Bad/Good Areas Along the I80 Corridor Heading NE? (Sacramento: low income, sales)

[Sheryl_Jones]

I am in a situation facing relocation soon because of a number of personal and financial situations that hit all at once.

I have looked at buying affordable low-end housing in many spots from NorCal down through SoCal, over in Nevada and around Sacramento.

My only question here is in regard to Sacramento, since this is the Sacramento board.

It seems most places I get attracted to - and I'm looking low end of market, to buy, not to rent, and can't afford pricey, but ends up being along the I80 corridor heading from Truxel north through Roseville - that whole stretch - between I80 and along Auburn - neighborhood after neighborhood.

Truxel and Natomas is a flood zone. I am trying to avoid down near the rivers. It's also why I don't look along Rt 50 and the American River because of flood zones or in the southern areas in the flatlands.

Del Paso Heights and North Highlands are cheap, but both have crime reputations. I've driven through. It doesn't feel comfortable to me, like houses not being kept up, too many iron bars going up.

Foothill Farms, I sometimes find something cheap but have read the area may be going downhill, could become a bad crime zone in the future. And there's not that much cheap anymore, a few McKeon condos once in a while and not fond of McKeons as far as condos go.

Roseville, nice reputation supposedly but it's too pricey, unaffordable.

Along the southside of I-80 and along the Auburn Blvd. corridor - this is where I get confused and need some input, if anyone has opinions on these neighborhoods which I don't know by name, just by how they line up on the freeway heading NE on I-80.

I am trying to rank by most affordable versus lowest crime. Traffic, I can deal with as traffic is what it is.

-- Howe through Fulton?

-- Fulton through Watt?

-- Watt through American River College?

-- American River College through Greenback?

-- Greenback through Sunrise?

-- Those same stretches but further down south from Auburn, does it get cheaper or more expensive, less crime or more crime?

In my mind I am seeing I-80 heading to the NE. I am seeing I don't want to live on the northside but on the southside of I-80. That puts me along the Auburn Boulevard corridor. I keep seeing these main North/South streets for the freeway exits. I have seen some of those areas but not all and don't know if going even further south from Auburn that makes it more or less expensive or more or less bad crime reputation.

Frankly, it all starts to look the same after a while because it's laid out flat and suburban.

I'm also surprised that in all neighborhoods in Sacramento you see so many iron doors and iron bars and the RE agents just say that's common for Sacramento.

If anyone has opinions on these areas, I appreciate hearing it.

[NewToCA]

Greenback through Sunrise is OK, I wouldn't be concerned about living there at all. The area is Citrus Heights, and though it isn't a "top notch" area, I think that it offers reasonable safety and good value.

Not sufficiently familiar with the areas to the west of there.

[edwardius]

You would probably get the most helpful responses if you listed a budget of what you would like to spend as well as how much space you might need.

Things that might be helpful in comparing neighborhoods would be the crimemapper. You can see which crimes have been committed in a given radius from a specific address over a specific period of time. Its an excellent way to see how safe or dangerous a neighborhood is.

Online feature - Crimemapper - sacbee.com

This is a map of the craigslist classified ads. That way you can see roughly how much homes are selling for in a given region.

HousingMaps

This is a map of the area by income. Its lets you see where the wealthy and the poor live.

STI: ERsys - Sacramento, CA (Income)

This is the most recent housing sales by zipcode. It includes price per sqft. Often price per sqft times the number of sqft in a given property will give you a rough idea of what the house probably should sell for.

DQNews - Sacramento Bee Zip Code Chart

If you don't know where a specific zip code is look here.

Click for a Zip Code Boundary Map.

You may also qualify for one of the low income buyers assistance programs. The income requirements are similiar to this program.

First Time Homebuyer (http://www.shra.org/Content/Housing/HomeBuyer/FTHB.htm - broken link)

But there are several of these programs.

Homebuyer Programs (http://www.shra.org/Content/Housing/HomeBuyer/HomebuyerTOC.htm - broken link)

If you look around other cities have these programs as well. Most cities and counties in the region offer something. This isn't an exhaustive list.

City of Roseville, California - Assistance to First Time Homebuyers

Folsom Website - First Time Homebuyer Down Payment Assistance Program (http://www.folsom.ca.us/depts/redevelopment_and_housing/housing/first_time_homebuyer.asp - broken link)

If you qualify the programs probably are useful, but most of these programs have waiting lists. So depending on your time frame they may or may not be too useful to you.

If I was looking for an area that is cheap but safe, I would be looking between ARC and Madison. To cover 1-80, the CHP has a huge office on Tyler Avenue just off Madison via Date Avenue. There are CHP cars coming in and out of that station pretty much continually. The neighborhood itself is mostly students at ARC. You are near the freeway and might hear some freeway noise from 80 which keeps prices down. But its a very safe and affordable neighborhood.

Google Maps

[Sheryl_Jones]

Thanks. I am going to go to those websites and see what they say.