Riverbank, California

up to four-bedroom apartments and the largest ones rent for about $580 per month.” “They’re both very affordable for the area,” says Scully.“They look fantastic and are well-managed, too.The Council is very committed to a range of housing possibilities for its residents. Sometimes, suburban communities just want the basic, single- family home set-up, but the City of Riverbank has a very aggressive,multi-disciplinary, affordable housing strategy.We have our own housing pro- gram,where we do low income loans; we have a first-time home-buyer program; we have a housing authority that runs a number of affordable units for our seniors. So, it’s a place where there’s a variety of different habitations and we’re very proud of that. We find that people that move to Riverbank that didn’t grow up here like Riverbank for a couple of reasons: it’s close to a number of larger population centers, but still has sort of a small town vibe, and it is a safe and clean community with good schools The housing here seems to go very quickly.Also, the cost of living in the Central Valley is far lower than it is in the Bay area. Prices there are sky high and the Bay area has only so much available land. So, it’s not like the Valley where we’re much more spread out.” While the median age of Riverbank is in the low 30s, the City has also become a retirement desti- nation for seniors from the Bay area.“We have a subdivision called Diamond Bar West,” says Kenney. “That’s a 46-house subdivision; the houses are on 5,000-sq.-ft. lots and they’re around 1,600–2,000 square feet.The developer thought it would appeal to families with young children because he was selling at $299-300,000 for a brand new house with some really nice amenities, inside. But then, he was finding that it was retiring couples from the San Francisco Bay area that were buying these homes.They could sell their house in San Francisco