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Why not try to find a place near where you're going to be working; e.g., in Curtis Park/Land Park? Would definitely cover #2, 5 and at least some of the second 4 on your list. Plus it would be pretty near the zoo, a real plus for you and your kids.
Don't know exactly what's available and whether it's in your price range, but the first website I hit - Curtis Park Real Estate & Curtis Park Homes For Sale — Trulia.com - seems to maybe have some possibilities. Particularly when you consider that there can be a substantial gap between asking price and sales price these days. Low offers are a lot more successful since the recession hit, particularly in places like Sac that have been hit hard by the economic times.
I'd talk to a realtor out there and see what you can turn up; your family in Chico could also talk to a realtor face to face and scope out possible properties.
Good schools in that area may be a little tougher given Sac City schools generally poor rep. However, this area may be the exception. Believe the schools there are:
Don't know for sure these schools are correct but they look like it based on a map of schools I found on the web - Curtis Park Schools, Public and Private - Zillow Local Info. If you go to this site and click on the applicable school name below the map it returns info on the school including recent standardized test scores. Also note that a lot of the reviews on the above websites are dated, plus I don't know whether all Curtis Park kids can get in the local schools (some may be bused to other areas if the schools are full). But a good realtor should be able to help you check the school situation out as well.
Private schools would also be an option depending on cost and how much resources you have/are willing to devote to your kids' education. It's funny, lots of folks have little problem shelling out some serious money to send their kids to college, but seem to be much more adverse to paying to send them to private school during the elementary-high school years. IMO making sure your kids get a good education is much more important in the early years.
thanks...very interesting...lots to think about. i don't necessarily have my heart set on a victorian, just can't stand the feel of the cookie cutter suburb houses.
So if we didn't worry about schools, would there be a neighborhood more urban & walkable in our price range near Land Park? For instance, in Saint Paul, we couldn't afford to live in the most affluent neighborhoods with the huge Victorians or Tudors, but we found an up & coming neighborhood (Selby/Dale) that was walkable & near everything that suited us well. Is there anything like that? We've heard that Pocket is nice (maybe too expensive for us) as well as Arden/Arcade.
I'm familiar with Roseville/Rocklin which has great schools & larger homes in our price range. But it doesn't appeal to me (too suburban & too far from work). Is there anything in between (not necessarily geographically) Roseville & Land Park that might be a better fit for us?
If what you're looking for is a Victorian home, it is important to note what parts of the region were cities in the Victorian era. Arden/Arcade was a horse ranch then, Rocklin a stop on the Southern Pacific with a few quarries. The Pocket was farmland, a brickyard was just being established.
For Victorian styles (roughly pre-1910) your only options are the central city (Midtown, Southside, Alkali Flat), Curtis Park, or Oak Park. Alkali Flat and Oak Park are relatively high-crime neighborhoods. Midtown or Curtis Park might be what you're looking for.
Both are collections of smaller, older neighborhoods--Midtown is basically the eastern half of the central city from C to W and 15th to 29th. The houses date from the 1860s to the 1920s--Queen Annes, Stick, Italianates, various Revival styles, Craftsman bungalows. Most of Midtown gets kind of lively on the weekends--lots of college students, lots of bars and dance clubs and live music venues along the retail corridors. Once you get 2-3 blocks off the main business corridors it's pretty quiet.
Curtis Park is a bit newer--from Highland Park in the 1880s to about the 1930s. There are a few Queen Annes and revival buildings, but styles like Tudor, Spanish Colonial Revival, and even a few Art Deco residences are more prominent. There are some business streets where one can walk, with a few nice cafes and ice cream parlors and such, but it's a lot quieter than Midtown. It is generally located from Broadway to Sutterville Road, from the railroad tracks to Highway 99.
Land Park is just to the west of Curtis Park, and just a bit newer--few houses there date from pre-1900, more Tudors and late revival styles, and Art Deco is a bit more prominent. The southern end of Land Park has a lot of high-style Mid-century Moderne houses (they are having a home tour this weekend) but it is definitely car-centric rather than walkable
East Sacramento is another option--a bit farther out, from Alhambra to 65th Street between the Southern Pacific tracks and Highway 50, or Elmhurst south of 50 and north of UC Davis Medical Center. Both are early 1900s neighborhoods with some very comfortable homes, but might be out of your price range.
The limiting factor in all of this is schools, although personally I think it's changing. I have plenty of friends who have raised or are raising kids in these neighborhoods and they like them fine, plus I have noticed a lot of "bright flight"--the phenomenon of young, educated people who want to live in walkable, character-filled neighborhoods, like yourself. They bring with them higher incomes, higher interest in promoting good schools, and higher levels of activism. So by the time your kids are ready for school, they may well have improved--and at least from what my friends tell me, they're not as bad as some here might try to make them out to be.
Price is the other factor--$250K won't buy you a mansion, and these neighborhoods are pricey. But if you're handy, there are still fixers to be had, and because many of these old houses were really well-designed, a 1200-foot bungalow is as usable as many 2000-foot modern homes due to lack of useless space added because drywall is cheap.
