Anybody live in or around Sacramento?

[rpanic]

Wife and I have been asked if we would ever want to transfer there. Living in Los Angeles now and been looking at houses online and they look really cheep there. How are the area schools? What areas should I be looking at if I did move there. How is the job market there? We both like hiking and stuff looks like a lot more of those kinds of things to do there.

Any info would be great.

 

[OdiN]

While I'm not a huge fan of Sac Town, anything is better than LA.

 

[CrackRabbit]

My impression of Sacramento, from driving through, was that it was a big town smack dab in the middle of nowhere.
It is rather close to good things though like national parks (Yosemite) and Skiing near Redding, and San Francisco is a couple of hours away and so is Reno.

 

[The Stigenator]

I lived in sac during the time i went to college. Its not a bad place. I would say if you want safer neighborhood look outside of sac if need be. Davis, or woodland, elkgrove, folsom (prefered), orangevale, fairoaks, roseville, citrus heights, Natomas (new area).

Within sac, landpark is a nice area, midtown has good and bad areas, carmichael has some good areas. There is a few good private schools, loretto is a good girls school, and then there is that jesuit school on Fairoaks blvd.

Its a smaller town, i liked it over LA, lesser traffic snarls. Sac does have a higher amount of crime, car thefts, so elkgrove will get nixed for that, but it is still a nice area.

Where is your job at? downtown sac?

 

[rpanic]

Originally posted by: TheGoodGuy
I lived in sac during the time i went to college. Its not a bad place. I would say if you want safer neighborhood look outside of sac if need be. Davis, or woodland, elkgrove, folsom (prefered), orangevale, fairoaks, roseville, citrus heights, Natomas (new area).

Within sac, landpark is a nice area, midtown has good and bad areas, carmichael has some good areas. There is a few good private schools, loretto is a good girls school, and then there is that jesuit school on Fairoaks blvd.

Its a smaller town, i liked it over LA, lesser traffic snarls. Sac does have a higher amount of crime, car thefts, so elkgrove will get nixed for that, but it is still a nice area.

Where is your job at? downtown sac?[/q]


We would both be working downtown, wife would probably switch to telecommuting 4 days a week after a year if she stays with the same job. We wouldn?t mind living 30min away from work.

 

[BoomerD]

There are several members who live in the Sac. area. I live about 80 miles south of there. It's a small city with several decent colleges including UC Davis, (not actually in Sac, but close enough to drive) You'd be about 100 miles from both Reno and Tahoe, about 2 hours to Yosemite, 2 hours from San Francisco and the Pacific Ocean, and about 6 hours from L.A..
Sacramento has quite a high crime rate and a couple of BAD areas...(not exactly ghettos, but definitely "the Hood." Living outside Sacramento proper isn't a bad idea...but if you work in Sac., will mean a commute, which can be pretty bad. Traffic there sux during rush hour.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: OdiN
While I'm not a huge fan of Sac Town, anything is better than LA.

Having lived in both cities, I can say that I absolutely, wholeheartedly disagree.

 

[AlienCraft]

<---Born and raised here, with time spent living abroad and "in the big city", both as an Air Force Brat, and as a working adult. ---> Sacramento, A Nice Place to Be FROM. <------ City Council marketing slogan that bombed....

I kid, I kid.....


Schools in Sacramento have just consolidated into a massive district. Administrative and Staff shakeouts have yet to occur.
Historically, there are some areas to avoid, in South Sacramento/ Elk Grove, and in Del Paso Heights.
Some would say avoid Rio Linda, yet their graduation and college placement rates belie the perception of the neighborhood (semi - rural).



Citrus Heights, Orangevale, Folsom, El Dorado Hills are all new municipalities within the greater Sacramento County that will have decent schools and a wide variety of home buying options.

The Basic Mindset of this sleepy little cow town at the junction of two great rivers (once water, now asphalt) is one of little town with delusions of granduer.
The constant influx of East Coasters, and SoCal'rs here for Governmental and then by extension, Big Business reasons has assured that a certain level of sophistication has occured, but by and large, the prevailing POV is not unlike Midwestern American Farming Community that has had the Big Mill ( Air Force bases) move away.

People still come here thinking they can strike gold, and you can, you simply need to accept that you will need to move a LOT of rock before that happens.
Come to Folsom, I'll show you rock that's been moved in search of real gold.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: rpanic
Wife and I have been asked if we would ever want to transfer there. Living in Los Angeles now and been looking at houses online and they look really cheep there. How are the area schools? What areas should I be looking at if I did move there. How is the job market there? We both like hiking and stuff looks like a lot more of those kinds of things to do there.

Any info would be great.

Have you looked at houses out in Valencia? My parents cannot afford anything decent (~450k ish) in the valley or the city so they are looking in Valencia where 450k will get you 3 bedroom, 2100 sq ft house built in early 2000

 

[AlienCraft]

Originally posted by: Corporate Thug

Originally posted by: rpanic
Wife and I have been asked if we would ever want to transfer there. Living in Los Angeles now and been looking at houses online and they look really cheep there. How are the area schools? What areas should I be looking at if I did move there. How is the job market there? We both like hiking and stuff looks like a lot more of those kinds of things to do there.

Any info would be great.

Have you looked at houses out in Valencia? My parents cannot afford anything decent (~450k ish) in the valley or the city so they are looking in Valencia where 450k will get you 3 bedroom, 2100 sq ft house built in early 2000

That commute to Sac is really gonna suck.

