Los Angeles to Sacramento area PLEASE HELP!!! Roseville, Curtis Park,Land Park, Midtown or Folsom so confused. (Lake Forest: apartments, rental) - California (CA) - City-Data Forum

redbelle · 03-19-2011, 06:45 PM

Southern California Native and I will be relocating to the Sacramento area soon for work. I'm torn between the surburbs (Roseville, Folsom) and Curtis Park, Land park, Midtown area (tons of character)

Can't find a decent apartment review in Roseville, Folsom or El Dorado Hills.
I like the shopping and schools in Roseville
Folsom has good schools but Midtown and Curtis Park have the beautiful old homes with charm and close proximity to restuarants, culture, movement, life

Any help would be greatly apppreciated.

Early 30's young professional w/ 13 yr old child
Budget $1400 and below

Curmudgeon · 03-19-2011, 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redbelle

Southern California Native and I will be relocating to the Sacramento area soon for work. I'm torn between the surburbs (Roseville, Folsom) and Curtis Park, Land park, Midtown area (tons of character)

Can't find a decent apartment review in Roseville, Folsom or El Dorado Hills.
I like the shopping and schools in Roseville
Folsom has good schools but Midtown and Curtis Park have the beautiful old homes with charm and close proximity to restuarants, culture, movement, life

Any help would be greatly apppreciated.

Early 30's young professional w/ 13 yr old child
Budget $1400 and below

With a 13-year old, I'd be concentrating on the good schools.

redbelle · 03-19-2011, 07:32 PM

I agree. Roseville, Folsom and El Dorado Hills all have pretty good middle schools however so does certain areas of Midtown(Sutter) At this point I think I'm just having trouble finding decent apartment reviews for the surburbs stated above

NinaN · 03-19-2011, 09:44 PM

I live in El Dorado Hills and know people living in Sterling Ranch and El Dorado Village (both located right along EDH Blvd). They are both happy with their apartments. The only complaint I've heard from them is Sterling hired better managers and now the apartments are more full and parking is more difficult.

We lived at Vineyards at Valley View when we first moved to town and I don't recommend it. The management was clueless, there were lots of young kids running around completely unsupervised and stirring up trouble. Also a lot of crime reported there. Avoid it!

Lake Forest at El Dorado Hills is within walking distance to Marina middle school. Don't know anyone living there though. All the schools in EDH are ranked highly and K-8 should go to school in EDH (but who knows what will happen with all these budget cuts). However, there are some areas that attend high school in Cameron Park. It's still a good school but a bit of a hike. There are also areas south of 50 that attend high school at El Dorado Union High which is lower rated school and a long drive that I wouldn't want to do.

Good luck with your search.
Nina

wburg · 03-19-2011, 10:09 PM

Dagnabbit, at some point we've got to break down and fix this. So many people post here saying "Hey, Midtown and central city neighborhoods seem so great," people reply "THE SCHOOLS SUCK" and yet another person gets shifted off to a neighborhood they can't stand because of schools. Solve the problem of schools and you solve the problem of cities...but I don't really think the current administration's approach is working worth a damn.

Although I do know a few people in the central city who do send their teens to local schools--there are some good programs, apparently, but hard to get into. And there are plenty of kids in East Sac, Curtis Park and Land Park, and the families there aren't exactly poverty-stricken.

NinaN · 03-19-2011, 10:25 PM

I'm with you. Before I got married and had to worry about kids and schools, I lived in an older neighborhood just East of downtown Dallas. Loved it. Loved walking to restaurants, bars, and Whole Foods. Loved the people and the crowds. But nobody in my neighborhood stayed once they had kids. THe houses in the burbs were larger and cheaper, and the Dallas schools were so bad and administration so corrupt that I would have felt the need for private school...which I don't want to pay for. I'm already paying school tax, I'll live somewhere that I can send my kids to a good public school.

raria · 03-20-2011, 10:31 AM

To the OP. Look up the school district website (Sacramento, Folsom-Cordova, Placer etc.) and look up the school boundaries.

California has this great scheme where each school has to fill in a "report card". Here you will get the racial mix, quality of teachers and how well the children tested. It's not perfect, but its available for each school. Ask if the school is "impacted": this means there are too many kids in the school boundaries and they are being bused/off-loaded to over-flow schools (find out what they are).

Finally, many Realtors, apartment managers etc. will tell you not to worry about school boundaries because of "open enrollment". IGNORE THEM (and preferably tell them off). Open enrollment does exist and means in theory that you can nominate to go to any school in the district, not your local school. But in practice good schools are at capacity and "impacted" so your chance of getting into an excellent non-local school is small. I know that home prices (perhaps not rental prices) do depend on school boundaries.

Good luck!

NinaN · 03-20-2011, 11:07 AM

I would fire a realtor that said not to worry about school boundaries. The boundaries do impact prices! From this post and others, you sound like you've had some bad experiences with realtors. There are a lot of really good, ethical realtors around. Too bad you seem to have ended up with some *******s.

The reality is that to avoid lawsuits, realtors are supposed to say "call the school district and check with them" on the boundaries. Why? Some school districts change boundaries frequently. Others are at maximum capacity and if you move into the neighborhood mid-year, your child might not get in to the closest school and might be sent to a lower rated and/or far away school. Folsom is a prime example of this.

There is open enrollment. You can always apply to go to a different school, but that doesn't mean you will get in. And if you get in, it doesn't mean you will get in next year, so your kids might have to change schools...again.

CALL THE SCHOOL DISTRICTS AND ASK ABOUT ENROLLMENT BEFORE YOU SIGN THAT CONTRACT!!!!!

Enough said.

raria · 03-20-2011, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NinaN

I would fire a realtor that said not to worry about school boundaries. The boundaries do impact prices! From this post and others, you sound like you've had some bad experiences with realtors. There are a lot of really good, ethical realtors around. Too bad you seem to have ended up with some *******s.
Enough said.

I've really not had any bad experiences with realtors, only funny ones . I always do my checking (and lots of it) and it means I haven't got burnt (well not as yet anyway)

I would suggest the OP do the same.

king90723 · 08-07-2011, 03:33 AM

Roseville, Folsom and El Dorado Hills are nice but are cookie cutter suberbs...the areas of sacramento you mentioned are more unique and active...i would go for sacramento...i have lived in all areas but Curtis Park and Land park because i was going to buy a home in the sacramento area and wanted to get a fill of the same areas and a few others...i liked midtown the most but it was out of my price range for buying...but for renting folsom, roseville and edh are higher...have you considered the bay area it is alot more like so ca...and the wages are alot higher then sacramento and so cal depending on your line of work...