Chicago to Sacramento

[steelin58]

@wburg Fantastic feedback. I'll definitely look into those areas as well.

In Chicago, the further away from the city, the better home/lot size can be had at very good value. I was guessing that this paradigm would apply there as well. We are used to driving 40-60 minutes for work out here. I don't mind 40 minute commutes, so our community selection will be vast.

One of the reasons I was interested in Vacaville or any other nearby suburb, was that it was somewhat central to Sacramento and SF. We would probably fly in/out of SF since there are no direct flights from Sac to Chi.

[TheFlats]

With your budget you can afford Davis, which would be miles better than Vacaville if you wanted to live on the western side of the metro. Still, like others have said, save yourself the daily commute and look into the Arden area. Many neighborhoods there feed into great schools and the river is close by for great recreation opportunities. As far as hockey goes, Skatetown in Roseville/Citrus Heights would be your best bet.

[wburg]

I'm familiar with Chicago, the difference is mainly one of scale--the entire Sacramento metro area has fewer people than the city of Chicago alone. At Sacramento's scale, Vacaville is not considered a nearby suburb, it's a suburb of the East Bay. Once you get too close to the Bay Area, especially right now during a big Bay housing boom, prices stop dropping and start rising, well out of proportion to the amenities available in that city. If your workplace is near Cal Expo, that's on the very eastern edge of the city of Sacramento, so you're very close to some very comfortable postwar suburbs (built from the 1950s-1980s.) The kind of older streetcar/railroad suburb you find in Chicagoland stop well within the Sacramento city limits--places like East Sacramento and Land Park kind of remind me of Elmhurst or Oak Park in the Chicago area, and they're within 3 miles of downtown Sacramento.

I think there are direct flights from Sacramento to Chicago (O'Hare or Midway), it is not necessary to use SFO for a direct flight, plus you'd lose as much time driving from Vacaville to SFO as you'd save from a two-leg hop via Denver.

[NorCalLover]

Originally Posted by steelin58

@wburg Fantastic feedback. I'll definitely look into those areas as well.

In Chicago, the further away from the city, the better home/lot size can be had at very good value. I was guessing that this paradigm would apply there as well. We are used to driving 40-60 minutes for work out here. I don't mind 40 minute commutes, so our community selection will be vast.

One of the reasons I was interested in Vacaville or any other nearby suburb, was that it was somewhat central to Sacramento and SF. We would probably fly in/out of SF since there are no direct flights from Sac to Chi.

I'm from Chicago and used to live in Davis. I flew home to Chicago nonstop all the time from SMF. The Sacramento airport offers nonstops to ORD on United and Midway on Southwest.

As someone who's lived in Vacaville before, I wouldn't recommend it unless you worked in the immediate area. It's a whole lot of nothing - generic strip malls, chain restaurants, and a military base. Not worth a 45-min minimum commute. Roseville is the best option on your list, and also give East Sacramento and Davis a look. As others have said, Sac is much smaller than the Chicago area, with much less need to commute long distances.

[steelin58]

I want to thank everyone for their feedback, very helpful. My wife and I are traveling there this weekend to drive the area. I work in the homebuilding industry so I may be travelling to the Bay area on occasion. So I will probably factor that in somewhat...not sure if their offices will actually move there, but they are tied into a lease for at least 3 years.

Thanks all.