Looking for a Home (comparison Rocklin, Roseville, Loomis, Folsom??) (Sacramento: real estate market, house)

[wburg]

Old houses are also an investment--in fact, they have proven a better investment during the recent unpleasantness than new houses. The prices of central city homes dropped quite a bit with the housing crash, but not as much as a lot of suburbs, especially in long-established neighborhoods. If your price point is around $200,000, there are a lot of places to be had.

Smaller homes are just as much of an investment as family-sized homes: they both serve the same function. You're single now, but if you decide to upgrade, the equity will be useful to leverage you into another home, and there is always another generation of people looking for starter homes.

Of course, if you're willing to put a little sweat equity into a place, you can afford a lot more house, and get a lot more out of your investment later. All I'm saying is, if you like the neigborhood and the proximity (and the shorter drive to SMF) don't rule them out because the conventional wisdom says that only 3-bedroom homes have resale value. If that was the case, why do homes in those older neighborhoods sell for so much now?

[caligirlz]

Originally Posted by Dermochelys

@caligirlz, thanks for your vote for Folsom. I drove around town the other night in the areas that would be in my price range. Just about everything that is coming up is in the Natomas Heights area of town. This area didn't look all that great to me, can you give me any details about this area? American Canyon and Lexington Heights would be way out of my price range.

I think Folsom is out of the running due to 1) bang for my buck, and 2) the commute for work. But, that doesn't mean I can't enjoy the town...right? It's only about 20-30 minutes away, so I'm figuring I can visit whenever I like.

Thanks again

You said your price was in the 200K range, right? Are you saying up to 200K or maybe slightly higher? I just did an MLS search & came up with 146 properties in Folsom under 250K, then the number decreased to 52 when I stopped at 200K....so, it appears that there are homes in your price range. I probably shouldn't promote my realtor's website (but I find it to be more accurate than many others), so I will just list the addresses:

817 Comstock Dr, $199,900 (built 1960) -- near Riley & Historic district
1040 School St, $133,300 (built 1955) -- near Historic district
176 Arbuckle Ave, $219,900 (built 1988) -- Lembi Park area (has a pool)

In looking at another realtor's site, I see more homes in the 200K ballpart surrounding what I would call Natomas Heights, closer to the Historic district & Ed Mitchell Park. And off Sibley St...looks like everything else is condos which I'm sure you don't want.

As for Natomas Heights, I believe that is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Folsom....I think maybe built in the 50's but I don't know for sure. I can't find the name of the neighborhood anywhere but on the google map. It is my understanding as well, that there are not really any bad neighborhoods in Folsom, I mean, nothing in comparison to say South Sac, Meadowview, parts of Rancho Cordova, parts of Oak Park or any other city with that a reputation for having "bad" parts. Many of the homes have been renovated, the outsides may just not reflect it. Many of the homes are smaller, but have large yards.

I have a couple of friends who live in that area whom love it. They love all the DIY stuff. I don't like it. I wanted a small yard & move-in-ready house with as little work as possible. That is why I wasn't interested in that area.

I'm not that familiar with the various neighborhoods in Roseville. I looked over that way briefly in my home search, but decided it was just too far away from my daily life. It's fine for a weekly drive, or on an as needed basis. I suppose much as Folsom could be for you.

Just research the heck out the neighborhoods and go with your instincts.

[HDL]

If someone were to ask me where to buy in the Sacramento area right now, I would tell them to take a hard look at the homes in Lincoln. And to buy the largest home they can afford after looking at upkeep (mortgage/PITI, utilities and maintenance), taking into consideration all the other homes that are in foreclosure or short sales in that particular area/subdivision/neighborhood, the structural and material quality of the home/builder, and also all the HOA's/Mello Roos costs and then to rent out the extra rooms until you could buy your dream home/location in the next 5-10 yrs.

But that's just me and your mileage may vary !!!

[caligirlz]

I posted a request for info on the myfolsom forum, and here are the responses:

From ducky: On one Google search, a real estate site popped up showing homes on Talisman, School St., Briarcliff and that area. I've lived here since the '80s and have never heard it called that. If anything, it's been called the Alice Wild neighborhood because that's the name on the plot map.

It is known as the Central District (even here on the forum under the neighborhood designations). I'm not sure how accurate the "Central" is now that Folsom's built out to Highway 50.

We've enjoyed living here. It is walking distance to just about anything you want - schools, parks, Sutter Street, Post Office, banks, grocery stores. Some of the houses that might be for sale were ones that got caught up in the "flipping" craze and might have very nice interiors. Many have really nice-sized yards, which could be also considered potential for expanding the square footage of the home if you don't care for a yard.

There is one foreclosed place on Dean right now that they had started to fix up and I'm not sure what happened. There are foreclosures like any neighborhood, but the houses are slowly becoming occupied again - some with young couples, which we love to see.

From 4thgenerationfolsomite: The other benefit of the central district is that most of the three bed, two baths have real hardwood floors and real brick fireplaces.

From Pool Runner: [name removed...this is my realtor] just sold us a house in this neighborhood, all and all we were not looking in this neighborhood at first, but [ ] found us a home with a huge yard, pool and remodeled for less that what we were renting an apartment for here in town.

What I like, most homes have a huge lot but the home itself might be small. The garages are mostly two car but deep like they used to make them. I like that even though this is a tract home neighborhood every home looks unique and not a mirror image of the home across the street. We like the central Folsom neighborhood location too.

