Moving from Portland, OR - looking for perfect neighborhood. (Sacramento: short sales, rentals)

[terraquaero]

I'd be grateful for any advice / recommendations!

About us:

28 & 32 yrs old. 3yr old kiddo. #2 on way. Moving to Sacramento for sun and family (in Roseville). We love where we currently live and ideally are looking for something similar.

We live in NE Portland in older neighborhood of pre-WWII homes. We like sidewalks and pedestrian oriented spaces. We currently are near bike routes, bus stop and neighborhood business street (20mph zone).

Diverse people in our neighborhood now: conservative, liberal, old, young, gay, straight, married, single, widowed etc.

We love that we can walk to grocer, pub, dining, dentist, hardware store, library, bank, farmer's market, etc.

We're looking to buy somewhere in Sac Metro for $200-300,000. We're committed to public schools and aren't looking for the best of the best test scores -- but an engaged community and parents that are supportive of their kids.

We're fine with newer homes too - and while we generally think that we would not like suburbs --- we're open minded.

Not interested in living somewhere like Natomas - that seems to have a high liklihood of becoming a lake during the next flood.

If it means anything to you - we're looking for a neighborhood with a sense of space and identity. We like that we see our neighbors in their front yards and that over the years we've connected and shared block parties with them.

Is there a place in Sacramento where we might re-create what we've loved so much about Portland? If it weren't for the sun and family located in CA we'd stay put. But some things are very important....

Deeply grateful for helpful advice. Thank you.

[wburg]

People get mad at me here for saying this too much, but look at Midtown--specifically the eastern half of the central city in the 20s. It is walkable and beautiful, the homes are mostly pre-WWI (some by a few decades) and tree-shaded, and you're close to transit, recreation and job centers. The schools are small and not very well-rated. There are relatively few kids in Midtown, as much of the population is students, seniors, gays/lesbians and DINKs: the traditional pattern is that students and hip kids move to Midtown, meet, fall in love, get married, and eventually have kids--then when the kids hit school age they reluctantly move to the suburbs. But there certainly are kids here. There are one-block parks every few blocks throughout the central city, most of which have at least some play equipment.

The next choice is to go a bit farther out into the neighborhoods of East Sacramento, Land Park or Curtis Park. These are old streetcar suburbs, built between 1900 and WWII. They're a bit quieter, but with generally walkable streets, good transit, and neighborhood business streets. More kids, though, and better schools, but a bit more expensive.

Sacramento is very, very ethnically/racially diverse compared to Portland. Politically, not too different--the closer to the central city, generally the more liberal, while heading out of the city limits and into nearby cities one finds folks who are more conservative.

Your price range will be an obstacle. The above neighborhoods have been far less affected by the collapse of the housing market than the outer suburbs. For around $300,000 you can get a bungalow of about 1000-1200 square feet that might need some minor repair.

You can get a lot more house by going out into the suburbs. But you also get a lot more commute, a lot less walkability, and a lot less sense of neighborhood identity.

[terraquaero]

Thank you - wburg - the price point does seem to be the obstacle for the neighborhoods you describe. I bet land park and east sac would be good fits - but are there places to buy that aren't over 300? How about Arden and north along watt corridor? Any good compromises in there? Thank you and anyone else for your insights - much appreciated.

[CityGirl72]

I would too reccommend Midtown (www.midtowngrid.com) and I know you want public schools, but the one is midtown is a bad run down one. If you think you can, move just to the east of Midtown to East Sacramento and I think you'd love it.

I'm moving back from Seattle. have two kids, 7 year old and 1 year old. I lived in Midtown for almost 10 years. It's wonderful. Unfortunately not where we are moving back to, but if you can get past the crappy ass school, you'll love it.

[CityGirl72]

Oh yeah and your price is a bit low. To live in Midtown or East sac you might want to increase it to at least 350K...and even that will get you a tiny bungalow.

[CityGirl72]

Gosh I just keep on chatting.

You will find more affordable houses out of Midtown and East Sac, but you won't have the liberal, walkability and kitchy neighborhood you want. So do you want Eclectic? Or under 300K....

PS and as you leave the mid-Sacramento area...the schools get MUCH better

[wburg]

Taking a look at the Sacramento Bee's MetroList, Homes - sacbee.com , right now there are six properties in the 95816 ZIP code (the Midtown ZIP code) between $225,000 and $300,000, generally for 2-3 bedroom houses of around 1000-1500 square feet. Land Park and East Sacramento cost more.

Arden Way and Watt Avenue is a perfectly fine suburb, but it's all postwar neighborhoods, very car-centric, with pretty much no public transit. That area isn't actually within any city limits, it is in the unincorporated county. Watt Avenue and Arden Way are 40 MPH (well, except at rush hour) multi-lane business boulevards, only slightly less pedestrian unfriendly than a minefield. They're just fine if you don't mind driving, and yes the houses are a lot cheaper, but if you're looking for a walkable, bikeable transit-oriented neighborhood, no.

