That pounding noise you hear?

It’s the heartbeat of Manteca.

And it’s created by the crescendo of hammers and nail guns.

Manteca started 875 new homes in 2022.

That was followed up with 978 new homes in 2023.

Then last year, the noise of new construction scaled up even higher to 1,306 new home starts.

Ponder that number — 1,306 home starts that will translate into 1,306 new households.

It might be a bit insane, but there is a good chance 2025 could also see housing starts in Manteca again reach four figures.

Do not misunderstand.

This is not intended to be a giddy column that would warm the heart of most chamber of commerce organizations in the country.

It’s a reality check.

What is happening is exactly what Manteca has been setting the stage to occur.

The fact Manteca is at the juncture it is today has nothing to do with misleading the public. Nor is the fact the stared municipal goal is to reach a population of 211,000 based on the adopted general plan.

It is a general plan, it should be pointed out, that took the city more than five years to update with every policy decisions debated during more than 20 open forums

But how did we get the point that 1,306 homes were started in a year?

And how much longer can this keep going on?

Keep in mind this is Manteca.

It’s about location, access, and long-range decisions that will allow essentially a duplicate wastewater treatment plant to be built in the next few years with relative ease plus buying into a water strategy that weds surface with ground water.

That location straddling a freeway and rail network is part of the region that has become the No. 1 “affordable housing” solution for the growing number of workers needed to tackle the development of tech innovations that the Bay Area has the synergy to keep cranking out new homes.

Location means nothing if you don’t make it developable.

Manteca — as well as neighboring Tracy, Lathrop, and Mountain House — have been making all the right news.

Arguably, the foundational elements for water and sewer are a bit more solid in Manteca.

Manteca can’t match the methodical ingenuity in terms of creating livable neighborhoods on the scale of the 15,001-home River Islands at Lathrop planned community.

But that is coming with a more upfront cost to home buyers in terms of tax assessments to build and support desired amenities.

Manteca has been clearly hit and miss in the amenities department.

The passages of the 20-year temporary Measure Q sales tax last year combined with growth fees will fill in the gaps assuming it is managed well.

The fact River Islands with its reputation as a desirable community especially to raise a family coupled with its heavy marketing focused on buyers from west of the Altamont Pass, helps to bring more people looking for homes to Manteca builders.

It gets them here to hunt.

If River Islands isn’t what they want — although given how it’s coming together and the end goal that might be a bit hard to believe —  there are other options nearby.

And given River Islands is higher priced overall than new homes in Manteca, there’s a good chance builders in the Family City are benefitting from the synergy River Islands has created as well as its extensive marketing campaign.

If they can’t afford River Islands and like what they see in terms of lifestyle on this side of the Altamont, there are less expensive options nearby.

Manteca — during the dark days of the Great Recession from 2009 to 2011 — was an abnormally.

New home building continued with 300 plus new houses been built and sold each of those three years.

Manteca, by itself, built more homes annually during that stretch than all the other jurisdictions in San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Merced counties combined.

It did so because banks were rolling to bankroll the development of infrastructure — sewer,  water, neighborhood streets, et al — in one fell-swoop instead of phases.

That is because development agreements secured with bonus bucks nailed down sewer allocation certainty.

A similar dynamic is now at work in Manteca with development agreements including new fire engines, new garbage trucks, accelerated off-site improvements such as needed traffic signals before a home can be built.

That means a lot of money is being put in the ground in Manteca that can’t be retrieved unless a home is built and sold.

Developers and banks had an incentive to work together to keep building in Manteca during the Great Recession.

Homes got smaller in Manteca during that time period but they still sold.

If and when a similar slowdown happens, the fact there are a number of builders all doing the infrastructure for all practical purposes upfront, the odds are new home sales will continue with an adjustment to the product.

There are other reasons why Manteca last year started over 130 percent more homes than the 576 Tracy did.

One of them has to do with a larger number of active builders in Manteca.

It may be because the 9,000 or so housing units in various stages of approval in Manteca aren’t concentrated on in one or two large endeavors.

And given state laws in place today, any effort to stop the 9,000 housing units in the development queue from happening other than a complete collapse of market force is a no starter.

Manteca starting 3.5 homes, on average, each day in 2024 didn’t just happen.

That is why a repeat in 2025 on a similar scale of home building frenzy is not out of the realm of possibilities.

By the way, if the average selling price of those 1.306 homes built in 2024 was $600,000, you’re talking $783.6 million in new home transactions.

That kind of a number will get the attention of national home builders.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com