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Hello! My husband and I are moving to Sacramento in December/January. I'm looking for advice on neighborhoods where we could buy an affordable home, put a little work into it, and sell or rent it out in 5-10 years.
Our budget is around $130,000 - we could certainly afford more but want to be really comfortable with this mortgage in case we move away, purchase another home, and can't sell this one immediately, or decide to keep it as a rental property. Our family is the Midwest and we expect to relocate there eventually, but we're sick of paying rent and would like to invest in property.
Our must-haves:
• Neighborhood with moderate to good resale value - (at least kind of) safe, people take care of their homes. We are 20-something professionals with no immediate plans for children so we're not concerned about schools, other than for resale value
• Urban feel - not suburbia. Unique homes, able to walk to bars/restaurants within a mile, not littered with strip malls. I love East Sac, though I know it's not within our budget, but looking for a similar feel.
• Good sized yard, enough to garden and do some landscaping
• Home that doesn't need MAJOR repairs but has room for improvement - we want to add value by redoing a kitchen/bathroom or other cosmetic changes
If you think a $130,000 budget is totally unrealistic for a non-murder-filled neighborhood, let me know that too. It seems there are TONS of cheap foreclosed houses for sale right now but I want to know what those neighborhoods are really like.
My husband will be working from home and traveling every week throughout the Central Valley for work; I'll be working in either downtown or midtown (my company is looking for new office space right now so I don't have an exact address). I'm not picky about commute length but in case you're wondering.
All I've heard so far is to avoid South Sac, so any advice is welcome. THANK YOU!
(Also - anything we need to know upfront about turning a primary residence into a rental property down the road in CA?)
Hello! My husband and I are moving to Sacramento in December/January. I'm looking for advice on neighborhoods where we could buy an affordable home, put a little work into it, and sell or rent it out in 5-10 years.
Our budget is around $130,000 - we could certainly afford more but want to be really comfortable with this mortgage in case we move away, purchase another home, and can't sell this one immediately, or decide to keep it as a rental property. Our family is the Midwest and we expect to relocate there eventually, but we're sick of paying rent and would like to invest in property.
Our must-haves:
• Neighborhood with moderate to good resale value - (at least kind of) safe, people take care of their homes. We are 20-something professionals with no immediate plans for children so we're not concerned about schools, other than for resale value
• Urban feel - not suburbia. Unique homes, able to walk to bars/restaurants within a mile, not littered with strip malls. I love East Sac, though I know it's not within our budget, but looking for a similar feel.
• Good sized yard, enough to garden and do some landscaping
• Home that doesn't need MAJOR repairs but has room for improvement - we want to add value by redoing a kitchen/bathroom or other cosmetic changes
If you think a $130,000 budget is totally unrealistic for a non-murder-filled neighborhood, let me know that too. It seems there are TONS of cheap foreclosed houses for sale right now but I want to know what those neighborhoods are really like.
My husband will be working from home and traveling every week throughout the Central Valley for work; I'll be working in either downtown or midtown (my company is looking for new office space right now so I don't have an exact address). I'm not picky about commute length but in case you're wondering.
All I've heard so far is to avoid South Sac, so any advice is welcome. THANK YOU!
(Also - anything we need to know upfront about turning a primary residence into a rental property down the road in CA?)
Neighborhoods at this price point wont offer good schools to help with resale value. Crime will be a problem and house search will be block by block as one block or some homes on the block may be maintained while the others aren't or the next block will be in disrepair.
This link contains info on which neighborhoods in Sacramento are experiencing an increase in price and there's a few relatively close to Midtown/Downtown that are within your budget:
Most of the cheap foreclosed homes are either in relatively-new neighborhoods that went bust, or in the more murder-filled neighborhoods. $130,000 is very, very skimpy for an older neighborhood that isn't relatively high-crime. If you are looking for an old home to fix up, you'll want to look near the central city, as there aren't very many older homes in the outer suburbs. If you're looking for something comparatively "urban," then your only option is the central city and adjacent neighborhoods.
