Low home prices/cost of living without annoying neighbors or excessive noise? (Sacramento: rentals, insurance)

[spockface]

I'm a college student soon to be graduating, hopefully soon to be employed somewhere in the $45K+/year range with lots of potential for growth. Wife is an independent consultant, doesn't yet make a whole lot of money, sees clients in our home frequently. For our-neighborhood-sucks-for-us reasons we're hoping to move soon after I get a decent job in the next year or two, and we'd ideally like a 3-bedroom, 1.5+ bath place.

We need to stay within about a 15-20 minute drive of Midtown, or a similarly wealthy and fashionable area. We'd also like to stay closer to downtown than to Carmichael -- we like our temple and don't want to switch. I think we're likely going to be comfortable with up to about $1,200/month in rent or mortgage.

We'd like to avoid:
-super-white, super-conservative white-flight suburbs -- we're Jewish and wife is uncomfortable living in those sorts of areas due to experiences with antisemitism.
-neighborhoods where people are setting off fireworks/doing donuts in the intersections/playing music so loud it shakes the houses across the street at midnight/screaming at their families all the time
-neighborhoods where there are a lot of nosy older people who are home all the time and might cause problems if they disapprove of anything they see

Any recommendations for neighborhoods to keep in mind? I like the look of Arden-Arcade, budget-wise and location-wise, but I don't know how it would be for noise. We're currently in the unincorporated sliver of Oak Park near South Oak Park, if that gives anyone a helpful basis for comparison.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

[xenxes]

I find antisemitism hard to believe in Sacramento. Gunshots/crime in Lawrence Park / South Oak Park yes.

A small home in North Oak Park or Tahoe Park are about your only options 15-20 mins to Midtown, a $300k home will get you about $1200 mortgage a month, + taxes, utilities, insurance, which may be pushing the budget. But even good rentals in Tahoe Park are averaging ~$1600 these days, so I would lean on the side of buying, especially with more SF spillover coming in.

Examples:

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sacramento.../home/19419970
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sacramento.../home/19419833

[Perma Bear]

Originally Posted by spockface

I'm a college student soon to be graduating, hopefully soon to be employed somewhere in the $45K+/year range with lots of potential for growth. Wife is an independent consultant, doesn't yet make a whole lot of money, sees clients in our home frequently. For our-neighborhood-sucks-for-us reasons we're hoping to move soon after I get a decent job in the next year or two, and we'd ideally like a 3-bedroom, 1.5+ bath place.

We need to stay within about a 15-20 minute drive of Midtown, or a similarly wealthy and fashionable area. We'd also like to stay closer to downtown than to Carmichael -- we like our temple and don't want to switch. I think we're likely going to be comfortable with up to about $1,200/month in rent or mortgage.

We'd like to avoid:
-super-white, super-conservative white-flight suburbs -- we're Jewish and wife is uncomfortable living in those sorts of areas due to experiences with antisemitism.
-neighborhoods where people are setting off fireworks/doing donuts in the intersections/playing music so loud it shakes the houses across the street at midnight/screaming at their families all the time
-neighborhoods where there are a lot of nosy older people who are home all the time and might cause problems if they disapprove of anything they see

Any recommendations for neighborhoods to keep in mind? I like the look of Arden-Arcade, budget-wise and location-wise, but I don't know how it would be for noise. We're currently in the unincorporated sliver of Oak Park near South Oak Park, if that gives anyone a helpful basis for comparison.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

Want to avoid whitey? Move to north highlands or Arden arcade!

[spockface]

Thanks for the tip on North Oak Park, @xenxes, I figured that was probably out of our budget but Zillow and Redfin both indicate there's plenty within it! Re: antisemitism, I don't really wanna argue about it, but a) off the top of my head, last October's incident at UC Davis comes to mind, not to mention the time three Sac temples were firebombed on the same day in '99; b) wife's avoiding-antisemitism requirements are admittedly mostly based on her experiences as a child in SoCal, where richer, whiter areas usually correlated with more e.g. swastikas being drawn/carved into her stuff, but I find it hard to believe Sacramento's relatively-wealthier white people are really that much different, as a population, from SoCal's, and even if they are my wife doesn't have to justify her desire to feel comfortable in her neighborhood.

@Perma Bear, 'fraid North Highlands is too far from downtown/midtown to work for us, aside from being too far out in the boonies for my taste. Thanks for the confirmation Arden-Arcade meets at least some of our wants, though!