Use Metrolist to do some shopping: look for homes in the 95814, 95816, 95818, 95811, and 95819 ZIP codes. Look for things like window bars, front yard chain-link fences, and too-low prices to avoid the less-safe neighborhoods
I was born in Sacramento, and lived there for many years. I also lived in Minneapolis for a decade, and can say that Sacramento and St. Paul are very similar. There are, of course, differences, but I think that they are more similar than they are not.
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Originally Posted by krtup
1. price range = 200-250K
One of the big differences between the two cities is home prices. While the price of a house will vary by neighborhood in both cities, in general you will get more house for less money in St. Paul. You can definitely find a home in this price range, however it is either going to be smaller than you desire or in a less than desirable neighborhood, which I suppose is objective.
I should point out, and I am sure that you realize this, but homes in California tend to not have a basement or an attic, both of which are pretty much standard with every home in Minnesota. On the flip side, homes in California tend to have more closet space and more-often-then-not, a garage.
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Originally Posted by krtup
2. no more than 20-30 minute commute to job (working in Land Park/Curtis Park neighborhood)
This could put you in good range of many areas; Arden/Arcade, West Sac, Boulevard Park, Tahoe Park, Land Park, Curtis Park, East Sac.
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Originally Posted by krtup
3. decent schools (kids ages 1 & 3) so we still have a few years
I am only familiar with the San Juan Unified School District, and it seemed decent enough. This is not a rag on Sacramento, but public schools in/around the Twin Cities are far better than what Sacto has going on.
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Originally Posted by krtup
4. would like 1500 sq ft or more, but would settle for less if the house has character
Realistically, in your price range you will get something that is between 800 and 1000 sq ft.
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Originally Posted by krtup
4. would love to be able to walk to parks, library, grocery store, bank, etc.
Pretty much everywhere I mentioned will be walkable except for Arden-Arcade, which is definitely walkable, but probably not in the way that you are wanting. Arden-Arcade does have the most grocery stores, banks, and libraries, though.
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Originally Posted by krtup
5. older homes with mature trees and/or houses with character would be ideal!
You might have a hard time finding a Victorian. They do exist, and seem to largely be in the Downtown area. East Sac probably has the most character, but might be way out of your price range, but that would depend on specific location. Land Park, too, but also might be too expensive. Curtis Park, Tahoe Park, and Boulevard Park will have plenty of character and a larger abundance of mature trees. Arden-Arcade will have the least character.
Arden-Arcade is "walkable" only in the sense that you can drive someplace, park in a parking lot, walk around the shopping center, get back in your car and drive home. A lot of residential streets in Arden-Arcade don't even have sidewalks.
East Sacramento = Highland.
Arden-Arcade = Midway.
Oak Park = Frogtown.
Del Paso Heights = West St. Paul.
Tahoe Park, Boulevard Park, and Curtis Park = Prospect Park/South St. Anthony.
Midtown = the upper Summit Ave area.
Arden-Arcade is "walkable" only in the sense that you can drive someplace, park in a parking lot, walk around the shopping center, get back in your car and drive home. A lot of residential streets in Arden-Arcade don't even have sidewalks.
True, but that is where I grew up, and I certainly walked/biked/skateboarded everywhere I went. I still do a lot of walking around the area when I am in town, but it is definitely car centric.
And I grew up in Citrus Heights, and walked/biked/took the bus everywhere. It's not impossible to walk places in such neighborhoods, and in some ways they are more walkable than some modern subdivisions (with their heavier emphasis on feeder streets and retail power centers.) But the car is obviously king in mid-century subdivisions like Arden-Arcade, and kids walk/bike primarily because they aren't old enough to drive yet. So they are "walkable" in much the same way that Top Ramen is "food."
We're not stuck on a Victorian, but would like a home with some old world charm or character.
Which is why I gave a fairly comprehensive list of Sacramento's older neighborhoods--that is where you are likely to find older homes with character--not just homes from the Victorian era, but in the early 20th century neighborhoods like Land Park and East Sacramento. Unless you consider mid-century Modern or postwar Ranch houses "older homes with character," there are only certain parts of Sacramento where you'll find what you're looking for. There are a few scattered older homes in some newer neighborhoods, the occasional remnants left over from when the now-suburban neighborhood was farm country. But they're tough to find. Some nearby cities, the ones built from old farm towns, similarly have a few older homes, typically in the neighborhood that used to be the whole town before the suburbs exploded.
Your other requirement, walkable neighborhoods, is also something you're typically only going to find in the same older neighborhoods, the ones built before World War II.
One more thing to keep in mind when hunting about for older homes: older homes often don't have a closet in each bedroom, but normally only bedrooms with closets are listed as "bedrooms" on MLS listings. So if you're looking for a 3-bedroom, look for references to "bonus room" etc. in the description. An armoire or other free-standing storage solution can work as well as a closet, and save you some money.
I lived in East Sacramento for several years and really liked it. We could walk to the store and several decent restaurants, etc. Plus public transportation (light rail or a short bike ride in the spring/summer) to downtown where I worked. We lived in a 1928 bungalow that really had alot of character. Unfortunately, even with the housing downturn you are probably not going to be able to find a house in the 200-250k price range in East Sac (at least not a 1500 sf one). Also, the schools in Sac Unified District are awful once you get past elementary level.
I would suggest you rent if you want to be close to work and in the Sacto area. That way you can save money and put the kids in private school once they get to junior high!
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