PLYMOUTH /Long Pond Road
Long Pond Road has some of everything

By TERI BORSETI
For The Patriot Ledger Area: 103.2 square miles

POPULATION
2000: 51,701
2007: 57,900

Density: 593 res./square mile
Median age: 38
Median household income: $63,009

FINANCES
Tax rate: $9.71
Town budget: $152.9 million
Avg. water/sewer bill: $625/year

HOUSING
Median home price (# sales)
2006: $327,875 (654)
2007: $275,084 (613)
Median condo price
2006: $240,000 (307)
2007: $246,250 (259)

SCHOOLS
Number of students: 8,325
Number of teachers: 612
H.S. grads to 4-yr. college: 49%
H.S. grads to 2-yr. college: 23%
Median SAT score (2006): 1509 (Plymouth North); 1439 (Plymouth South)

Long Pond Road in Plymouth meanders through several neighborhoods, all of them offering something different for homeowners.

There is a variety of architectural styles and a wide price range on houses along the road, and residents include young families,singles, retirees and empty-nester couples.

The southern half of Plymouth wasn't always considered convenient for those who commute to Boston, but the development of new neighborhoods and the commuter rail has changed all that.

Over the past 10 to 20 years, neighborhoods have sprung up along the section of Long Pond Road from Exit 4 off Route 3, through Cedarville, just before the bridge to Cape Cod.

Pine Hollow, one of the newest, is the final phase of a 1,000-house development started in 1990 and originally called Ponds of Plymouth.

"When the development first went in ... back then people could buy a ranch or Cape on a 2-acre lot for $100,000. But house styles and lot sizes changed as the subdivision completed its seven phases," said Bob DiMartino, who lives in a four-bedroom Colonial on Beatrice Avenue in Pine Hollow.

DiMartino, a real estate broker for Remax Paramount in Plymouth, said things changed when The Ponds merged with the new section of town now known as Pine Hollow.

"As this development became more popular, prices went up and lot sizes became smaller. For a while, you could get a house on an acre and a half for $300,000 to $350,000. I bought my house in Pine Hollow in 2005 for $450,000 and although at one point its value went as high as $500,000 plus for a while, I'd say it's currently worth what I paid or even less," he said.

On the other side of Long Pond Road, Anne and Eugene DiFrancesco and their two daughters live in a ranch that's set back from the road. The privacy is excellent, Anne DiFrancesco said, but she sometimes laments the fact that her kids don't live in a more traditional neighborhood.

"Long Pond Road isn't a street you'd take a walk on. There are no sidewalks, so it really isn't a safe place for kids to walk. We tend to drive our daughters to a friend's house and pick them up later, but it's very quiet where we live," DiFrancesco said.

With so many newcomers moving to Plymouth, there have been a few growing pains and the one that most concerns DiFrancesco is the crowding at both high schools.

In 2006 DiFrancesco was one of several residents who campaigned for new schools.

"The high schools are on 'warning' for their accreditation, and that concerns me because my daughters will be attending those high schools in a few years," DiFrancesco said.

The DiFrancescos bought their house in 1998 and say that even with the softening real estate market their ranch has at least doubled in value.

Lee Pulis, a neighbor, said, "The area has a great many coastal glacial (freshwater) ponds that make it rich in wildlife, and the coastal location has a definite effect on the weather. It can be 90 in downtown Plymouth and 78 here."

The ecology buff said the "kettle ponds" are clean, spring-fed bodies of water that attract swans and ospreys that dive for fish.

"There are deer, coyote, gray fox and possum in these woods, and we even have flying squirrels," Pulis said.