There are not very many young families though, as far as I can tell so far. I think every home has a real wood burning fireplace, while this is cool from a nostalgic point of view it makes walking in the evening miserable as the entire area is filled with fireplace smoke regardless if you are suppose to burn or not. Not sure about all of the streets in this neighborhood, but the ones near my home are very dark at night with either very poorly lit street lights or lack of enough altogether.

All and all I would buy another home in this neighborhood in a heartbeat. It probably isn't for everyone but it works perfectly for our family. I highly recommend consulting [ ] (me too) for more information though, he really knows the area extremely well.

Let me know if you have any additional questions! Best of luck to you!

[wburg]

Any neighborhood built in the 1950s is about a century too late to be among the oldest neighborhoods in Folsom.

[caligirlz]

Opps, you're right wburg.
Duh...the oldest neighborhood is the historic district! ...with some homes being built in the late 1800's.

I did get a lot more feedback on the OP's questions regarding the Natoma Heights in Folsom.


After World War II, the primary area for residential development in Folsom was near Natoma Street and Duchow Way. Homes in this area tended to be average quality production homes and were typical for homes in the country at that time. Several of the streets in this area were named for Folsom veterans who died during the war. Currently these homes range in value from the high $200,000′s to the low $400,000′s. Development moved east, bounded by Natoma Street to the north and Humbug Creek to the south, and by the late 1970′s and early 1980′s the large Willow Creek development was started.
Source: Central District Real Estate « « MyFolsom.com MyFolsom.com


This is what others who live in the neighborhood say:
Folsom is full of little neighborhoods that people call by a variety of names. I've heard people call my neighborhood, for example, 'Willow Creek Estates', 'Rancho Diablo' or even 'that area off of Rebecca'.

I'm not sure exactly where the boundaries are, but Natoma Heights is the neighborhood in the Central District east of Wales, with streets like Fargo, Briarcliff, McKiernan and Rugosa. Alice Wild is west of Wales, with streets including Glenn, Market and Price. Sierra Woods is west of Natoma Heights, with streets such as Sierra Woods, Monowood, Lisawood, and Montrose. I consider them all part of the central district, and yes, there are some bargains in there.

Going by sales over the last 6 months, the average is a 1275 sq ft home selling at about $184K. If you're looking for a single-family home in Folsom for under $200K, this is likely where you'll find it. The average price per square foot is $147, which is $10 below the city-wide average.


It sounds like part of the neighborhood your talking about is the Sierra Woods developement that was built in the late 1970s. Most of the houses are 1200-1500sf and have large lots for a suburban neighborhood. The lot my house is on is about a 1/4 acre with room for Rv parking on both side yards. The advantages are price, lot size, no bonds or HOA dues, a diverse mix of residents (i.e, ages, incomes, etc.) Close to parks, schools, shoping and the bike trail.

If you put "sierra woods folsom ca" in a google search a map comes up listing the names of the neighborhoods. It shows Natoma Heights as the older homes around Wales, School and Fargo.

[hydro]

Loomis or Lincoln. SMALLEST house on most land. no brainer investment wise

[caligirlz]

Originally Posted by HDL

If someone were to ask me where to buy in the Sacramento area right now, I would tell them to take a hard look at the homes in Lincoln. And to buy the largest home they can afford after looking at upkeep (mortgage/PITI, utilities and maintenance), taking into consideration all the other homes that are in foreclosure or short sales in that particular area/subdivision/neighborhood, the structural and material quality of the home/builder, and also all the HOA's/Mello Roos costs and then to rent out the extra rooms until you could buy your dream home/location in the next 5-10 yrs.

But that's just me and your mileage may vary !!!

I'd never tell anyone to live in Lincoln, or in the Fiddyment Farms area in what I call West Roseville...unless they were retired, or had a very sound job (& we all know how that is these days, even HP has been going through rounds of layoffs for the past few years) with a short commute that did not require daily travel on Hwy 65.

And isn't there some type of environmental/wetland protection issue/bond thingy out there that is now passed on to the buyer for 30 years...? In addition to Mello Roos?

I've got friends out there, and I did some house shopping out there as well. Nice planned developments.... Those same developers have homes in many other communities of the Sacto region..... And I've lived in towns like that, way out in the booneys with very little in the way of shopping available, requiring traveling in to the next real city (Roseville in this case) for the majority of shopping. Small, cute old-fashioned downtowns with a handfull of gift stores, cafes. No thanks. Nice to visit, but not to live there.

Do you seriously think the economy is going to improve to the point that one can buy their dream house in 5-10 years? In the Sacto region??? Most people who are underwater and are still hanging on to their homes will be hoping to get out of the red within that timeframe.

Of course, Lincoln might work for someone else.

[kye_ale]

I currently live in Woodland and wouldn't highly recommend it, other than for the easy commute and proximity to Davis. Not much to do here (you'll be heading to Davis or Sac for that), terrible eatery choices, no book store that I'm even aware of, and it does have gang/safety issues. We're actually thinking of moving to Rocklin when we have enough money for a down payment (but then again, we are the "married couple with kid" that Rocklin is full of). Personally, I wouldn't give up on Davis if I were you. Nothing in central valley is anything like it, and for a single guy who likes having something to do, that's your spot. Plus, if you say you like Davis and Chico I'd guess you're pretty liberal, and Davis is the lone liberal town in the area. I know it can be expensive, but that's because the housing market here is stable, which is good for resale value. I'd say look into a fixer-upper in Davis, put a bit of work into it. You could always rent out a room or two to help make morgage payments - there's no shortage of renters available.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

This thread has become a travesty.

The OP clearly wants something funky and with character (or at least a bit mature and non cookie cutter) and we've got people saying "move to Lincoln" or "buy the biggest McMansion you can afford!"

MOD CUT

Unreal.