for less, has climbed more than $100,000 in the past two years according to the California Association of Realtors.

It hasn’t slowed down new home sales in Manteca.

Builders are still selling between 6 and 9 homes a week in Manteca.

Nor are rates and soaring prices stopped home sales in their tracks nationwide.

There were 668,000 new homes sold last year in the United States with another 4 million existing housing units bought as well.

Inflation was higher in 2023 than it is now with mortgage rates about the same.

Go back to 1979 for an even better reality check.

Inflation was at 13.3 percent, almost four times as worse.

Mortgage rates peaked in 1979 at 12.9 percent. That was much higher than today’s average 30-year mortgage rate of 7.09 percent.

And the median California home was valued at $167,300, almost exactly twice the $88,700 it was at in 1969. Manteca sold almost 200 new homes in 1979.

Sales are still strong at River Islands at Lathrop where 3,800 homes of 15,001 planned home are already sold and occupied.

River Island’s Susan Dell’Osso indicated builders are selling six homes a week on average as neighborhoods are nearly being sold out.

Additional neighborhoods will open in June and July.

The Mountain House effect is also helping drive part of River Islands’ sales.

It is not as strong as in 2014 and when River Islands started selling homes as Mountain House residents looked to move to a community with more amenities.

That said, the opening of River islands High in August of 2025 along with sales in a 900-home Del Webb community starting later this year are expected to change the dynamics of those that buy at River Islands.

Dell’Osso said families that wanted to move to River Islands in the past would often opt out when they found their teen students would be bused to West High in Tracy.

The age-restricted Del Webb community also draws a different mixture of buyers.

The tax cost of living in River Islands is close to that of Mountain  House. The big difference is the level of amenities and its centralized location relative to central and amenities draws in Modesto, Stockton, and Tracy.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com