The American River has a great biking/hiking trail. Most of the places in 75K to 120K price ranges are in fairly hinky neighborhoods--with your income, you could probably afford something closer to $150-180K as long as interest rates stay fairly low and you have some cash to put down. The northern part of Oak Park is probably going to be the new Midtown, in a few years--but until a few years ago, Midtown was considered a dangerous and disreputable part of town (and, by some folks, it still is.) If you go in willing to fix things up, willing to be a bit of a neighborhood activist, and willing to tolerate (or enjoy) some weirdness in your neighborhood, I'd say go for it. If you're looking for a quiet little house where you can leave your doors unlocked, look elsewhere. If you're willing to check it out and are semi-handy with tools, look at areas close to Broadway between Hwy 50 and about 6th/7th Avenue. Be prepared to check it out in person a couple of times--including at night. If you aren't comfortable visiting the neighborhood at night, you won't be comfortable living there.
Here's a nice bungalow in that neck of the woods:
Homes - MLS - sacbee.com&
If you prefer Victorians, look at this one:
Homes - MLS - sacbee.com&
Del Paso and South Sac are farther from the central city and farther from turning around. Del Paso is closer but still has a long, long way to go and the river is a bigger obstacle than the freeway. South Sacramento has never been anything but an auto suburb and it's tough to say what will change that stretch of territory other than generally boom times that may be a long ways off.
This one's kinda cool:
Homes - MLS - sacbee.com&
It is small, right next to the freeway, and about half a mile from a public housing project. But it's also very close to downtown (like five-minute drive or 15 minute walk), two blocks from Target, a grocery store, Southside Park and the big Sunday farmer's market, 10-15 minutes' stroll from a bunch of cool restaurants. It is in a funky little neighborhood called "Yale Avenue" just north of Broadway between Southside and the north end of Land Park. If you can up your top price a bit (your house payment would be around $1000/month, you couldn't rent a house in that part of town for so little) you can expand your options close to midtown. My first house was a lot like this one, only smaller, and it was a nice place to live once I got used to the freeway noise.
Do check out the Sacramento Bee's "MetroList,"
Homes - sacbee.com look at 95819/95817/95819 in addition to the downtown/midtown/East Sac 95814/95811/95816.
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