Housing market in Sac (Sacramento, Stockton: condo, house, established neighborhood)

[UntilTheNDofTimE]

Originally Posted by jgooner22

What do you guys think of buying a house in Natomas? I currently rent in Natomas, so I am familiar with area. Anyone owns a house here and knows how is it?

If you work in downtown Sacramento I would suggest taking a look at the Pocket/Greenhaven Area. It can be pricy depending on what you're looking for but there are great schools in the area and your commute will be 10 minutes downtown. This would be a much better option than Natomas.

[NinaN]

Originally Posted by caligirlz

If you are ok with living in a flood plain you will be fine. Overall, it's a decent area, a good central location with newer houses.

There's an interesting article in the Sac Bee today about the average earner getting squeezed out of the market. I know not everyone subscribes to the Sac Rag, but here's some excerpts:

I found the final bolded sentence to be really interesting. Many years ago, I might have taken the personal letter into consideration, especially if I had lived in a neighborhood for many years, and intended to be visiting old friends. But, these days, a letter would not sway me, especially if there are better offers on the table. I'm actually surprised that is still being recommended. I'm wondering how many people here would accept an offer for less due to a buyer's letter. And what types of things in the letter would influence you?

If I know there will be multiple offers, I always have my clients write a letter. Last year there were 4 offers on the house, ours was 2nd highest but within 5K of highest. They chose my buyer because he as local and knew the neighborhood (won't cancel due to finding he doesn't like location), he has 2 girls in school that were excited about the 2 upstairs bedroom and bonus room (sellers liked the idea of kids using the bonus room and they were already in that school so buyer less likely to flake and cancel on small inspection issues), and since he was a doctor they felt he would easily be able to get loan approval (which he did). The highest offer came from a buyer that was slow to respond to questions (or agent was slow) and seller didn't feel were as motivated to stay in the contract until it closed.

It takes 5 minutes. Perhaps only 1 in 4 sellers care. What NOT give it a shot?

[jgooner22]

Originally Posted by UntilTheNDofTimE

If you work in downtown Sacramento I would suggest taking a look at the Pocket/Greenhaven Area. It can be pricy depending on what you're looking for but there are great schools in the area and your commute will be 10 minutes downtown. This would be a much better option than Natomas.

Better than Natomas in what sense? Can you provide more insight into that neighborhood?

[UntilTheNDofTimE]

Originally Posted by jgooner22

Better than Natomas in what sense? Can you provide more insight into that neighborhood?

Natomas is full of track homes that sprung up during the housing boom in the mid 2000's (unless you're talking about south Nothomas that has been there forever but borders some of the not so good areas like north gate). Greenhaven is a older neighborhood (most homes are 20-30 years old) that has mostly custom built homes and has established residents. The whole area borders the Sacramento River. This is good for both resale value and appreciation. Nothing like having the same house as 40 ppl down the block. There are very good elementary schools in the area mainly Didion, Martin Luther King (This is prab the only MLK school in the country you could say this about), Matsuyama, and Lisbon elementary. The Area considers itself a green belt so there are only 3 shopping centers in the area. This could be a good or bad thing but it really prevents any traffic in the area to mainly residents. In 15 years I've seen maybe 1 cop car in this area it has a very low crime rate. A lot of the neighborhoods have HOA's with private security and neighborhoods that participate in the neighborhood watch program. I don't have kids but I've lived in the greenhaven pocket for the past 16 years and attended schools here and received a good education. I have friends that live in Natomas and to me it's a dump. Can't go too far without seeing homeless people, busy intersections, high congestion, and lots of renters. This sounds like I'm just hyping up my area but with all of this and very close promimity to the freeway and downtown there is really no other place I'd rather live, especially not Natomas that will take a huge hit when the new kings arena is constructed and Natomas becomes a ghost town. Of course my choice is not for all and there are many other great places to live in Sacramento, I just wouldn't consider Notomas one of them.

[shelato]

I agree the Pocket is a much better choice than Natomas. Natomas was a suburb designed by people who hated suburbs. People move to suburbs because like living in neighborhoods with good schools and lots of owner occupants. Natomas is a fairly new neighborhood that has neither of those things right now, as the housing stock ages, what do you think is going to happen here? Natomas was built subject to a mixed income ordinance, which required a bunch of low income housing be built in the area as well. In addition the neighborhood was designed with the intent of attracting funding for a light rail line to be built sometime in the future, that meant building even more apartments and condos, which had the effect of adding even more low income housing to the neighborhood. When the housing bubble burst, a lot of the newer housing build during the bubble was built in Natomas, and when the bubble deflated Natomas lost a lot of the owner occupied housing that it originally had.

