Possible Move To Chico (Los Angeles, Sacramento: fit in, best city, apartments)

[elmmj]

I may be offered a job as an IT System Engineer/Manager in Chico, CA and would be moving from Los Angeles to the Chico Area. I was wondering if any one had any thoughts on the career prospects in this and the surrounding Sacramento area.

I am also considering to rent a place along the I-99 corridor between Chico and Sacramento. Just in case the job turns out to be a dud, I don't want to be too far from Sacramento...any advice on the areas in between those two cities.

Thanks for your help

[recycled]

Chico is a great small city, one of my fav places in CA. If you have good job lined up there, just find a place to rent right in or near Chico. Chico is a college town, and there are plenty of rentals around. Best time to find a rental is late May when students are leaving town. Don't waste time and money commuting from someplace further south like Yuba City or Marysville - those are the next two cities south of Chico, about 50 miles one way. $4+ per gallon gas will be here soon. Chico has plenty to keep most people entertained, especially if you like outdoors activities. Concentrate on making the new job a success so you don't have to move somewhere else. If the new job fizzles out and you have to get a job in someplace like Sacramento, then get the job first and move close to the job when you are ready.

[volleyballer]

I totally agree with the statement above. You don't want to go broke with the gas prices. There'll be plenty of places to live with the job that you're taking. And I think Chico is the best city to live considering your other choices are Yuba City, Marysville, Gridley, Live Oak, Oroville (yuck). Chico is awesome, and I really hope you'll love it. I would have stayed in Chico after college if there were a job there for me, but there isn't at the moment. Consider yourself very lucky/blessed for getting a professional job there. You'll love it! And if you don't Sacramento always has places for rent. It'll be a fairly easy transition for you if you needed to move to Sac. Good luck!

[elmmj]

Originally Posted by recycled

Chico is a great small city, one of my fav places in CA. If you have good job lined up there, just find a place to rent right in or near Chico. Chico is a college town, and there are plenty of rentals around. Best time to find a rental is late May when students are leaving town. Don't waste time and money commuting from someplace further south like Yuba City or Marysville - those are the next two cities south of Chico, about 50 miles one way. $4+ per gallon gas will be here soon. Chico has plenty to keep most people entertained, especially if you like outdoors activities. Concentrate on making the new job a success so you don't have to move somewhere else. If the new job fizzles out and you have to get a job in someplace like Sacramento, then get the job first and move close to the job when you are ready.

Yep that is pretty much what thought...Chico looks great and if I get the job I'll be moving there.

Thanks for the feedback

[wahoogully]

I lived in Chico for undergrad and grad school and loved the community and the area. I've worked in Yuba City, which is right in between Chico and Sac, and wasn't impressed, except for the mexican food.

The corridor btw Sac and Chico is largely rural and farm communities. I'd seriously consider renting in Chico for a year to check out the new job, then moving to Sac if you don't like it. I have a close friend in IT in Chico, who loves it. It's much more college town and close to the mountains than Sac, but much less cosmopolitan.

Good luck with the move.

[hargenal20]

My husband may move there and I am wondering about where to rent? Is there anything urban or chic downtown yet? We would love to live in a loft or apartment downtown? We are in our late twenties and would like a nice place to live without college students. Any suggestions?

[volleyballer]

Originally Posted by hargenal20

My husband may move there and I am wondering about where to rent? Is there anything urban or chic downtown yet? We would love to live in a loft or apartment downtown? We are in our late twenties and would like a nice place to live without college students. Any suggestions?

Ooh. Finding a place without college students is going to be a tough challenge. The city itself is 70,000 people and the college brings in another 30,000. I could be wrong on those numbers, but that seemed to be what I experienced. Needless to say, a major part of the population is the college kids. The college is in the middle of downtown, so if you want a chic place downtown, you're going to be surrounded by the college kids as well. Downtown is where most all of the hip bars are that are very frequented by the students. I know there were some more upscale apartments built a few years ago, but they weren't downtown.

Your best bet for renting an apt is to look on forrent.com or some apt renting site like that. I know Hignell and Hignell owns most of Chico's apartments. For houses, go to craigslist.com. But just a fair warning, if you rent near downtown, there will undoubtedly be college kids. I know of many students whose parents buy houses for their children/college kids to live there while in college. And I bet that's happening a lot right now considering the housing market issues. But best of luck. I love, love, love Chico!

