This planned community checks off all the amenities any family or empty nester could want—without the hefty price tag.
This Up North home is a part of the 2024 Northern Home & Cottage virtual home tour, which features immersive video tours of nine incredible homes and interviews with local contractors and builders. Take a sneak peek inside, then get your event tickets.
Contractor: Better Living Homes
Location: Traverse City
Alta Vista, an in-progress 165-home development on Hammond Road just south of Traverse City, is the brainchild of RC Hermann, owner of Better Living Homes, Inc., who spent his career building residential and commercial complexes all over the Southwest before retiring and moving to Traverse City. Bored by retirement, Hermann began researching the housing market in Traverse City and realized there was a market for empty nesters looking to downsize to low-maintenance homes in a community filled with amenities. Hermann’s first development, Woodcreek, located off South Airport Road, was born.
After Woodcreek was off and running, Hermann purchased the 80-acre parcel that is now Alta Vista. Like Woodcreek, the homes in Alta Vista are manufactured—a construction method that Hermann finds more efficient than stick-built homes. “They can [build] a house in the factory in about a week because all their lumber supplies, cabinetry and plumbing fixtures are all right there in the factory,” he says. Beyond that, the homes are delivered straight to the homesites and assembled securely on the spot, Hermann says.
Photo by Better Living Homes
That said, the homes in Alta Vista don’t look like what most people picture when they hear the term manufactured home given that they have decks, patios and one- and two-car garages. “I take a manufactured home and make it look like a stick-built home,” Hermann says. Alta Vista homes come with underground sprinklers and full landscaping. “We hand you the key when you move in and you’re done,” Hermann says.
Residents enjoy a slew of other amenities right out their front doors, including a large swimming pool, gorgeous Arts & Crafts–style clubhouse, pickleball court, fitness center, community garden, walking paths and easy biking access to the TART trail system. An average three-bedroom, two-bath house ranges from $275,000 to $350,000 depending on the home’s size and features. Alta Vista homes are a perfect way for long-time homeowners to downsize (and maybe pocket enough money to spend the winter in Florida!), and young families to enter the Traverse City housing market—in style.
Don’t miss the Northern Home & Cottage Virtual Tour of this home.
Photo by Better Living Homes