folsom vs. el dorado hills (Sacramento, Fairfield: power lines, rentals, low crime)

[bluevelo]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

And for the rest of the story...

Prop 13 came about in large part as a result of the Serrano Decision that transferred funding from local districts to the State in the interest of "Fairness"

The State took over education and schools suffered...

As mentioned... voters can and do approve additional taxes for local schools and Prop 13 only requires voter approval... remember, only 55% voter approval is needed for school construction bonds even under Prop 13.

Prop 13 continues to get a bad rap from some because it is a very convenient scape goat to avoid the dealing with the real issues... Sacramento Politics and convincing voters the dollars spent on education are dollars well spent... approaching 15k per child in my district.

If we could repeal or amend Prop 13 nothing would be left...

It would be interesting to see what private/charter schools could do for 15K per kid per year - considering that many of the Catholic academies charge a *lot* less than that.

[NinaN]

I moved here from Texas a little more than 2 years ago. Many parents in the city school districts (Fort Worth and Dallas) put their kids in Charter/Private schools to keep them out of city schools and improve their education. These schools traditionally were less regulated than public schools. The state finally decided to do some audits, and it turned out that about 80% of them underperformed public schools and only a few of the elite (read very expensive and hard to get in) schools had better performance. It was quite the eye opener. Many of these schools were shut down because their performance was so poor, and the other marginal ones were given a required progression path to stay in business.

So what can a private/charter school do with the same budget? Maybe more maybe less. It depends on the administration. But you can't just assume that a private school is better. You have to do your homework and look at the measured results.

[Hrvatska]

I did tons of research before I purchased a home in Folsom a couple of months ago.

EDH & Folsom the people are the same in both places... you have some rundown area's of EDH & Folsom. Though in EDH you can have some homes with large lots that have junk cars, junk RV's & trash and no one seems to get them to clean it up. In Folsom you can't do that or the city is giving cititations so it keeps most homes appearances looking fairly kept.

Traffic I feel is a bit worse in EDH because you have so few large roads(need more lanes) where during traffic in Folsom you still get around fairly easy...

Folsom has better/more shopping. Most people I know that live in EDH come down to shop in Folsom. I even know some moms that even like the Folsom Target better than the one in EDH. Don't understand that one.

The cost of all utilities in EDH is more expensive. Folsom you have PGE & SMUD. When I was searching for homes I called PG&E for average bills at homes I looked into buying... OH MY.. I never found one home with a PG&E bill less than $400 average. PG&E has EDH by the BALLS! I was talking to a woman the other day about our bills and she told me her bill in Dec was $600... I have another friend with a large home in EDH and her bill during winter & summer is around a $1000. THAT IS CRAZY! My home is a bit smaller then my friend but my bill was $250 in Dec and I ran a gas fireplace, a outdoor gas firepit & gas BBq, we baked like crazy for the holidays and still it was just $250.

Don't forget water... EDH rates were voted in to go up in the next couple of years and EDH water is already expensive.

The other thing that is horrible about EDH is that some of the homes there were not made correctly Serrano and... epecially on the otherside of Hwy 50 (off latrobe)... the homes are not built to withstand the wind... many of the homes in that area had lots of problem with mold and other things... I believe there was a lawsuit pending. There was a news report on it about 3 years ago... and now with many homes in foreclosure no one is going to disclose this to the new owners... very sad situtation.

School districts are about the same. Even the elementary theodore judah in the worst part of Folsom has very good marks.

Almost all my friends that moved to EDH regret it... they are always in Folsom and wish they just moved here.

Overall Folsom to me is just a better deal. How do some of those sayings go... location, location, location and you get what you pay for. You may pay more for Folsom but you will be happier.

Living & Loving Folsom.

[NinaN]

Originally Posted by Hrvatska

School districts are about the same. Even the elementary theodore judah in the worst part of Folsom has very good marks.

Theodore Judah is ranked a 4 out of ten. I would hardly call that very good marks. I would agree that the rest of the schools in Folsom are highly rated. See for yourself

School Rankings for the City of Folsom, CA

I totally disagree on the traffic (other than trying to get onto HWY 50 during rush hour when traffic is backed up through Folsom).

SMUD is definitely less expensive than PG&E. I sure wish we had a choice!

And I do prefer the Target in Folsom to the one in EDH. Can't quite put my finger on why, but probably the people working there just seem more customer service oriented to me. But I dread the traffic on Bidwell.

And I agree that buyers should inspect very closely at any house built in this area during 2005-2006. The height of the housing market just might have motivated some of the builders to do a rush job.

[Shope]

Originally Posted by Hrvatska

I did tons of research before I purchased a home in Folsom a couple of months ago.

EDH & Folsom the people are the same in both places... you have some rundown area's of EDH & Folsom. Though in EDH you can have some homes with large lots that have junk cars, junk RV's & trash and no one seems to get them to clean it up. In Folsom you can't do that or the city is giving cititations so it keeps most homes appearances looking fairly kept.

Traffic I feel is a bit worse in EDH because you have so few large roads(need more lanes) where during traffic in Folsom you still get around fairly easy...

Folsom has better/more shopping. Most people I know that live in EDH come down to shop in Folsom. I even know some moms that even like the Folsom Target better than the one in EDH. Don't understand that one.

