Why shouldn't I live in Mountain House? (San Francisco, Livermore: for sale, apartment)

[NorCalBound]

Hi, it's likely we'll be relocating to the Pleasanton/Livermore/Tracy area. My husband will be commuting at 6 in the morning, and is willing to live an hour away from work in Newark. Is Mountain House close enough? How are the schools? We can spend around $2200 a month for rent, which gets us a nice house in Mountain House, or an adequate but small apartment in Pleasanton/Livermore. I'm drawn to Pleasanton because of the good schools. I'd like to live in a family oriented community. But if the elementary schools in MH are just about as good and the commute is doable, I'm thinking it might be the way to go. Can someone tell me why I shouldn't live there?

Thanks in advance!!

[DMenscha]

The first reason would be the Altamont Pass. Even at 6 you're going to discover the wonders of a 580 commute. Morning and evening.

If you can find something in Pleasanton you're going to have more time to spend with your family + you might be able to use BART to get to work.

[NorCalBound]

Thanks for the quick response! Just to clarify, my husband will be working a 24 hour shift, so he would only be commuting in the morning. I've heard about the 580 - that's definitely not a plus. But he's the one who would have to drive it. And if he's willing...

[sonarrat]

Second reason would be, you're going to be driving into Tracy for everything from groceries to the post office to hospital care. They don't have a fire outpost either. Third would be that home prices in the Central Valley are in a freefall and it doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon.

[artemis78]

Also, keep in mind that one of the reasons that rents in Mountain House are so cheap is that the community has been very, very badly hit by the foreclosure crisis. (Much of that is just due to bad timing and the transit thing not working out as they'd hoped it might---they built and sold most of the homes at the peak of the market so some insane percentage of them are underwater, versus other communities where developments were sold off over a number of years, or where there was older housing stock.) I would expect the housing crisis to continue to have devastating effects on the community and schools there. Of course, if you're renting you have the option of leaving if it gets really bad, but it's worth recognizing that you may well have neighbors who are in financial straits and may be surrounded by homes that are for sale or in foreclosure. (True in other parts of the state too, but the MH numbers on this are just staggering.) I suspect the city will also have to postpone or cancel the completion of many of the public amenities that aren't built yet to balance the budget as they lose property tax revenue.

I'd keep looking---I imagine you'll find something in that range in Pleasanton soon if not now, since housing costs are coming down there too.

[memiek]

Although MH looks very nice and the houses are incredible, there is nothing there. no shops (I believe there is one but only one), there were plans of building a strip-mall but so far, development on that has not yet started. You will be living in the middle of nothing and as mentioned before: you have to drive to tracy for every little thing except the schools.

[fsufezzik]

Here's a recent article from the San Francisco Chronicle that might shed some more light on Mountain House.

'Town of tomorrow' weathers new reality and image (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/11/13/financial/f150459S33.DTL - broken link)

[Taboo2]

Originally Posted by NorCalBound

Hi, it's likely we'll be relocating to the Pleasanton/Livermore/Tracy area. My husband will be commuting at 6 in the morning, and is willing to live an hour away from work in Newark. Is Mountain House close enough? How are the schools? We can spend around $2200 a month for rent, which gets us a nice house in Mountain House, or an adequate but small apartment in Pleasanton/Livermore. I'm drawn to Pleasanton because of the good schools. I'd like to live in a family oriented community. But if the elementary schools in MH are just about as good and the commute is doable, I'm thinking it might be the way to go. Can someone tell me why I shouldn't live there?

Thanks in advance!!

Highway 580/The Altamont is why.
Onca you get to Livermore you can take 84 down past 680 to niles canyon instead of going 580/238 but it will take longer than an hour for sure not matter which way you go.

Sorry, it would take about an hour to get to livermore from newark.

It has taken me over an hour to get from Castro Valley to Livermore at 4pm

[sav858]

I really would not want to live in a community where over 90% of the homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their house is worth. People are bailing and will continue to bail out of that community for a while probably and you will be living around the effects of that, abandoned/unoccupied homes generally bring bad elements to a neighborhood. BUT you can probably get a VERY good deal on a home there. Read that article another poster linked above from the SF Chronicle and that should tell you why you shouldn't move there if you want to live in a real, viable community.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by sav858

I really would not want to live in a community where over 90% of the homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their house is worth. People are bailing and will continue to bail out of that community for a while probably and you will be living around the effects of that, abandoned/unoccupied homes generally bring bad elements to a neighborhood. BUT you can probably get a VERY good deal on a home there. Read that article another poster linked above from the SF Chronicle and that should tell you why you shouldn't move there if you want to live in a real, viable community.

This is pretty much why I wouldnt want to live in such a place. Although I can see the lure of lower prices.