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Old 05-03-2011, 08:13 PM
 
22 posts, read 58,959 times
Reputation: 19

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It seems like the cost of living in Sacramento is much lower than San Jose/Santa Clara. I am looking at schools in both regions and have visited Santa Clara, but did not have enough time to visit Sacramento while visiting the state. I plan to move during the summer, and will be unable to visit Sacramento before the move. Thus, I am looking for honest opinions...
-Sacramento or San Jose-
.
Please do not hold back! Thanks to all!
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Old 05-03-2011, 09:18 PM
 
1,348 posts, read 2,846,090 times
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San Jose is more wealthy, has a far more vibrant economy and is also located in the bay area.

Cons is that the cost of living is very high, also its a very boring city.

Sacramento is poorer than San Jose although Sac for the most part is solidly middle class. Its economy is overly reliant on the government and government workers, thus it does not have much dynamism. Also, it is two hours away from the ocean.

Pros is that it is far cheaper, you can have a nice house in a great school district for only about $200,000 and in addition, the city center probably has much more history and character than San Jose, although Sac is also quite boring.
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Old 05-03-2011, 09:27 PM
 
Location: San Francisco
1,472 posts, read 3,532,687 times
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I actually like Sac better. The proximity to the Sierra and Gold Country is appealing.
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Old 05-03-2011, 10:15 PM
 
2,963 posts, read 6,236,424 times
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San Jose is a suburb and Sacramento is a city.
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Old 05-04-2011, 12:48 AM
 
8,680 posts, read 17,194,381 times
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Sacramento's economy has an over-reliance on the construction industry, which is largely why things took such a dive after our main product (suburbs) became far less valuable when the housing bubble popped.
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Old 05-04-2011, 01:59 AM
 
1,092 posts, read 2,164,211 times
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Correction: San Jose is a true major city with a real downtown, and Sacramento is a small to midsized city with mediocre downtown and away from the ocean.
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Old 05-04-2011, 10:35 AM
 
30,856 posts, read 36,757,475 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Majin View Post
San Jose is a suburb and Sacramento is a city.
I think that's very inaccurate. I've lived in both cities. Both are suburban in character. Sacramento does have a better urban core....but San Jose's urban core has improved in the last few years. If you go by population density, San Jose is more urban than Sac.

I think Sacramento916's description of the 2 cities is the most accurate.

I'd add that San Jose is generally considered to have better weather. Summer temps in SJ are usually in the low to mid 80s while it's usually in the low to mid 90s in Sac. (although summer nighttime temps are only a shade cooler in SJ than Sac) Winter temps in SJ are also about 3-5 degrees warmer in SJ than in Sac.

In general, the local wages vs. cost of housing ratio comes out better for most people in Sac.
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Old 05-04-2011, 11:12 AM
 
1,348 posts, read 2,846,090 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Majin View Post
San Jose is a suburb and Sacramento is a city.
Sac has a better urban core, more character, more history, than San Jose. But overall, not really more urban. San Jose is a much larger city, it has nearly 1 million people.

I think Sacramento really needs to focus on building up its urban core more, which was really abandoned for decades with tons of historic neighborhoods torn down and people shifted to the suburbs. It's quite a shame because if that didn't happen, Sacramento would be a real destination city.

San Jose, because of silicon valley, it's corporate power, has more of an ability to make things happen than Sacramento. Sac has too much reliance on government, and government workers, who, I hate to say it, really just have the 9 to 5 mentality. Sac doesn't have enough entrepreneurial prowess, it doesn't attract the movers and shakers, that's what keeps it a pretty placid city full of people with suburban mentalities for the most part.
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Old 05-04-2011, 11:54 AM
 
2,963 posts, read 6,236,424 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sacramento916 View Post
Sac has a better urban core, more character, more history, than San Jose. But overall, not really more urban. San Jose is a much larger city, it has nearly 1 million people.
Sacramento's core is older and more urban. Thats all that count's IMHO.

San Jose is a much larger city? I guess by that standard (city limits) it's a much larger city than San Francisco, Atlanta, Seattle, etc

San Jose has a much larger city limit boundaries than Sacramento but if Sacramento annexed much of the county areas that are directly adjacent of the city limit's Sacramento would be closer to a million instead of the 500k but i'm sure you already knew that. Sac's metro pop is larger than San Jose (2.1m vs 1.8m). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_o...tistical_Areas


Quote:
Originally Posted by sacramento916 View Post
I think Sacramento really needs to focus on building up its urban core more, which was really abandoned for decades with tons of historic neighborhoods torn down and people shifted to the suburbs. It's quite a shame because if that didn't happen, Sacramento would be a real destination city.
I don't think you'd get a argument from anybody here. Hopefully the Railyards, the arena, and K street get built up over the next few years.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sacramento916 View Post
San Jose, because of silicon valley, it's corporate power, has more of an ability to make things happen than Sacramento. Sac has too much reliance on government, and government workers, who, I hate to say it, really just have the 9 to 5 mentality. Sac doesn't have enough entrepreneurial prowess, it doesn't attract the movers and shakers, that's what keeps it a pretty placid city full of people with suburban mentalities for the most part.
Honestly, I don't think anyone really gives a damn about San Jose being the heart of the Silicon Valley, which is the reason why so many people have negative opinions about the place and is not any kind of destination place and never really built up as an urban center (unlike San Francisco or Oakland).

Yes, the area has a lot of money, no one will argue that, but being in the silicon valley hasn't really helped SJ become any kind of world class destination, unlike the movie industry in LA which DID cause LA to become a world class destination.
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Old 05-04-2011, 02:25 PM
 
Location: yeah
5,717 posts, read 16,295,177 times
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Majin always sounds like he's trying to convince himself, not everyone else...
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