The cost of all utilities in EDH is more expensive. Folsom you have PGE & SMUD. When I was searching for homes I called PG&E for average bills at homes I looked into buying... OH MY.. I never found one home with a PG&E bill less than $400 average. PG&E has EDH by the BALLS! I was talking to a woman the other day about our bills and she told me her bill in Dec was $600... I have another friend with a large home in EDH and her bill during winter & summer is around a $1000. THAT IS CRAZY! My home is a bit smaller then my friend but my bill was $250 in Dec and I ran a gas fireplace, a outdoor gas firepit & gas BBq, we baked like crazy for the holidays and still it was just $250.

Don't forget water... EDH rates were voted in to go up in the next couple of years and EDH water is already expensive.

The other thing that is horrible about EDH is that some of the homes there were not made correctly Serrano and... epecially on the otherside of Hwy 50 (off latrobe)... the homes are not built to withstand the wind... many of the homes in that area had lots of problem with mold and other things... I believe there was a lawsuit pending. There was a news report on it about 3 years ago... and now with many homes in foreclosure no one is going to disclose this to the new owners... very sad situtation.

School districts are about the same. Even the elementary theodore judah in the worst part of Folsom has very good marks.

Almost all my friends that moved to EDH regret it... they are always in Folsom and wish they just moved here.

Overall Folsom to me is just a better deal. How do some of those sayings go... location, location, location and you get what you pay for. You may pay more for Folsom but you will be happier.
Living & Loving Folsom.

Even most of the old neighborhoods in EDH have basic CC&R's, no RV's on the street and stuff like that. The difference is that it's run by volunteers so you don't pay any HOA or Mello Roo's which is a plus for the older neighborhoods. I have never seen a run down area in EDH, where do you speak of? Sure there is the occasional house that is neglected but there isn't any area that I scoffed at. I searched for homes all over Folsom and EDH, Folsom has the whole section 8 area and some hoods are less than savory but nothing close to what you would see in some of the bad areas of Sac.

The utilities are a bit higher. My PG&E bill is about $185/ month in the winter and about $100 in the summer. Your horror stories are a bit far fetched and your comparison to your friend is apples and oranges. Yea, if you live in some monster 4000 square foot house and the HVAC unit is on 24/7 then you are gonna have a huge bill no matter where you live. Sewer & water is about $155 every other month.

EDH is a small town, obviously you can't do all of your shopping here. There are 3 grocery stores and a bunch of other stuff but obviously people go to Folsom all the time and why wouldn't they? It's 1 exit away on the freeway.

Most people will be happy with either place. Ultimatley I ended up in EDH because I was able to get a nice 3 bedroom house on 1/4 acre in a court for $260k. I put in offers on some places in Folsom but all I get get in my budget was a cookie cutter track house on a tiny lot plus HOA's or mello roos. I can't comment on Serrano as I didn't even consider it. Your bang for the buck in EDH will go a lot farther. If you need to be super close to all the retail then Folsom is better.

[hindsight20-20]

We are moving back to Sacramento area, basically because we want to live in an area with better school districts than where we live now (Bay Area). We were looking into Folsom and El Dorado Hills and were very excited about the school reviews on those areas. However, recently we came upon some remarks regarding the presence of asbestos in El Dorado Hills. Has anyone read anything about it? For those who live in the area, is that a concern for you?

[NinaN]

Asbestos is found in some of the rock in the Sierras. It is not exclusive to EDH and does not have any recorded health issues so far (not to say there never will be, but none in the 30 years or more we've been building here). Asbestos is only dangerous when it is in dust form, flying through the air and someone inhales it. Meaning that new construction has the potential to create dust like that, but if you buy a home in an established neighborhood it won't even be a consideration. Also, EDH now has regulations on construction that require builders to keep dust levels to a minimum, though I couldn't exactly tell you how they do that.

We moved here 3 years ago and it wasn't an issue for us. The only time we hear about it is when someone has a house backing to a future development area and they use the asbestos scare to try to prevent having neighbors that might block their view.

[Shope]

Well said Nina.

And in construction, you keep the dust down by using a water truck to spray down the dirt during the dry season.

[hydro]

i wonder what happens to the serpentine rock when it erodes or you want to garden.

[Ronnie2011]

We (my wife and I) are contemplating moving to EDH this summer. I will be working in the foothills but we wish to stay in an urbanized area. We used to live in Chicago suburbs before we moved to rural Pennsylvania for job purposes, and we are bored with the country/small town living. I believe EDH is an upscale suburb with close proximity to all urban amenities. How popular is the public transit network in Sacramento? When we were in Chicago, we loved public transit to travel to downtown. No car parking hassles! How does Sacramento midtown compare to Chicago downtown? Or do we have to travel all the way to San Francisco? Do you think there are any plans to bring Gold line all the way to EDH in the future?
From my limited understanding of the area plus one trip for the interview for the job, we really liked EDH over Folsom. It is also a shorter commute for me into the foothills.
We would be renting initially. How about apartments in EDH? Vineyards is closer to EDH town center but we have not read too many good reviews about it. How do the apartments on EDH boulevard (three apt complexes) compare to each other vs Vineyards?
Thanks for any replies.