Who has moved to sac from Reno/northern Nevada (San Diego: sales, 2013)

[Legend98]

Ok so I grew up in Georgetown not far from sac, I have family in sac but most have left the state due to high cost of living, I'm now in northern Nevada the economy here still sucks and have been seriously thinking of moving back. For people who made the move from Reno why do you leave? Do you like sac as much as Reno? How much in state tax do you pay? Would you move back to Reno given the chance or are you happy in sac?

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by Legend98

Ok so I grew up in Georgetown not far from sac, I have family in sac but most have left the state due to high cost of living, I'm now in northern Nevada the economy here still sucks and have been seriously thinking of moving back. For people who made the move from Reno why do you leave? Do you like sac as much as Reno? How much in state tax do you pay? Would you move back to Reno given the chance or are you happy in sac?

I moved from Reno to Sacramento last summer. I'm originally from Northern California but ended up in Reno for 14 years due to my husband's job. I love Sacramento, I would never move back to Reno.

TAX- if you are a wage earner paying income tax you will be subject to California income tax, you can look up the tax table easily enough, but I know that my son, makes around 67k a year files single, does not itemize & deducts student loan interest pays around $3400 a year in CA. income tax. Property tax is cheaper in California, it's about 1.25% of what you pay for your home and doesn't go up, in Reno our property tax went up every year even though they claim it only goes up every 5 years when houses are reappraised, they have a weird law that caps the increase in tax @3% in any year, but if the home value went up 12% they will increase your tax every year by 3% until they reach the 12% gain in value. DMV fees (contrary to popular belief) are cheaper in California than in Nevada, particularly for older cars that had a high initial purchase price, the amount by which they decrease the portion of DMV fees assessed for vehicle value goes down much more slowly in NV than in CA. Sales tax is close to the same in both states.

WEATHER - I hated the weather in Reno, people claim it has 4 seasons- well the seasons are Spring one month long, summer 2 months if you are real lucky, fall 1 month and winter the rest of the year. And if you live anywhere above the downtown area you need a boat anchor to keep you from flying off your deck due to the crazy wind that is markedly worse in the summer. Mark Twain even gave it a name, "the Washoe Zephyr" And Reno's crappy weather means higher utility bills. Our gas and electric in Reno for Dec of 2013 was $330. In Sacramento for the same month it was $87. (our house in Sac is smaller but the house in Reno was retrofitted with super duper insulation and low e double pane windows throughout). Sacramento does get hot, but it doesn't generally stay hot all night and if you have trees you can avoid the worst of it. We have a huge chinese elm over our patio and eating dinner under that tree on a late summer evening is absolutely wonderful.

PEOPLE- I never found people in Reno to be friendly or outgoing, if you talk to a stranger they look at you as though you are crazy. Although Reno is supposedly a Democrat leaning area, most of the people I met were real rednecky 2nd amendment types. I know people will jump in here and claim people in Sacramento aren't friendly, but all I can tell you is that every time I go to a public event or a weekend farmers market I almost always end up having fairly lengthy conversations with strangers.

FUN- Reno is great if you like to ski or do any winter sports, (or at least it was until it quit snowing in the Sierras) and kayaking in the Truckee downtown was fun until they cut off the water from Boca and there is no water in the Truckee anymore. And Reno is the place to live if you are a hard core slot player, you can go to a dozen casinos and reliably lose money at each of them. But when you want to watch an indy movie or one that isn't released in every theater in the US, plan on driving to Sacramento because Century theaters owns ever single move theater in the Reno area and each one shows exactly the same movie. The theater in the Grand Sierra was cool at one time, but I'm not sure it is even still open. Midtown has become somewhat interesting and there are some neat restaurants there, but Sacramento has a much larger, more interesting selection of restaurants than Reno and a number of Sacramento Restaurants are striving to serve locally sourced foods, that's tough in Reno because the only thing that will grow there is onions. And any thing you can't find in Sacramento that you really want to experience, i.e snow, or surf is about 2 or 3 hours away

Without a doubt Sacramento > Reno

[pistola916]

I'd take Sacramento over Reno in a heartbeat. I am a Sacramento city native but I attended University of Nevada for three years. I was not impressed with Reno. It didn't have anything that resembled the bohemian feel of Midtown nor did it have any great restaurants, cafes, shops that one could find in Sacramento. The weather for the most part sucked. It was very cold and the wind storms were awful in the summer.

