What makes Sacramento so cheap? (San Jose: employment, prices, housing)
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Uh. Are we talking about the Sacramento? You can get to Tahoe in an hour from El Dorado Hills and then if you live practically ON the freeway (most people do not) and drive like a bat out of hell. It's more like 1.75-2 hours from Sacramento. That is, unless your talking about the people who leave at 2 a.m. and drive well over a 100.
True, from Sacto. My snowboarding kids/grandkids live in Roseville/Granite Bay and I lived in Cameron Park, so we were much closer.
Uh. Are we talking about the Sacramento? You can get to Tahoe in an hour from El Dorado Hills and then if you live practically ON the freeway (most people do not) and drive like a bat out of hell. It's more like 1.75-2 hours from Sacramento. That is, unless your talking about the people who leave at 2 a.m. and drive well over a 100.
I think the greater point at large is that outside of Salt Lake and Denver, no other metro sits in closer proximity to an apres ski vibe, than Sacto. I lived in Berkeley, trust me, it's a mission from there. The concept of day trips to freshly groomed runs at near-empty resorts does not exist there. Unless you drink a lot of redbull.
I personally think Sacramento is cheap because we're in the middle of a massive floodplain. We are at higher risk for a catastrophic flood than any other city in the country, so naturally land in a large, vulnerable floodplain is going to be cheaper than, say land on the coast would be.
I think it's because it's primarily a government town and despite what many think, all government employees aren't rich or over-compensated. It's not just in a flood plain but flat and extremely hot in season. There's a thriving underclass that delivers many problems to the rest of the populace and while surrounding areas have been massively built-up, many others have been neglected.
On the upside, its dining opportunities are many and its far more affordable than other cities in California.
Most of all, and I know people hate to hear this, it's not really a destination in-and-of itself although it is close to many places that are which is a draw but not a great one like its relative affordability.
I think it's because it's primarily a government town and despite what many think, all government employees aren't rich or over-compensated. It's not just in a flood plain but flat and extremely hot in season. There's a thriving underclass that delivers many problems to the rest of the populace and while surrounding areas have been massively built-up, many others have been neglected.
On the upside, its dining opportunities are many and its far more affordable than other cities in California.
Most of all, and I know people hate to hear this, it's not really a destination in-and-of itself although it is close to many places that are which is a draw but not a great one like its relative affordability.
This assessment is accurate.
The bottom line is that Sac is not a destination city. It is close to destinations, but not really one itself. And generations of city leaders have done everything possible to ensure that Sac will never be a destination.
There is a big difference between being a destination for tourism and being a place where people want to live--and lots of destination/vacation cities are in places with bad weather (like Las Vegas) and plenty of big cities are prone to natural disasters (San Francisco earthquakes, anyone?)
Sacramento has always been a "transportation city": we are where we are because it was a convenient place for river traffic to trade with the valley, whether it was fur trappers with the Nisenan, merchants with gold miners, grain shippers with farmers, or railroads with canneries. Railroads replaced rivers as the conduits of trade, and when highways and airports supplanted much of railroad traffic, we got those too. The folks who made money here generally didn't stay here, so they took their money with them and built their universities and opera houses and grand hotels in San Francisco--where many of them were destroyed by later natural disasters. After World War II, when being near things was considered much more positive than being actual places, Sacramento exploded its suburbs around our military bases and military contractors, and government grew enormously in size, replacing canneries and railroads as our primary business.
So much of our attention is focused on what we are near instead of what we are: we aren't a farm town, or a ski resort, or wine country, but because we are next to all of these things, both people and goods passed through Sacramento on the way from one to the other. The merchants who made money here generally benefited from that transportation network in one way or another. Sacramento makes a good capital for just the same reason: we are a conduit between urban and rural California, neither fish nor fowl but a middle ground between the two, where they can do business. Even in the rough state we're in, that's still a trillion-dollar business, in part because Sacramento has always been a good place to do business, despite our tendency to flood.
We got snow in Roseville last March (15 months ago)
Sure, it was melted by 9 am...
Anyway, what makes Sacramento cheap, is that its not desirable to live in. No one in BFE, Iowa says, when I grow up, I want to live in Sacramento! No, you say NYC, SF, LA. The perception of desirability leads to desirability, and what ever is desired by many is expensive, unless there is an infinite supply.
Do you think the kid in Iowa would still be dreaming of SF if they knew the only way they could afford to live there would be to either be wet all the time and live in a hole in the wall in the sunset or downtown Oakland or in Elk Grove and commute to the city every day?
The media has portrayed those cities as the places to be, so everyone wants to be there. If the media portrayed Sac or St Louis or Memphis the same way for many years, it would be more expensive to live in those places too, because the demand would be there.
The other things that keep cost of living low: horriable housing market (way overpriced 4 years ago), cheaper groceries, shorter commutes (save the Elk Grove->SF people).
I can relate to this quotation because I AM that kid from Iowa, haha! And you're absolutely right. I grew up wanting to move to SF, but after spending some time there and realizing what a struggle it would be, I re-set my sights on SAC. I've been to SAC and it's a neat city. It actually reminds me a lot of Des Moines. It's pretty much CA's version of my city, and I like it. It's not huge, shiny, and in-your-face exiting, but I'm exited to move there because I can have a decent quality of life. If you find yourself bored all the time, chances are, you're boring.
Hi ,
my wife and I and my 3y old son we're planing to settle in CA.
We are 30 something y. old and we're not interested in night life etc. However we do like to visit some times a restaurants and pizza place
We cant decide,,,,, we did a little bit of research on San Jose and Sacramento.
I believe Sacramento is more beautiful than San Jose.
On top of that the property prices are half than what you can get in San Jose.
Some web sites are showing higher crime rate (SAC 870 vs SJ 331) - other sites claim high unemployment rate .... where is the truth..
br
Sacramento is also a key destination for Bay Area retirees who are of modest means.
That, oddly, acts to stabilize prices at a modest level. The demographic I describe here can't put what they cash out from the Bay into housing, it's needed to live off of. Therefore, they don't bid up the real estate. Etc.
As a skier/snowboarder and hiker, I think the eastern Sacramento area would be an awesome place to live.
The only thing is, I hate heat - even when it's 90 here in the Denver area, I feel like I'm standing in an oven.
But the eastern side is elevated a little bit, isn't it? A few degrees cooler than downtown in summertime?
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