[gypsy77]

My husband and I are considering relocating to Chico also. We are in our early 30's and have a 2 year old daughter. We currently live in Roseville, near Sacramento. Hate it here. Lots of shopping, but too big of an area of suburbs, strip malls, cement, cement, cement. I like Chico because of all the open space, big trees, groves, beautiful neighborhoods, nice people, small towon mentality, etc. I was reading an article on MSN today about which cities that will survive the recession and slowing economy. All the cities listed are college towns! I knew it! A college town will never dry up. There is too much there and REASON for people to want to stay. I want my daughter to grow up somewhere that the neighbors are friendly and where we can walk down the corner market without being practically run over by the 60 mph traffic zooming through neighborhoods. That's how the suburbs of Sacramento are. Well, they weren't like this 10 years ago, but there are so many people moving here now, that it's impossible to find a quiet spot around here. I went to our old river access a few weeks ago, and was shocked to see all the tourists on bikes and loud teenagers, and pitbulls running around! It wasn't peaceful at all!! I don't know what is happening to this place, but I don't like it and don't really want to raise my daughter here. I think Chico is one of the last neat small tows left that haven't been ruined by over population. The foothills of Sacramento are nice too, but it's so expensive to live there, that it's really never going to be an option for us since we have blue collar careers. Which is fine with me, because a lot of the new people who are moving into these foothills are snooty anyway. We don't fit in. Chico seems like a really nice place to relocate to, where we can stay for a long time and watch our daughter grow up and be happy. We went to Chico a few weeks ago just to enjoy the nice atmosphere and good restaurants. Then we came back to Sacramento and sat in traffic for an hour! It pretty much made us realize we should be turning back around and going "home." We plan to move within the next few months, if we can find jobs! And one more thing, yes, there are more jobs in the Sacramento area, BUT, there are also hundreds of people applying for each open position. Same goes for the rental houses. Every single rental house in the paper that I called on, the person said it had already been rented! And the property management lists were hilarious, here's an example, "2 bdrm, 1bath in Auburn $1700/mo $1500 deposit, no pets" or "2 bdrm duplex $1575/mo Rocklin, no pets $1000 deposit.." Now, these are NOT nice houses, they are old and run down in not so great neighborhoods. Which is not an option because I have a baby! The rent here is way too high for what you get. I'm over it! Time to move!

[shebech]

Well I do live in Chico, My husband and I actually grew-up here, went to school at Chico State and moved away for awhile. When our Daughter was 2 we had the opportunity to move back to Chico. I really agree that it is a great place to raise a family. BUT.....we are looking at moving to the Sacramento area now, since my husband was layed off from his job at an Engineering firm in town! Chico is a very desirable place to live, but the work is scarce. That is why so many students leave the area. I work at the ONLY hospital here, but know I should easily be able to find something in the Sacramento area.

As far as housing near downtown, there are homes East of downtown that are not really "College housing" and also not far from Bidwell Park.

We are not looking forward to traffic, but since we are now in our mid forties and our daughter is 13, we have to consider finding secure jobs that would allow us to focus on retirement in the future.

Good luck to those of you looking for work here, you will love living in this great place!

[woogexx]

Chico is definitely a cute little town. With a big town vibe. I lived there for a number of years before moving to sac. Yes, definitely live in chico. The towns down 99 are absolutely horrid. Very drug infested, very rural, very boring. There are ghetto neighborhoods in chico tho so watch out, assuming it matters. I lived in the ghetto, didnt mind. W. 5th St. & Oak. My neighbor was shot RIGHT outside of my front door. After that I moved. Anyways check out "BrickWorks" its a pretty cool night club, they have lots of good live music. Another place thats pretty hip is a place called The Naked Lounge. Good coffee! The college students are pretty laid back, they don't bother much. Not many punks, well that ive encountered. I highly recommend Chico, it was just too small for me. But the fact that on any holiday you can walk around downtown with a drink and the cops wont give you any ****. This was 5 yrs ago, but Im hopeful that the city is still pretty laid-back. I don't know. If you're from LA it will take some time to get use to such small surroundings. 3 lanes randomly throughout the town and highways are about as big as they get. Chico is the only place I have ever seen that you can wake up at 7am and on your way to work see see guys sitting on their front lawn drinking beer. Heh....Chico's a+