I enjoyed my studies at Nevada but I never considered staying in Reno after I graduated. It just had a very depressing feel to it.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by pistola916

I'd take Sacramento over Reno in a heartbeat. I am a Sacramento city native but I attended University of Nevada for three years. I was not impressed with Reno. It didn't have anything that resembled the bohemian feel of Midtown nor did it have any great restaurants, cafes, shops that one could find in Sacramento. The weather for the most part sucked. It was very cold and the wind storms were awful in the summer.

I enjoyed my studies at Nevada but I never considered staying in Reno after I graduated. It just had a very depressing feel to it.

my son stayed in Reno for a year after he graduated from UNR with a degree in accounting, he applied for every accounting job in Washoe and Carson County and the best he could find was a job as a glorified AP Clerk for 28k a year..he finally gave up and moved to the SF Bay Area where he found a job within a week paying twice that.

[Legend98]

Yes it's a depressing way of life here and if you try to argue with Reno die hards that try to defend their trashy city you pretty much get harassed.

[pistola916]

Originally Posted by Legend98

Yes it's a depressing way of life here and if you try to argue with Reno die hards that try to defend their trashy city you pretty much get harassed.

A lot of folks knock Sacramento for not living up to expectations considering how big the metropolitan area is and the small minded views some residents have toward changes and lifestyle. I used to be those guys that believed Sacto was depressing place too. It lacked the character and synergy of other cities when it came to economic development. Finally, this city is realizing its potential and probably for the first time I can say that the urban core looks promising. There's a new arena on the way, mixed-use projects, and perhaps even a streetcar system.

I like what the future looks like for Sactown. There seems to be an identity that didn't exist otherwise prior to mayor Kevin Johnson. For all the negative attributes Sac may have, I realize life here isn't so bad. It could be far, far worse.

[fbt263]

Reno has it's merits (mainly, even better proximity to Tahoe than Sacto), but at the end of the day Sacramento is far better place to live, visit, work, or play than Reno.

[Dennis P]

Back in the early 90s, I lived in Sacramento for about a year (I am originally from Southern California). While lived in Sacramento back then, I went to Reno for a day on Memorial Day weekend. I wasn't terribly impressed with Reno. Unless you like gambling, there really isn't much to do there. I spent most of my time that day at the Meadowood Mall, which seems to be the largest mall in Reno. If Reno residents want to shop at Nordstrom, they have to drive to Sacramento. I agree with what everyone else said comparing Reno with Sacramento. I prefer Sacramento, hands down.

Incidentally, a lady I used to work with back in the late 80s moved from Southern California to Reno. As far as I know, she still lives there and likes it.

[Chimérique]

Everyone I've ever known who moved to Reno from Sacramento moved back to Sacramento.
Everyone I've ever known who moved to Reno from the Bay Area moved to Sacramento.
Everyone I've ever known who moved to Reno from San Diego moved back to San Diego.

I like Reno for gambling and some casino restaurants. I hate the dry cold weather, and dry hot weather, and the lack of trees.

Whenever we say we are going to stay in Reno at a Casino/hotel to ski Tahoe or hike Tahoe, we never end-up leaving Reno; Tahoe seems too far once you are settled in your hotel-casino, in fact, we never even leave the hotel-casnio.

[2sleepy]

I get a hoot out of the regulars on the Reno CD forum, they get more than their share of people from all over the US asking about moving to Reno and they make it sound like heaven on earth. I post on their occasionally, but they really go after you if you say anything negative about Reno. I almost wonder if they actually regret moving to Reno and try to defend it in order to make themselves feel better about their decision