Arden, Carmichael or Fair Oaks (Sacramento, Roseville: crime, buying a home, employment)

[psipsa]

Am looking at buying a home in the areas of Arden, Carmichael or Fair Oaks (commuting to midtown). Which area has the greatest potential as an investment and also a great and safe place to live? How about commuting time from Fair Oaks and back? Is it really long? Many thanks

[NewToCA]

I'd pick Fair Oaks, though some of the Arden area is really nice too (just a bit too "spotty" for my taste).

Commute from Fair Oaks can be somewhat challenging. Oddly, I have found that going south on Sunrise Blvd to Rt 50 west works well during the morning rush hour, but taking Marconi, El Camino, Arden or Madison to the east (instead of Rt 50) works better in the evening rush hour.

[CityGirl72]

If you don't have kids and can afford it - I'd buy in Midtown, those houses hold their value!! If you can afford it and HAVE kids, then I suggest East Sac.

But out of the choices you mentioned, I'd pick Fair Oaks...actually I already did

[psipsa]

how long do you think commute is from Fair Oaks to Midtown at around 7.15-7.30 in the morning and 5 to 5.15 in the evening? Half an hour or longer (average) Thanks...

[NewToCA]

I would plan on 35-45 minutes each way.

[CityGirl72]

Depends on where in Fair Oaks...and where in Midtown

Could always jump on the 80 instead of 50. Or if you are close by then grab Fair Oaks Blvd all the way in.

Without traffic it's about 20 minutes

Still - I'd livein Midtown

[d_deathrage]

The problem with talking about really big areas like Arden or Carmichael or even Fair Oaks is that you are talking about areas that are too big to make effective comparisons.

I really liked Willhaggen, Arden Park, Del Paso Manor, Arden Oaks, Del Dayo, Maddox Ranch and Shelfield Parks. I also liked most of California Avenue. I thought those were some of the nicer parts of the Arden and Carmichael areas. You might also throw in Sierra Oaks and Campus Commons in that discussion (although they are technically part of Sacramento they are served by the San Juan School district). I thought Old Fair Oaks Village was also pretty charming.

In these neighborhoods, the local schools are strong, the neighborhoods are nice and have been nice for the past 50 or 60 years. If you look at the three big employment centers in this region, downtown, Roseville and the highway 50 corridor, these neighborhoods are centrally located between all three. So your commute to any of them is still pretty manageable. So if you switch jobs or if you and your spouse work at different employment centers, the commute is reasonable to any of them and there is no need to switch homes merely because your job changes.

If you look at test scores of the local schools they are some of the best in the county and the district.

2008 Growth API School Report - Del Dayo Elementary

2008 Growth API School Report - Mariemont Elementary

2008 Growth API School Report - Sierra Oaks Elementary

2008 Growth API School Report - Mary Deterding Elementary

2008 Growth API School Report - Del Paso Manor Elementary

County List of Schools

My hunch is that there is always going to be a market for places with high quality schools in a central location. These areas have some of the highest educational attainment levels in the region.

STI: ERsys - Sacramento, CA (Education)

as well as some of the better schools.

California School Performance Maps

You are near the nice parts of the bike trail, you are in a very central location.

The problem inside the city of Sacramento is poor options regarding public schools. The good schools are magnet programs in the Sac City district that tend to have long waiting lists. So if you move to someplace like East Sac, you can end up having your kids attending a dysfunctional non-neighborhood and non local school. In practice that means a lot of people end up sending their kids to private schools which is an additional expense you wouldn't face if you lived in say Arden Park where you would send your kids to Mariemont.

In these neighborhoods you get bigger homes with better schools for less money than in East Sac or Midtown, while having a much shorter commute to downtown than say from Fair Oaks.

[nmnita]

Even though I love midtown, even without kids I would suugest Fair Oaks. Eventually you will want to sell and the school district alone is a selling point. Just an opinion, from an old lady (X realtor)

Nita

[Oldschooler81]

I haven't lived there since 1995, but Fair Oaks was nice then (I imagine it's the same thing today, just with more stuff built). It has a nice suburban, laid back charm that Arden doesn't. I liked the mall as a kid, but wouldn't wanna actually live there. I went to school in Carmichael for awhile, and that was okay. Still a little too close to the inner city for my liking.

[KobiLee]

After living in another part of Sacramento for 7 years (Pocket/Greenhaven), my husband and I just bought a house this last summer in central Fair Oaks, and so far we love it. We looked in all sorts of neighborhoods throughout Sacramento and the incorporated County, including Arden Arcade/Arden Park, Carmichael, Sunriver in Rancho Cordova, Greenhaven/Pocket, Land Park and South Land Park, and even briefly Elk Grove. We chose Fair Oaks because of the small town, semi-rural feel of some areas, and yet convenience to some of the prettiest sections of the American Rivery Parkway -- only a 5 min. drive for us -- (for walking, jogging, and cycling), Lake Natoma (for kayaking), and also Fair Oaks' closeness to lots of basic shopping opportunities (some areas of Carmichael were far away from everything, it seemed, even if they were nice. S. Land Park also was far away from decent parks for long walks, since endlessly circling Land Park was a little too urban for us). We also liked how well-kept most houses are in the area of Fair Oaks where we now live, how many trees there are, and how large many yards are for the same price as much smaller lots closer to downtown. We also appreciated the good home values here, the friendly neighbors, as well as the cute and small-town feel of Fair Oaks Village, which is fairly close to us. The area of Fair Oaks where we live also had the lowest crime statistics of any area we looked at throughout Sac County (we looked at over 90 house and I checked online crime stats for every house we seriously considered or made offers on; we were looking at homes around $300k). I would highly recommend checking crime stats, since some locations surprised us. Finally, while we don't have children, we may someday, and many schools are well ranked in Fair Oaks.

The commute at the time you specify in the morning, around 7 a.m., should have full-speed traffic on most days, which for us from approx. the corner of Sunset and Fair Oaks Blvd. to Capitol Mall and 8th St. downtown takes 25-28 min. with no traffic -- and that's going either via Sunrise to 50, or on Madison to I-80 to I-5 (they're about the same time at that hour, as well as at 9 a.m.). Going home around 5 p.m. from downtown/Midtown Sac to Fair Oaks will take longer, as that's the busiest commute time -- probably more like 45 minutes and when it's raining or there's an accident, maybe longer. My husband typically leaves work at 6:30 p.m. in order to avoid the traffic, making his commute about the same coming and going (slightly less than than 30 min. most days). However, it DOES depend on where in Fair Oaks you live -- if you're closer to Hazel, add about 5 min. each way. If you're on the northern boundary of Fair Oaks, add 4-5 min. each way. If you're right in Fair Oaks Village or right across Sunrise near Winding Way or Fair Oaks Blvd, probably it would take you a little less time than it take us to get downtown, so you could subtract a few min. from the totals I provided.

Overall, even though we've doubled our commute time compared to living in Greenhaven/Pocket, we think it's more than worth it, esp. since when we were looking at houses, we discovered it took almost as long to get to/from most areas of Carmichael and Arden Arcade due to all the surface street driving, traffic lights, and related congestion compared to Fair Oaks. So when you figure how pretty it is out here compared to areas closer to downtown as the crow flies, we're very pleased with our choice.

Good luck!