Relocating to Sacromento Area? (Sacramento, Redding: property taxes, condos, income)

[trackcoach]

My husband and I are considering a move to Northern California. We currently live in Tampa, and are looking for a change of pace. We have a few questions....
1. Is this area a good place to raise a family and enjoy your neighbors? Due to the high transient population here in Tampa, people are not that friendly.
2. How is the climate? We understand it is warm there in the summer, but how oppresive is the heat? Do you see autumn colors? How cold does it get in the winter?
3. Is it an up and coming area?
4. We are teachers? How are the schools and job market?
5. Property taxes?

Any other insight/info you may relay would be helpful. Thanks!

[KidBlue]

Coming from Tampa, you probably won't notice the heat. Sacramento can get over 100, but is typically in the 90s from July into October. It's very dry here, so the heat is not as oppressive as in FL.

It depends on your income level and where you will live in Sacramento as to whether it is a good place to raise a family. There are many nice areas (I think the housing price is a little higher than Tampa) to live near Elk Grove in the south, Lincoln to the north, Folsom to the east, and even downtown is getting lots of condos. People are pretty friendly and not as transient of a population.

It's usually overcast in the winter and in the 40s. It gets warm early similar to FL. There really isn't too much fall color because we have mainly oak trees and pines in the foothills. But downtown does have lots of trees.

Property taxes are limited to 1% by CA law. Sacramento and neighboring counties are all growing very fast. El Dorado Co is a little slower.

I work for the California Dept. of Education. You can check with www.edjoin.org to start looking for teaching jobs. You might have to start in Sacramento City Unified or Elk Grove Unified to start since they have most of the jobs (especially Elk Grove). Lincoln is a booming area and may need more teachers.

Good luck.

[trackcoach]

Thanks for the info. How is north of Sacramento- say Chico......?

[KidBlue]

Chico is probably the best area in Butte County to live. There is a State University there. Housing is very affordable for CA, and real low compared to Tampa. The area has the same general weather as Sacramento, but it tends to be a little hotter and dryer because Sacramento is on three rivers and a delta where (if you are lucky) there is an evening breeze. Chico gets about 15inches of rain a year and no snow but the good side is that the humidity is about 10 in the summer. You will get really tired of people saying, "at least it's a dry heat"! And 100% chance of no hurricanes!

Chico is close to the Sacramento River and also to Lake Oroville, which is wonderful if you are into swimming or boating/water skiing. There are great campgrounds at Lake Oroville too, if you are into that.

Chico is definitely a small town for CA standards so if you like the big city, you might get bored. But the crime rate is also lower because it's a smallish city. It's a couple hour drive to Sacramento or to Redding (shopping outlets). You'll find plenty of housing, grocery stores, etc. in Chico. Chico Unified School District has good and no-so-good schools and a couple that are high poverty, low performing. There's a large Hmong immigrant population there. It's a good size district so there may be openings. California State University at Chico has an excellent School of Education, so maybe the schools will get better soon.

Let me know if you need information on other areas (the real information that's not on the Web site!)

[MegAsh]

I lived near Tampa for a year and grew up in Sacramento area so I will try to relate the differences.

Sacramento is BOOMING including the outskirts of the city.
The major industries here are retail, service, health care, and education.

Roseville, Folsom, Rocklin, Granite Bay, Natomas, and even Lincoln are great places to raise a family and is truely family focused. The schools are great and is a real community type place and all the neighborhoods are connected.

In the last 10 years the place has been booming with new construction, restaurants, retail establishments, tract housing, and parks.

Housing is now very expensive, but rent is not too bad but alot more than in Tampa, considering! However, the wages here are higher but there is also a state income tax, which Florida does not have.

As for the downtown city core. Sacramento is ALOT like Tampa. There is not a whole lot downtown by means of urban living or city center. Sacramento is very business only downtown, except for old Sacramento which is kind of like the Ybor City of Tampa.

Everything in the Valley region closes after 5pm other than the mall/retail, so life here will pretty much wrap up after that time.

Traffic is getting worse here though, but there are time frames where it is not bad, just depends where you are coming from and what time.

The weather in Sacramento is dry most of the year. Winters are wet/chilly. Spring is nice, sunny, cool, with no humidity (yeah!). Summers are HOT HOT HOT, dry dry dry and there are mosquitoes and the smell of rice/wheat in the air from the surrounding agricultural farms.

The leaves here go from bud to green to brown and that goes for the grassy meadows which cover the grounds here as well and there is alot of the brown grass.

Property taxes aren't too bad here, but there not cheap either.

[wjones]

I live and sell homes in El Dorado Hills which is a stone's throw away from Folsom - both great family friendly towns. Lot's of parks and great schools. I used to be a teacher so I am not sure of the job market for teachers at this time however, I can tell you that the quality of teachers is exceptional here. Crime is low, weather is good (it does get hot in the summer - dry heat- and gets down to freezing in the winter (not for long though). Property taxes run about 1.25%.
El Dorado Hills and Folsom are both growing areas but that means more amenities close by. There are old established areas in both places and new construction as well. Homes range from $400,000 to well into the millions depending on what you need. [mod cut - realtor website]
Wendy