Advice needed on Midtown, Downtown, East Sac and Arden Arcade apartments (Sacramento: apartment complexes, for rent)

[eagleeyed40]

Hi Everyone,
Longtime lurker on this forum, but this is the first time I have posted. I was hoping that some of the Sacramento experts I have seen post here could help me...

I have recently started working for the State in Downtown Sacramento on Q Street and I am planning to move to Sacramento from Woodland in the next couple months. Since I am new to the state my budget for parking and rent is only approximately $800 per month, preferably a bit less than that. I am single and will be living alone, so a studio or one bedroom apartment would be sufficient.

I am a 49 y/o professional, and am interested in living on the grid in Sacramento, and this would be my first urban living experience. I would love to have a relatively short (walking or public transit) commute to the office for the first time in my career! East Sac is so far my favorite and seems lovely, but realistically I haven't seen much posted on line for East Sac that is in my price range. Midtown and Downtown are the possibilities I am seriously considering. I have a car, so I will need to secure an assigned parking space whereever I end up. However, I am very interested in finding a place with good walkability so I don't have to constantly use my car to get to entertainment and such.

My primary questions are as follows:

Is East Sac so far out of my budget that I should just forget about looking there? If not, do you have any suggestions as to how to find somewhere in my budget?

Is Midtown really in my price range given my somewhat limited budget? I have seen postings for some really nice places there, but they are way too expensive for me. I have also seen a few older places that might work. Any suggestions about apartments I might look at there?

Is downtown, south and east of Capitol Park reasonably safe? I was looking at some of the apartments CADA has advertised, some of which are priced in my budget. Does anyone have any experience renting from CADA and was it good or bad? They are mostly older buildings it seems, with only wall heat and air. I saw on another posting on the forum complaints from someone saying that the older buildings wall heat and air systems were inadequately powered and smelled bad. Any thoughts on CADA or other moderately priced downtown apartments?

If I cannot find anything on the grid that I like, I am looking at the Arden Arcade area, so if anyone has any suggestions about that area I would be most appreciative as well.

Please let me know if I have left out any important details, and I will be glad to provide them. Any assistance in my search will be very helpful!

Thank you!

[wburg]

All of the neighborhoods you mention have residential street parking permits--so you won't necessarily need secured off-street parking, although it is kind of nice to have. Midtown and Southside Park (the residential neighborhood on the south side of "downtown," the western half of the central city grid) will have studios in your price range. CADA is a pretty good property manager (they are a joint powers authority) but some of their properties are older (while some are brand new.) Their properties are mostly in the Southside quarter of the central city, to the edge of Midtown around 18th Street.

Generally, east of Capitol Park (15th Street) is considered "Midtown" but there isn't really an official boundary. It is generally pretty safe but kind of loud--because there are a lot of nightlife spots, there are a lot of DUIs, occasional drunk and disorderly pedestrians, car break-ins, and graffiti is pretty common. If you live within a block or two of the nightlife spots, you may have trouble parking on your block at night (most of the clubs don't have parking lots) and don't leave ANYTHING visible in your car--not a pack of smokes or an empty soda can or change for the parking meter, not home-burned CDs.

If you look farther east into Midtown the neighborhoods are quieter with easier parking, except between J Street and N Street where there are several clusters of clubs on 28th Street. There are a lot of small apartment complexes, and generally the best way to find a place is to wander around and collect phone numbers where you see places for rent. The complexes are small, and there are hundreds of them (varying from duplexes and single-family homes with basement apartments to mid-rises with 100 or more units) but $800 for a 1BR is reasonable as long as you don't expect something too new and fancy. Neighborhoods like Newton Booth, Poverty Ridge, Winn Park and New Era Park are pretty quiet while still being within walking distance of amenities and transit, and walkability is excellent. Light rail runs along R Street and runs until about midnight, high-frequency buses run down J and L Street until around 11 PM.

East Sac is nice but there aren't a lot of apartments, probably out of your price range, and those tend to get snapped up by college students at Sac State. But you can head straight downtown on Light Rail--find out if your employer has a program to subsidize the cost of a monthly transit pass. Arden-Arcade is a lot farther out and you'll have to commute, which means you will have to add the cost of parking downtown to your budget.

[ryuns]

I'd also second just heading to the area and checking out places for rent, which will also let you know what types of neighborhoods are there and give you a general feel for the area. If you can do it on bike, or possibly driving, you can extend your search to East Sac, Land Park and Curtis Park, which will help you get away from the noise and the action if that interests. Far fewer options for apartments, but occasionally some good ones. E.g., this one is near my house--it's a pretty well-traveled street but great neighborhood and you'd still be close to work (~2-2.5 miles?). That stretch has quite a few options because it's close to Sac City College. 2738 21st St, #B or also Close to Sac City

While the state will pay for something like 3/4 of your transit passes, you probably won't need them. As wburg mentions, you can find plenty of apartments out towards Sac State, but IMO there's no reason to compete for those unless you really don't want to be on the grid.

[eagleeyed40]

Hi wburg and ryuns! Thank you so much for your providing me with such good and timely information. You both rock! I just wanted to post a follow up to let you know what I ended up doing. I decided to rent a studio apartment at 1501 15th Street managed by CADA, also known as the Dauger Manor building at 15th and O streets. It is a very cute little apartment with some nice period touches such as built in china hutches in the kitchen and a nice large closet and dressing room with built in drawers and vanity. It has a murphy bed to get the bed up out of the way during the day so it doesn't occupy space in my living/bedroom all the time. Finally it is located within walking distance of both my office and enterntainment venues that I like to frequent in downtown/midtown. Although the building is older, it has a certain unmistakeble charm that is not seen in a lot of the newer buildings you see today. As a big history buff, I like that! I move in at the end of the month between Christmas and New Years. So far, I am very happy with my choice!

Anyway, I just wanted to be sure to post a follow up. I know it is annoying to post help for someone and then never hear back what they did with the information. I hope you are both having a good weekend, and I will try to remember to post another follow up after I have moved in.