I know this is a small community (here on lemmy) but I was wondering what is a good area to live there? We will make about 115k or so and are looking to rent the first year or 2. I have an 8 year old daughter and a wife. We are coming from Tulsa Oklahoma but are very left leaning. We love to hike and spend time outdoors. Def want a nice school for my daughter. Thanks for any advice!
You have got to check out Folsom!!
We moved here a few years go from the North Natomas area of Sacramento. I have a nine year old, and the schools here in Folsom are amazing, and besides the lake, there are tons of trails and bike paths (SO many people ride bikes here!).
There’s also Folsom Lake Community College, which houses the Harris Center for the Arts, a very active Historic District that has farmers markets, an ice rink in the winter, craft fairs, etc.
PLUS, Folsom’s location is great for all sorts of day trips: gold mining towns like Coloma and Nevada City are within an hour’s drive, Lake Tahoe is only 2 hours away, ski resorts about 1.5 hours away, and a visit to San Francisco would take you about 2 hours to get there.
That’s awesome to hear we were actually looking at Folsom we also checked out Auburn but I’m not sure how bad traffic is from Auburn to Sacramento even though I don’t really go into the office everyday I kind of just leave for my house and do my job all over the city so driving is not really an issue I guess. Thanks!
I lived in the Auburn/Grass Valley area as a teenager, and am glad I got out when I did. Just a heads up: You mentioned leaning left, so I should warn you that Nevada County is pretty conservative (and vocal about it), and pretty white (and proud of it).
I miss Sacramento so much and wish I could move back, but I’m stuck in Georgia. I left about 10 years ago, so some of my recollections might be a little out of date.
The better school districts tend to be in the upper middle class suburbs that are generally more expensive, less diverse, and somewhat more right-leaning, at least by California standards. The areas that come to mind are Rocklin, Roseville, Granite Bay, Lincoln, Folsom, Loomis, El Dorado Hills. I grew up in Lincoln when it was semi-rural, but it has mostly been taken over by people moving out of the more expensive bay area and prices have gone way up. Davis is a major college town that might be more liberal.
If you are willing to make a longer drive, Auburn, Grass Valley, Colfax, Placerville, and various small towns in the foothills would likely suit your outdoor and hiking preferences.
There are some great areas in the core, like Land Park and East Sacramento, but they tend to be very expensive and in some cases there are really bad areas a few blocks away.
West Sacramento and Woodland both seemed nice to me, but I’m not that familiar with either. I lived in North Natomas for several years and really liked it, but you have to keep an eye on the school boundaries. Where I lived, my kids would have been sent to some unsafe middle and high schools in a neighboring area, even though the Natomas schools were closer. Also, my wife says the area has gotten worse since we left, but I don’t know in what way.
We’ve been looking at Auburn, seems nice. Driving is what I do mostly for work so that’s not a big deal really. I appreciate the advice, I’ll look into these. Thanks!
Where will you be working? I live in Elk Grove, on the south west area, and it is a lovely suburban situation with good schools, but it gets pricey and is far enough from midtown to be a pain to commute. A lot of the areas with good schools are like that. Where you work is a huge factor in considering options.
My company has kind of left it up to me to figure out where to put the main office we just do pest control so all I need is a small one room office with a small warehouse/garage on the back for chemicals so I’m just looking to get a commercial building maybe a thousand square feet and then preferably get a house nearby. I appreciate the recommendation and me and my wife will certainly check out that area. We have a ton of equity in our home and we’ll have quite a bit of cash to live on for the first couple of years. We’d like to save as much as possible but definitely don’t want to end up in the ghetto. I will have the opportunity to fly out a few times before we finally move to investigate the area a bit.
I specifically live in the Laguna West area of Elk Grove; there is a commercial area south of Elk Grove with a lot of development by the Sky River Casino, if you look there and target the areas near it, I bet there is opportunity. I have another family member who lives in the area of the costco on Elk Grove Blvd, both of us are very happy with the schools in the area. It is a pricey area, but there’s a ton of new development and the price goes down the further north you go (south Sacramento is not a nice area and the different school district is much worse). It’d be a slog to get into town; 99 clogs up, so we like living near 5.
I don’t have suggestions as to the location of the commercial space (I’d tentatively suggest Arden Arcade, but definitely scout about because some areas are super sketch), but the comment re traffic is spot on. Wherever the office ends up, try to find housing nearby if you don’t want to be stuck in traffic for an hour or more trying to get home (when it would take 20 minutes at other times of the day). Light rail can be an alternate option to driving if you’re lucky on the start/end points of your commute.
You can choose from a whole variety of housing experiences in the Sacramento metro area, from apartments in the middle of downtown to houses on the outskirts of downtown to living outside of the grid entirely in the suburbs. Heck, one of my coworkers chose to skip the city entirely and buy an old farmhouse 45 minutes away in a more rural area.
With a kid, I’d definitely do your research about schools in the area, as there are a few to choose from. Elk Grove school district is excellent, Sac Unified not so much (although it will vary from school to school). There are others too that I don’t know very much about. Fair Oaks had some controversy regarding a racist homecoming float. Rocklin passed a policy requiring teachers to notify parents if students are using pronouns/names different from what’s on their birth certificate.
Very cool thank you so much for the info I’ll keep an eye on this thread if you have anything to add.
