Considering move to Sacramento (San Jose, San Francisco: real estate, apartments, for rent)

[NikkiB]

I currently live in Athens, GA, about 45 minutes NE of Atlanta and I'm considering a move to the Sacramento area. I am 29 and going to be getting a divorce, no kids. I sell real estate. All I know about Sacramento is what I've been reading on the internet. I would love some advice on where might be a good location. In Athens I live in a nice area where there are mostly charming older homes, small boutique shopping, funky wine shops, organic food markets and a few great restuarants full of personality-all within walking distance. From what I've read the Midtown area seems like it might be a good fit for me, but I would love some input from people who know the area.

Thanks!

[KidBlue]

Sounds like you are describing midtown or downtown Sacramento. I'm not sure what your budget is, but they are building lots of condominiums in downtown that are selling for around $300K-$400K. There are also many old subdivided victorians and newer apartments for rent that are cheaper. Sacramentans are in to organic and there is a wonderful big natural foods co-op downtown. The bus system is great downtown and very affordable. You can walk or bus to restaurants, coffe shops, farmers' markets, old town and even now to a nice, new Safeway.

You'll like the less humid weather. It gets hot, but everywhere has A/C. It never gets really cold in Sacramento, but it can get foggy and drizzly for days on end. But if you have a car, a 45 minute drive to the east will fix that and then you can discover the funky shops in Placerville or Auburn!

[almost heaven]

Hot in the summer and you will have to spend a little money to live in a nice area. Sac is a bit removed though. If you like to ski Tahoe is close but traffic is bad comming to the bay area so don't plan to live there if there is any reason you would want to come to the bay area on a regular basis. Home prices are falling in Sac now so it is a buyers market.

[jenney]

midtown sounds like what you are looking for. Lots of inexpensive apartments and victorian single family homes. (I call them inexpensive because I live in San Jose now and our median home price is $800K, so Sacto is cheap-o-rama to me!)

My brother and his wife are selling their home outside of sacramento and have had to ask less than they paid for it two years ago because prices are falling. More so in the midtown area because people want to move to the outskirts for the newer homes.

Midtown has lots of cute shops, cafes and huge old trees lining the wide one-way streets. It is nice and shady for walks in the cool morning and evenings (even on the hottest days, the eves and morns will be cool, almost without exception). It is virtually never muggy. Humidity in the summer is around 15-20%. It gets hot, but growing up there I never had an air conditioner, just a fan because without the humidity you can be comfortable with just air circulating. That was in the 1970's. Most everybody has aircon today!

There are some decent art galleries and antique shops, though there are more up in the foothills toward Auburn and Placerville. Those are about an hour from downtown/midtown, but worth an afternoon. You would be 2 hours from San Francisco one direction and 2 hours from Tahoe another direction, but those numbers will be higher if traffic is bad. (Tahoe on a long weekend in February can be an all day drive between snow, accidents and everybody & his brother wanting to ski at the same time!)

The Mexican food is terrific, and not like anything i ever found on the east coast. In fact, I missed that more than anything when I lived in Washington DC.

If I think of anything else, I'll post it.
jenney