El Dorado Hills vs. Davis (Elk Grove, Folsom: big home, find a job, neighborhood)

[Mossy]

Which place would you pick and why?

I would really appreciate your input.

Thanks.

[CityGirl72]

Davis

More liberal, walkable, bikeable, eco-friendly, more casual laid back

The only reason we don't live there is because the houses cost too much - you get a tiny house for the same money in El Dorado Hills - you get a great big house.

[Mossy]

That is what I thought. We are going to move but are deciding btw. both places. Hubby works in Folsom but can commute in off hours. We are willing to sacrifice a big home for a small place but I want to make sure it is worth it if you know what I mean. We live in a great house now but are so unhappy with the area so for us location comes first. A house to us is just a house but the environment around us is what is important. We do like ELDH though cause of shopping and being close for my husband's work.

Did you find a job yet and are you still moving down here?

[CityGirl72]

I had a company call - and I politely said No Thank You (it was in a bad part of town, and my husband would be concerned for my safety)

I had another company REQUEST I re-apply yesterday personally. And I think I'll be in town after Thanksgiving. So I cross my fingers on that one.

Personally I'm okay right now, with the holidays it's just too crazy to even be thinking about job hunting.

I keep our fingers crossed

At least you and your husband are on the same page. I can tell my husband is sad that Seattle is not working out for me. I too, sometimes, feel like I've let him down.

[Mossy]

No, you aren't letting him down! You just don't like it there. I am in those shoes as well so to speak. Too long of a story to get into now.

Is there anywhere else you would like to move to besides Sac?

How do your children feel?

[CityGirl72]

Well, my life is a bit complicated in the fact that my ex-husband lives in Elk Grove. WHo is my eldest child's dad. We have an "agreement" (that my current husband thinks is hooey) that my son is to live with his dad by age 10. Which makes me freak. So I'd rather move back to Sac to avoid that whole issue. I loved Sac, and moving in the valley will make his dad fine with being just a weekend dad (if that). Not to mention my son's Grandma also lives in Sac.

My current husband would rather us move to So Cal. Which is where we both grew up but I never liked So Cal and I really don't want to raise kids there.

Seattle "fits" my husband very well. It just doesn't fit me. WHich worries me, I know Sac "fits" me, what if it doesn't fit him? Then we are back in the same spot. But my husband swears he'll "just adapt"

[zen_klown]

The big negative for me regarding El Dorado Hills is the naturally occuring asbestos. The big advantage of the area is that I like the views, I think the proximity to the Lake is nice, overall I doubt that neighborhood will deteriortate during my lifetime. It also seems much closer to where your husband works.

As to Davis, there are some water quality issues, but you can address that by drinking bottled water. Historically college towns have good schools because a lot of the parents are professors or grad students with pretty high educational attainment levels.

The negative would be to commute from Davis to Folsom. Because of air quality constraints, it is highly unlikely we shall see much additional freeway capacity in the region. Yet the locals keep approving lots of new housing developments. That is a formula for gridlock. Mass transit from Davis to Folsom might somehow be theoretically possible, but I don't see it as a practical means of getting between the two areas.

Truthfully, I would probably take Folsom or Gold River before either of Davis or El Dorado Hills, but if I had to choose between El Dorado Hills and Davis, I would take El Dorado Hills.

[Dean Trails]

How bad is the asbestos? Is this a class action lawyer's dream or a suburban myth?
If I am 70 years old and retired will it shorten my life?

Also, does it snow much in the hills?

[simplygib]

Not sure about the asbestos, but as for snow, it's very rare in EDH. If it does snow there it will be on the ground a day or so, and that's it.

Assuming EDH and Davis are the only two choices, I too would choose EDH for the following reasons:

1. The commute. If I could avoid driving through Sac, I would. Even during non commute hours. But especially during fog season. The Yolo Causeway is sometimes the worst area for fog.

2. I believe EDH is high enough to be above the fog much of the time (someone correct me if that's not right).

Good luck with your decision.

[zen_klown]

Asbestos fibers cause asbestosis. They lodge in your lungs, scar the tissue and never break down. The more you are exposed to the fibers, the more damage you get.

The issue with living with the stuff is people often live in there homes for 20 or 30 years and they spend a lot of time at home. So there is a big potential for cumlative damage. Its not clear yet whether children are more at risk for damage both because of developmental issues and because they play a lot more outside.

That is the big unknown. The scientists don't know how dangerous this is. The issue for me, is do you want to be the guinea pig? 30 to 40 years from now because of research in places like El Dorado Hills they will be able to model likely number of people hurt from this level of exposure by looking at the number of people exposed in El Dorado Hills and how many developed asbestosis.

What they do know from the preliminary studies is that at every site they looked at in El Dorado Hills, they found asbestos fibers. That isn't good.

My own feeling is that Granite Bay is mighty nice place too, has homes of comparable size and isn't too far away, but doesn't have the asbestos risk, why not live there instead?

For more info check out the following.

This is a map of places El Dorado County likely to have asbestos.

http://www.co.el-dorado.ca.us/emd/apcd/PDF/Map.pdf

This is the EPA site dedicated to El Dorado Hills.

Eldorado Hills: Naturally Occurring Asbestos in California | Region 9: Toxics | US EPA

This is a site has links to some of the articles published about asbestos in El Dorado Hills and other resources if you look around.

Media Coverage - El Dorado Hills Asbestos Information - EDHAsbestos.com - Naturally Occuring Asbestos (NOA) in El Dorado Hills, CA