Why did I move to Tracy ? - Part 2

Read Part - 1 of this 'click here'

...continued from Part - 1

...so I told my colleagues that I bought a new house. After the "Wow, Congratulations" and the pats on the back, came the usual question.

"Where did you buy your house?"

"Tracy" I reply with a smile, knowing what was to come next.

"TRACY ?? Good God, you're crazy !!" they all say, "how will you commute all that distance ?"

Now I launch into my standard sales pitch for Tracy... and it goes something like this.

1. Tracy is a family oriented town.
2. Tracy is very safe and very quiet and the houses are very new.
3. Value for money ($ for house) is so much better. (I own a 1800sq.ft 2 story house in Tracy with fireplaces, 3 car garage, 4bed, 3bath and a 6000 sq.ft yard... beat that for $500k).
   
4. Appreciation may be slower than the bay area, but it does appreciate. (My insurance agent bought a home in Tracy in 2003 for $380k , it is now worth $515k. So don't tell me there is no appreciation.
   
5. Tracy has all the major outlets that all other Bay Area cities have for example : SEARS, Marshalls, Safeway, Albertsons, ROSS, Grocery Outlets, JC Penny, COSTCO, Home Depot, Best Buy, Cost Plus, Barnes&Noble, TARGET, OSH, Rite Aid etc etc etc... the list can go on and on... YES it is all there...
6. The schools in Tracy are good. My home is close to the Jefferson School district. THey have a K-8 school just a minute from my house.
   
   

Screenshot from Google Maps (For indicative purpose only)

You see like so many people, my friends and colleagues look at the map of the bay area and see Tracy and think "Hey that's too far". But it really isn't. The distance from my office in San Jose and my home in Tracy is exactly 52.6 miles (yes I set the trip meter in my car).

The distance from My office to Gilroy is 40 miles
The distance from My office to San Francisco Center is 48 miles
The distance from My office to Salinas is 60 miles
The distance from my office to San Ramon is 36 miles
The distance from my office to Walnut Creek is 46 miles

And I have colleagues and friends living in all the above areas. They all drive to work in San Jose / Santa Clara.

So if you think about it, driving for 10 minutes more and 10 miles more to reach Tracy is NOT a big deal is it ? It just takes a little education for someone to see that it is not some small town with farms, but one that has grown from about 35,000 to over 80,000+ people in just a few years. And it will keep growing. See, people might not want to drive to Modesto or Manteca or Stockton from the Bay area as a daily commute (Though there are some that do), but Tracy is not that far.
I am not saying that the traffic isn't bad, it can be terrible sometimes. There is always atleast a 10-15 minute traffic jam after the 680/580 junction, but after that it gets bearable. The key is to skip the rush hour by about 20 minutes if you want to drive it. (starting at 9-9.15am from home and leaving work by about 6:30-7pm to head back)

ANOTHER PLUS !!!
Did you know that there is a train that runs from Stockton to San Jose every day , many times a day, to and fro ?? Yes, It is called the ACE (Altamont Commuter Express) and it picks you up from Tracy and drops you off at Great America, Santa Clara, and San Jose (Next to Stevens Creek) The train ride lasts around one hour and they have wireless access onboard, so you can get access to office emails on the way to and from work. (buy a laptop with wireless)

see more on the ACE train here: http://www.acerail.com/
See the Map of stations here:
http://www.acerail.com/schedules/route-map.htm

I will upload some pics of my daily commute in my next post.