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| Tracy Press, Friday, July 4th, 2003 |
| by David Read |
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| FAMILY HAPPY TO CALL NEW TOWN ‘HOME’ |
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After more than a decade of plans, environmental impact reports, meetings, votes, and revisions, someone can now finally call Mountain House the 15,000 home city planned for just northwest of Tracy home.
Jeff and Lori Francis, along with their 51/2-month-old daughter, Riley, moved into their home in the Wicklund Crossing neighborhood just off Mountain House Parkway near Byron Road just after noon Thursday. They are the first family in Mountain House. "The greatest thing is that we came from a two-bedroom, one-bath house just over a few hills," Lori Frances said. "Now we’re in a four-bedroom, 21/2-half bath house with a den."
To the Francis family, the benefits of buying in Mountain House were obvious. Their previous home in Castro Valley was built in 1949. The 95-square foot home on a 5,000-square foot lot has all the perks of a home built in that era and is valued at $365,000.
"It’s a cute home with a bay window but this house has all the modern amenities," Lori Frances said.
The family’s new home in Mountain House has 2,088 square feet of floor space and is on an 8,991-square-foot lot. There are also switches and dimmers aplenty in every room and plugs for all manner of electronic equipment throughout the house. Jeff Francis said that he and his wife bought the home for $375,000.
"For just a few thousand dollars, we get almost twice the house," Jeff Francis said. "We’re also keep our old house to rent out and buying this one here."
Lori, a teacher in Danville, said that she and her husband plan to have two more children. At least while the children are little, she said that she will stay home.
Jeff, co-owner of Millennium Realty in Pleasanton, is thrilled at the idea of his wife staying home with their children, and he credits the family’s move to Mountain House and the ability to rent their Danville home for the financial wherewithal to set up this arrangement. "At some point I will go back, I’m sure" Lori said. "But for now I think it’s nice to stay with my daughter." With big family plans, Lori Francis considered the schools around Mountain House before she and her husband bought their home.
The Lammersville Elementary School District, which will serve all the children from Mountain House, has only one school, Lammersville School, with a little more than 300 students. Over the next 20 or more years, the district plans to add a dozen schools and a high school, becoming a unified school district. Wicklund School, under construction now and scheduled to open in January 2004, is just blocks away for the Francis’ Mountain House home. " I went online and looked at (Lammersville’s) Web site, and it looked quaint," Lori Frances said. "I taught in Elk Grove, which was a small school district that grew quickly as the city grew. I look at Mountain House as similar to Elk Grove in that respect". Lori Francis is originally from Sacramento, so she’s familiar with the Central Valley. "I don’t consider this the valley," she said. "It’s literally 21 minutes from the 680 interchange. That’s how long it took us to drive here today. We’re a hop, skip and a jump from Pleasanton."
Jeff Francis admits that the commute over the Altamont could be an issue for him. However, he can set his own hours, and he typically works different hours than the average Bay Area worker in Tracy.
"If I had to commute during commute hours, it’d be about double what I am doing now," he said. "But there is a great opportunity for jobs here. It went from San Jose to Fremont, from Fremont to Pleasanton, from Pleasanton to Livermore, and it will move from Livermore to here". Francis said that he also saw great opportunities for business in Mountain House. The city has plans for commercially zoned areas, and Francis said that the new city needs everything from grocery stores to dry cleaners.
"We also gave up a Trader Joe’s down the street," he said. "But there will be one here soon enough". The couple said that they fully understand they are moving into a city. While there are fields of blowing grass all around their home, houses are planned for all of it. The francis’ cul-de-sac is fully built, but while driving down their street, homes in various states of completion can be seen-from houses being landscaped to houses being roofed, to sticks on a foundation, to foundation and then to field, all within one block.
"We know we’re moving into a city of 45,000," Jeff said. " We didn’t move out here to be in the country. We moved out here to be a part of a growing, prospering community."
Jeff said that he’s already met his neighbors- four families with young children. To him, virtually everything about Mountain House screams good investment. He said that he has already taken some of his neighbors and select clients out to see Mountain House.
"As a Realtor with Millennium it’s the equity potential that attracted me" he said. |
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