 

[zoiks]

I wouldn't move there primarily because of how hot that place can become during the summer.

 

[BoomerD]

Summers are definitely hot...100+ is possible for several months, and the winters, while not real cold, (30's and occasional dips into the 20's) bring a lot of rain...which brings fog so thick you can't see your hand in front of your face...so, when people can see the hood on their car, they tailgate and drive faster!

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Places to look:

close to your job, traffic aint the best but way better than LA.

Good schools: Land Park area, McKinley Park area, Pocket-Greenhaven area, and then you start going farther and farther out to the outlying towns like Folsom.

 

[zoiks]

I would say that if you like to fish, that would be an awesome place to live.

 

[AlienCraft]

Originally posted by: zoiks
I wouldn't move there primarily because of how hot that place can become during the summer.

meh, anyone who says that doesn't have A/C in their car, or hasn't been to Vegas.

Barely breaks 100..... Better than NYC / ATL @ 90* and 85% relative humidity any time....

 

[AlienCraft]

Originally posted by: zoiks
I would say that if you like to fish, that would be an awesome place to live.

We used to have a killer Salmon fishery , but that has really changed in the last 10 years.
Numbers of returning fish are WAY down.

 

[rpanic]

Originally posted by: Corporate Thug

Originally posted by: rpanic
Wife and I have been asked if we would ever want to transfer there. Living in Los Angeles now and been looking at houses online and they look really cheep there. How are the area schools? What areas should I be looking at if I did move there. How is the job market there? We both like hiking and stuff looks like a lot more of those kinds of things to do there.

Any info would be great.

Have you looked at houses out in Valencia? My parents cannot afford anything decent (~450k ish) in the valley or the city so they are looking in Valencia where 450k will get you 3 bedroom, 2100 sq ft house built in early 2000

We have been watching the market everywhere for a while, hoping the market goes down a lot more. We are currently living in Sherman Oaks which is nice. We have a baby now and are just thinking of other places to live. Sacramento would be a easy move because our current employers would like us to go there, but we could really go anywhere, part of us is really tired of living in LA and dealing with the traffic and everything else. We are sort of looking at things long term and want our child/children to have a nice place to grow up and go to school.

 

[kranky]

Chart of median listing prices for homes in Sacramento (also San Jose, SF and LA)

 

[zoiks]

Originally posted by: AlienCraft

Originally posted by: zoiks
I would say that if you like to fish, that would be an awesome place to live.

We used to have a killer Salmon fishery , but that has really changed in the last 10 years.
Numbers of returning fish are WAY down.

Yeah, but you can fish many other rivers for Salmon such as near Oroville. You also have bass, trout, sturgeon, striped bass and other fish that you can fish for.

 

[rpanic]

Originally posted by: kranky
Chart of median listing prices for homes in Sacramento (also San Jose, SF and LA)

Ya I saw that when they posted it, good site.

 

[IGBT]

..gang activity has become a problem lately. check the crime stats of the area of intrest.

 

[Slew Foot]

Ive been living here for the past few years in the Natomas area. Its a nice newly developing area with nice new building and parks and things. Cant say much about the schools since I dont have any kids myself, but I havent heard great things about them. The job market is OK here, if youre in government or healthcare, not much else around here besides retail.

The big negative effect on Sacramento is that is probably ground zero for the housing bubble, prices are for the most part in a free fall in the 4-county area. Depending on your view point this could be a good thing, as housing will be pretty cheap in a couple years. However, alot of the economic growth in the area was driven by RE/construction/equity which is quickly evaporating.


Watch the prices fall!!!
http://flippersintrouble.blogspot.com/
http://flippersintrouble.blogspot.com/

 

[Slew Foot]

Gang activity and crime is most prevalent in south sac, elk grove, and west sac area. North Natomas, Roseville, and East Sac are probably the safest.

 

[AlienCraft]

Originally posted by: zoiks

Originally posted by: AlienCraft

Originally posted by: zoiks
I would say that if you like to fish, that would be an awesome place to live.

We used to have a killer Salmon fishery , but that has really changed in the last 10 years.
Numbers of returning fish are WAY down.

Yeah, but you can fish many other rivers for Salmon such as near Oroville. You also have bass, trout, sturgeon, striped bass and other fish that you can fish for.

oh, yeah... true dat!



BTW,if it goes upriver to Oroville, it goes through Sacramento.
I have pictures from back then with limits of Kings.
We used to go out at dawn , limit before light, start the smoking process, and then go back for Steelies, which used to overlap seasons.

My first salmon was 43lbs, caught in Nimbus Basin. I was 12 and in 7th grade. It was a beat- to- craP, tired old buck, but he hooked legal and I landed his ass. He was almost as big as I was.

 

[Dirigible]

Originally posted by: rpanic
Wife and I have been asked if we would ever want to transfer there. Living in Los Angeles now and been looking at houses online and they look really cheep there. How are the area schools? What areas should I be looking at if I did move there. How is the job market there? We both like hiking and stuff looks like a lot more of those kinds of things to do there.

Any info would be great.

I don't think there's all that much hiking and whatnot in Sacramento itself. Sacramento is in the central valley, so not much there. There is a bike path that goes out towards some other local town for quite a ways (I'm not a Sac Town resident, so don't know the details). As others have said, it's not that far from the Sierra foothills for hikes and mountain biking, Tahoe is close enough for day trips, and not super far from SF (ain't exactly close either).

I know some people that live there and like it, and the housing is cheaper than LA or the Bay Area, but it's too hot and too central valley for me.