Your best bet might be some of the properties along X Street, where I have seen a few houses that fit your description, as long as you don't mind a freeway as a next-door neighbor. It's close to the Broadway corridor, which has a whole panoply of restaurants and ethnic markets, just north of Land Park and Curtis Park, and just south of Midtown and Downtown.
I assume you're willing to tolerate a certain level of risk in order to invest in a neighborhood that is likely to get better a few years down the road. You're a decade or so too late for a "fixer-upper" in Midtown--aside from some properties that are still rentals owned by landlords who still haven't gotten the hint, the fixer-uppers in the central city are already fixed up. Even half-finished remodels that got foreclosed on are getting hard to find, and priced out of your range.
Lots in this part of town come in basically two sizes--either 3200 square feet (about a thirteenth of an acre) or 6400 square feet (about a seventh of an acre.) Only a handful of homes in the old city or nearby are on larger lots, and they will almost certainly be well out of your price range. But you can do a lot on a 3200 sf lot--front yards are typically very small, maybe 10-20 feet, which leaves enough room for a 20-30 foot yard in back, enough room for a nice vegetable garden.
Thank you both so much - this was REALLY helpful. If we take out the restriction of "urban feel" and broaden our search to the suburbs, are there any other neighborhoods we should consider? It doesn't even necessarily need to be an older home - even something from the 80s/90s that could use cosmetic updating would work.
On the other hand, what's a low-end realistic budget for some of the more desirable areas near the central city that you've outlined?
With a $120K for fixer uppers your best bet is going to be fixer uppers in Arden Arcade. Specifically you are going to want to look at neighborhoods like Del Paso Manor, Arcade Village, Mission Marconi, Mira Loma, North Edison as well as Cottage Park, Marconi South, and Marconi North and the parts of Bellview east of Howe Avenue. As you get closer to the Arden Fair Mall, the neighborhoods generally become less desirable. I would avoid being west of Howe Avenue, between Howe Avenue and 80, the neighborhoods are pretty bleak. Similarly west of Watt, you want to stay south of Edison. East of Watt Avenue, Edison is fine.
In Marconi North, the closer you get to the Country Club the better the neighborhood gets, but the neighborhood drops off rapidly as you get closer to Edison.
I wouldn't rule out the "urban feel" if that's what you're looking for--just realize that this is California, and you will have to raise your price points accordingly. Sacramento is a relative steal by California standards, and if you're willing to get into the $200,000-$250,000 range there are some very neat houses in some very neat neighborhoods out there. At least, they will be closer to what you're looking for, rather than what you're willing to settle for.
West Sacramento has potential. Your links still aren't working, but the areas close to the river are seeing a lot of recent improvement, and it's physically close to downtown--more in bike radius than walking radius, but still close, especially if they manage to put in a Sacramento/West Sac streetcar again.
Southside Park is an up-and-coming neighborhood, traditionally an immigrant neighborhood with a large Asian population, in the past year or two the Chinese restaurants and Japanese bakeries have been accompanied by coffee roasters, a gourmet donut shop, and several art galleries.
Curtis Park is a neighborhood as adorable as a basket of kittens, close to the Broadway Corridor, light rail downtown, and cultural amenities like Beatnik Studios and Sol Collective art spaces, Pangea Two Brews, Coffee Garden, Dad's Kitchen, and the magnificent Hideaway.
With a $120K for fixer uppers your best bet is going to be fixer uppers in Arden Arcade. Specifically you are going to want to look at neighborhoods like Del Paso Manor, Arcade Village, Mission Marconi, Mira Loma, North Edison as well as Cottage Park, Marconi South, and Marconi North and the parts of Bellview east of Howe Avenue. As you get closer to the Arden Fair Mall, the neighborhoods generally become less desirable. I would avoid being west of Howe Avenue, between Howe Avenue and 80, the neighborhoods are pretty bleak. Similarly west of Watt, you want to stay south of Edison. East of Watt Avenue, Edison is fine.