[xenxes]

Both of those areas are pretty diverse (N. Oak Park & Tahoe Park), there's tons of coexist flags flying around, big LGBT population, all races and creeds. N. Oak Park (and general area west of Stockton) still has higher crime rates; Tahoe Park is more residential and has traditionally more working class, but prices have come up too, especially Tahoe Terrace and areas around the Park.

Drive/walk through each area (day and night) surrounding your candidate homes before buying. There's big variations from street to street, just remember you're also buying into neighbors, some streets have more multiunits which come with their own set of problems, there's still old meth dens / weed houses / needle exchanges in N. Oak Park. Part of the price is buying into a nice street with good neighbors too.

Crime map tool: LexisNexis® Community Crime Map

I really don't think your wife has much to worry about urban Sac, even E. Sac and Land Park (predominantly WASP) are on a pretty liberal spectrum. Feel free to refer to some census maps.

Perma Bear was being sarcastic, N. High Lands is riddled with gang-related crime.

Since you're fed up with central / south Oak Park I'd really recommend checking out Tahoe Park first. Still easy access, and if you want bars it's just a $5-7 ride to Midtown.

Also Redfin pulls actual MLS data (what realtors see); Zillow is highly inaccurate.

[spockface]

Thanks for the tips! Yeah, I agree re: urban Sac, I just meant that I wanted suggestions that weren't e.g. Rocklin, Roseville, Carmichael, since I see them recommended so much on these boards

Re: North Highlands, I know, we have a close friend who lived there for years, I just didn't particularly want to make Perma Bear feel like I was gonna play into their boohoo-poor-offended-whitey thing or whatever was going on there.

[wburg]

I suppose Land Park and Curtis Park are out of your price range, or a 2-bedroom is too small for your needs? Tahoe Park is also a good choice and more reasonably priced--as I recall, that's the neighborhood where our new mayor-elect got his start as a city councilmember.

[spockface]

Sadly, yes, both of those things are true. We have a roommate who will be coming with us, and Wife needs a spare bedroom to use as an office. I don't know for *sure* that Land Park and Curtis Park will be out of our price range, I mean, I could get incredibly lucky in my job hunt, but it seems like a safe bet.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by spockface

I'm a college student soon to be graduating, hopefully soon to be employed somewhere in the $45K+/year range with lots of potential for growth. Wife is an independent consultant, doesn't yet make a whole lot of money, sees clients in our home frequently. For our-neighborhood-sucks-for-us reasons we're hoping to move soon after I get a decent job in the next year or two, and we'd ideally like a 3-bedroom, 1.5+ bath place.

We need to stay within about a 15-20 minute drive of Midtown, or a similarly wealthy and fashionable area. We'd also like to stay closer to downtown than to Carmichael -- we like our temple and don't want to switch. I think we're likely going to be comfortable with up to about $1,200/month in rent or mortgage.

We'd like to avoid:
-super-white, super-conservative white-flight suburbs -- we're Jewish and wife is uncomfortable living in those sorts of areas due to experiences with antisemitism.
-neighborhoods where people are setting off fireworks/doing donuts in the intersections/playing music so loud it shakes the houses across the street at midnight/screaming at their families all the time
-neighborhoods where there are a lot of nosy older people who are home all the time and might cause problems if they disapprove of anything they see

Any recommendations for neighborhoods to keep in mind? I like the look of Arden-Arcade, budget-wise and location-wise, but I don't know how it would be for noise. We're currently in the unincorporated sliver of Oak Park near South Oak Park, if that gives anyone a helpful basis for comparison.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

2 bdrm + loft $1175 South Land Park Duplex 2 bedrooms plus a full separate "treehouse" style loft with additional

North Oak Park 3 bdrm $1295 Cute 3 BD Near Downtown Sacramento

[xenxes]

The burbs like Rocklin, Roseville, Loomis, Granite Bay, Elk Grove, EDH ... etc, are very popular because you can get a much larger family home / lot in a 8-10 rated public school district K-12. Urban center, good schools are basically just E. Sac, Land Park, or go private.

So if kids are on the horizon think about that also. Most folks your age do the urban grind first, then relocate out when kids are school age (they usually compare cost of private school/urban vs. cost of commute/better environment, and invariably relocate farther outwards for the children).

A 2/1 may work for you guys even with a roommate, if there's an extra living space, that's the most common layout in the area, a 3/2+ is usually approaching or exceeding 400k even in the affordable areas (assuming you're looking to buy). Most of Curtis Park, Land Park, Midtown, Elmhurst, E. Sac are probably priced out of, unless you settle for a poor layout/heavy fixer.