With most neighborhoods in Sacramento, you find some people who really like them, usually the people who live in them. But when you talk to the people who live or have lived in Natomas, they mostly talk about how they are living there until they save up money to move somewhere else or just how happy they are that they no longer live there. But I don't know anyone who lived there who talks about how great it is. Mostly they damn it with faint praise. It isn't that bad, stuff like that. Natomas is too suburban for people who like cities and too urban for people who like suburbs. It is basically just a huge planning disaster.

The Pocket Area is an older suburb built mostly from the 70's to 90's. But its a neighborhood that aged reasonably well. It has lots of Asians and the schools have benefited from it. Its also fairly close to downtown and that has helped the neighborhood stay together. If you are Asian, the neighborhood is fairly close to shopping along Stockton Blvd, so thats a plus. Its near the Sacramento River, there are some nice bike trails in the neighborhood, in the middle of the neighborhood some of the homes are built along a man made lake.

[jgooner22]

Thanks a lot to both of you for the insight. I did a little research and found that the Pocket area is 20% more expensive than Natomas, and has older houses. Not sure if it's worth spending extra in that area.

[xenxes]

Have you looked into Tahoe Park and Colonial Heights? What's your budget?

[jgooner22]

Originally Posted by xenxes

Have you looked into Tahoe Park and Colonial Heights? What's your budget?

Willing to spend upto 350K if it is in move in ready condition. Ideally, would like to keep it close to 325K. I know I won't be staying in this house for more than 6-7 years, so don't want to make an expensive purchase.

[xenxes]

Originally Posted by jgooner22

Willing to spend upto 350K if it is in move in ready condition. Ideally, would like to keep it close to 325K. I know I won't be staying in this house for more than 6-7 years, so don't want to make an expensive purchase.

There should be plenty of 2/1s, maybe some 3/2s, in the Tahoe Park / Colonial Heights area for ~300k or less. For two people you really don't need more than a 2/1 ~1200 sq ft., especially for a 6-7 year house. It's smart to stick to ~300k range since they move the most easily.

Area east of Stockton is very safe, less through traffic than Elmhurst and parts of E. Sac. because the area is exclusively residential and very quiet. Schools are "meh" to crappy, but you can always do private with the money you save from not buying in E. Sac, that is if you even stay in the area long enough for kids + school. For best bang for the buck and proximity to downtown (drive via local), you really can't beat the area. Proximity to downtown & UCD med center should also keep houses in this area relatively stable, versus the new suburban developments. Worst case if you're ready to sell and market sucks, you can always rent relatively easily to local med students or residents.

Map to Inventory:
https://www.redfin.com/city/16409/CA...ket=sacramento

Not a lot of stellar listings right now, but here are some good ones that recently sold, just to give you an idea, nice move-in-ready ones are typically ~100-150k+ less than equivalent homes in E. Sac --

Tahoe Park:
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sacramento.../home/19419725
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sacramento.../home/19422960
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sacramento.../home/19419015
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sacramento.../home/19423297
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sacramento.../home/19421595

Colonial Heights:
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sacramento.../home/19416591
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sacramento.../home/19409363
(if you want to see pics copy/paste address to realtor.com or zillow)

Of course fixer uppers can be had for a lot less. The "nicer" and more expensive areas are 7th and 8th ave (called Boulevard Terrace), and of course houses close to the park. Colonial Heights is a bit farther south and can get down into the sub-200k range for a nice smaller 2/1. You can go pretty far south so long as you're on the EAST side of Stockton and still be very safe.

[xenxes]

Also, don't negate E. Sac, Land Park, Midtown. For the price range you probably won't find a move-in ready, but the 300 range does exist.

Examples:
- https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sacramento.../home/19443046 (E. Sac, by tracks though, not sure how loud that is)
- https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sacramento.../home/19430240 (Land Park, kind of ugly)
- https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sacramento.../home/19443090 (Midtown, all tiny ~3k square feet lots though and mostly high water bungalows, double lots will cost a lot more)

If I were you I'd buy closer to town for a 6-7 year house for better resale / rental potential.