In Marconi North, the closer you get to the Country Club the better the neighborhood gets, but the neighborhood drops off rapidly as you get closer to Edison.
If this is what you are trying to do I suspect that fixer uppers in these neighborhoods are what you are looking for and once fixed up you can see how much they are getting for them.
Hopefully that price point is enough to keep you out of the range of the cash buyers, but that may still be an issue. A lot of folks are finding it hard to buy houses under, say, $150k with a mortgage because there are too many cash buyers.
Some of the older (mid-century neighborhoods) in West Sac might be a good option. Close-ish to downtown and they'll get around to developing the waterfront, sooner or later.
I would second the suggestion of North Oak Park or UC Davis Med Center area, because there are some lovely houses for really really cheap, but a lot of those opportunities will get snatched up by cash buyers. But it might be worth a shot.
Hollywood and Tahoe Parks might have options too. Tahoe Park, especially, should have a lot to offer.
wburg is right that Curtis Park is a great little neighborhood, but you'd have to look hard for something that really needs fixing up, and even then, it might be a little pricey. On the other hand, average home prices are high, so you're looking at a great ROI if you do find something. The one he linked is probably out of your price range AND it's very close to the combined light rail and heavy rail tracks (we're about a block farther away, and I find the whoosh quite pleasant...). But it's also just over the boundary for the better elementary school, so that would add to the appeal for parents.
Here's a map of the neiborhood names people will be throwing around: Maps and Boundaries
Thank you both so much - this was REALLY helpful. If we take out the restriction of "urban feel" and broaden our search to the suburbs, are there any other neighborhoods we should consider? It doesn't even necessarily need to be an older home - even something from the 80s/90s that could use cosmetic updating would work.
Try Antelope, or Lincoln if you don't mind going "far out". Lots of bank owned homes I suspect they are only too happy to "dump" on you.
Before you can worry about the specifics, you need to talk lending. The first and most important question is, do you have any cash to put down? If you have 130000 cash, you can get something like you want. I assume you do not have the entire amount in your pocket, but if you have a very good chunk of cash you might be able to get close.
Quote:
Originally Posted by libbyjuju
Hello! My husband and I are moving to Sacramento in December/January. I'm looking for advice on neighborhoods where we could buy an affordable home, put a little work into it, and sell or rent it out in 5-10 years.
Our budget is around $130,000 - we could certainly afford more but want to be really comfortable with this mortgage in case we move away, purchase another home, and can't sell this one immediately, or decide to keep it as a rental property. Our family is the Midwest and we expect to relocate there eventually, but we're sick of paying rent and would like to invest in property.
Our must-haves:
• Neighborhood with moderate to good resale value - (at least kind of) safe, people take care of their homes. We are 20-something professionals with no immediate plans for children so we're not concerned about schools, other than for resale value
• Urban feel - not suburbia. Unique homes, able to walk to bars/restaurants within a mile, not littered with strip malls. I love East Sac, though I know it's not within our budget, but looking for a similar feel.
• Good sized yard, enough to garden and do some landscaping
• Home that doesn't need MAJOR repairs but has room for improvement - we want to add value by redoing a kitchen/bathroom or other cosmetic changes
If you think a $130,000 budget is totally unrealistic for a non-murder-filled neighborhood, let me know that too. It seems there are TONS of cheap foreclosed houses for sale right now but I want to know what those neighborhoods are really like.
My husband will be working from home and traveling every week throughout the Central Valley for work; I'll be working in either downtown or midtown (my company is looking for new office space right now so I don't have an exact address). I'm not picky about commute length but in case you're wondering.
All I've heard so far is to avoid South Sac, so any advice is welcome. THANK YOU!
(Also - anything we need to know upfront about turning a primary residence into a rental property down the road in CA?)
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