Town By Town: Franconia is nicely rural but not isolated

One in a continuing series spotlighting real estate markets in the region's communities.

For J. Barrett and Janet VanDame, Franconia Township had the perfect house, just what they needed five years ago for taking care of his parents, both 95 years old.

"We had been looking for something with single-floor living that could accommodate them, and this was it," Barrett VanDame says of the house they moved to from Souderton Borough.

Halver and Mary VanDame have died since their son and daughter-in-law moved to this Montgomery County community, but Barrett and Janet have no intention of leaving Franconia.

"We really enjoy it here," says Barrett VanDame, who retired eight years ago from NCR Corp. after 40 years of selling computer systems to financial institutions. "Franconia is much less busy than Lansdale," where the couple lived for many years before moving to Souderton a decade ago.

"And," he notes, "still very rural, without much development."

If Franconia is hard for you to place, that's probably because the township falls in the Souderton or Telford zip codes, says David Caracausa, president of Coldwell Banker Premier Properties.

Franconia nearly surrounds those two boroughs and is part of the Souderton Area School District, which, Caracausa notes, is "ranked 18th in Pennsylvania" and is a big draw for home buyers.

The Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike runs through the western edge of Franconia, near the border it shares with another familiar place, Harleysville.

It's rural here, yes, but not isolated, Caracausa says of the Indian Valley community that calls itself "the Garden Spot of Montgomery County," and where descendants of some of the town's settlers still live.

"Franconia is more like 'those lazy, hazy days of summer,' " says Weichert Realtors agent Diane Williams, who is based in Blue Bell and sells in the area.

Forty-one percent of the township's population is at least 45 years old, Williams says.

"If people were going to move 'up' country," she says, "they would be more apt to ask to look in Harleysville or Lower Salford" next door. There are "many more businesses in Harleysville, more traffic, and a more brisk real estate market."

Taxes, especially for the school district, are a little higher than in other places, VanDame says.

Thirty houses sold here in the first quarter, 36.4 percent more than the 22 sales of the first three months of 2014, according to data from Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Fox & Roach Realtors' HomExpert Market Report.

Houses tend not to be pricey, with the median for the first quarter at $261,500, down 1.7 percent from the same quarter a year ago, the data show.

Prices range from $64,900 for one of the seven manufactured houses on the market to $1,119,000, a rarity for Franconia, Williams says. There are townhouses and twins, as well.

Fifteen sales are pending, including a $700,000 house on the market since 2012, she says.

There are more "individual homes" here than large developments, she says, adding that this has created problems because there are "so many private septic systems."

In response, the township "instituted an inspection ordinance a few years ago," Williams says.

Caracausa represents WB Homes, which is building 23 "luxury single homes" on three-quarters of an acre to three acres at the Vistas at Highland Ridge, "across from 100 acres of open space."

Prices range from $469,900 to $570,000.

"Ours is a move-up buyer," he says, outgrowing a current home and looking to move to the school district.

The average age of the buyer is 35 to 54, Caracausa says, although there are likely to be some in their late 20s.

Dick and Sandy Luoma don't fit that demographic. They moved to Franconia from Towamencin 10 years ago "because we knew we were joining the Indian Valley Country Club."

Their address is the over-55 Indian Valley Greenes (one of two such communities in the township), says Dick Luoma, retired assistant superintendent of the Hatboro-Horsham School District.

"It is convenient to everything, and single-floor living has come in handy since Sandy [a retired Realtor] had a stroke," Luoma says. "We trust the people in Franconia. Everyone is so helpful."

Population: 13,064 (2010)

Median household income: $62,126 (2012)

Area: 13.9 square miles

Settlements in the last three months: 30

Homes for sale: 77

Average days on market: 66

Median sale price: $261,500

Housing stock: 4,236 units, recent new construction

School district: Souderton Area

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau; City-Data.com; Diane Williams, Weichert Realtors; Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Fox & Roach Realtors' HomExpert Market ReportEndText

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