[Damnitjanet]

A couple of thoughts. My hunch is that your best match would be Davis. The neighborhood is very walkable and the public schools in Davis are excellent. In general the neighborhood is probably outside your price range, but Davis has a mixed income oridinance. You can read about the details of it here. Its probably worth applying for housing through that program.

http://cityofdavis.org/housing/affor...Prices_(2).pdf

This is a map of walkscore ratings in the City of Sacramento. Outside of the city of Sacramento, there is no map, but if you enter the address of the house you are looking for, the program will give you the walkscore ratings.

Sacramento's Most Walkable Neighborhoods - Walk Score Neighborhood Rankings

The state of California tests students via something called the academic performance index. You can see a map of schools by test score here. You will have to click on it a couple of times to bring up the data.

California School Performance Maps

then look up the scores of specific schools here.

County List of Schools

What you are going to notice is that for a given amount of money to spend on a house, the schools in the Sacramento City Unified School District aren't very good. The good schools in Sac City are magnet programs. So even if the local neighborhood school is strong, you have no assurances that your child will actually attend it. If you are willing to take your chances or willing and have the budget for private schools its probably not an issue. But realize what risks are involved.

What you may find is that the older parts of Roseville or Folsom offer your best mix of walkable neighborhoods and better schools.

A lot depends on your tolerance for crappy public schools.

Lastly you might want to look up addresses of homes you are interested in on the Sacbee crimemapper. It will give you a sense of what kinds of crime are happening in the area and you can figure out how comfortable you feel about what is happening in the area. You can also screen for specific types of crime, how many murders happened in the area or quality of life issues like the level of gang activity or prostitution.

Online feature - Crimemapper - sacbee.com

I personally wouldn't want my kids growing up in midtown, the schools aren't that great, the neighborhoods don't have that many kids and the neighborhood itself isn't very big wheel friendly (too much traffic in cars).

But you can look at the data yourself and look at the neighborhoods yourself and see what you feel comfortable with.

[mattinsac]

For your price range, I actually think the midtown/downtown is also a bad idea. Take a look at the homes listed between 200k and 300k in that neighborhood. In that price range you would have really limited options. You would probably be looking at a 2bed 1 bath home with less than a 1000 sq ft, there is a good chance that home would be a condo with HOA dues so you still may not afford that neighborhood. Moreover, the places a realtor is going to be directing you to probably aren't the types of neighborhoods you would want to have your wife or kids living in. You might find something in Alkali Flat in that price range, you might find something near Southside Park in that price range, you might find something near the Welfare office at 28th and Q. But all of those neighborhoods have some problems. Like Davis there are parts of midtown that walkable and desirable to live, but if your budget is less than 300k, you probably aren't going to be living in them. Instead you are going to be living in someplace that isn't quite what you are looking for, with too little space and really bad schools.

I would broaden your search a lot more.

This past weekend I went to the open house for this home. The listing agent said they were probably going to drop the listing price for this home in the Garden of the Gods to less than 300K. From this neighborhood you can walk to the Whole Foods Market at Arden and Eastern, Cheffery's Bistro is in that neighborhood, there is a video store, a drug store and a pretty Bel Air supermarket in addition to the Whole Foods Market.

Moreover the local public schools there work a lot better than your options in midtown.

Your kids would be attending El Camino High School a school where your kids aren't going to have to deal with gang members. In midtown, the public schools have more urban problems.

I am not sure Garden of the Gods is everything you are looking for, but I think it addresses a lot more of your needs better than the options available to you in the price range you are looking at in midtown.

If you want more space and better schools but are willing to give up the idea of walkable neighborhoods completely, I would look at Elk Grove. Right now you find fairly new homes (less than 10 years old with excellent schools out in Elk Grove for between 200k and 300k and have enough space for your kids to have their own rooms and space to set up their lego structures or a crib or bassinet.

You might also look at your options in Fair Oaks, in Carmichael and in Arden Park maybe even Lincoln depending on where you will work.

[wburg]

Actually, take a look at MetroList listings for 95816: the houses in that range are single-family homes, mostly 2/1 and one 3/1 (although that one probably needs some work.) All of the houses I found in a quick search are east of 21st Street (where 95816 starts) in Marshall School, Newton Booth or Winn Park. All of those neighborhoods are walkable, close to amenities and pretty safe.

Out of curiosity I looked at Davis: there were a few ugly-looking condos (probably rentals that went condo) for $200-300K, mostly bank-owned short sales, aside from two houses that were far outside walkable range of downtown Davis.