Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm considering buying an investment property to rent to a relative for a few years, then use as a downsized residence for myself. One area I'm considering is the northwest corner of Citrus Heights (roughly Auburn Blvd on the east, Antelope Rd on the south and I-80 as the hypotenuse).
Citrus Heights has been declining because the failure of Sunrise Mall has affected its tax base (recent article in the Sac Bee: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/sa...233972772.html)
but I'm betting that the city will turn around. The area is attractive because there seem to be a number of houses on larger lots, and I would go mad if I had to live on one of the dining-table sized lots in newer developments. I'm aware that the schools aren't the best, but since I don't have children, it doesn't bother me too much; proximity to shopping (e.g. grocery stores) and the crime rate are much bigger concerns.
It does seem that the neighborhoods are widely variable, with some blocks nicely kept up next to some very sketchy areas. I'd be willing to spend $400K - $600K for a property in one of the "nicer" areas.
Anybody out there who lives or has lived in Citrus Heights want to weigh in with some opinions? Thanks.
Do you have evidence for this or is it just wishful thinking? CH is a maze of poorly designed 1970s infrastructure that makes it impossible to travel except by car. As you said, nobody will be moving there for the schools. What market forces would drive prices upwards that wouldn’t drive other areas up more? I honestly can’t think of any.
I'm considering buying an investment property to rent to a relative for a few years, then use as a downsized residence for myself. One area I'm considering is the northwest corner of Citrus Heights (roughly Auburn Blvd on the east, Antelope Rd on the south and I-80 as the hypotenuse).
Citrus Heights has been declining because the failure of Sunrise Mall has affected its tax base (recent article in the Sac Bee: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/sa...233972772.html)
but I'm betting that the city will turn around. The area is attractive because there seem to be a number of houses on larger lots, and I would go mad if I had to live on one of the dining-table sized lots in newer developments. I'm aware that the schools aren't the best, but since I don't have children, it doesn't bother me too much; proximity to shopping (e.g. grocery stores) and the crime rate are much bigger concerns.
It does seem that the neighborhoods are widely variable, with some blocks nicely kept up next to some very sketchy areas. I'd be willing to spend $400K - $600K for a property in one of the "nicer" areas.
Anybody out there who lives or has lived in Citrus Heights want to weigh in with some opinions? Thanks.
If I had 600k to buy a SFH I wouldn't consider Citrus Heights. As far as a turn around for Sunrise Mall, I wouldn't hold my breath, the company that bought them has a terrible reputation, they buy failing malls cheap and spend nothing on maintenance with the idea that their investors can recover their money and make a profit in 3-5 years at which point Namdar walks away from the mall. https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article224579730.html
And the bigger problem is that it is revenue from that mall that allowed Citrus Heights to incorporate, without it they may eventually have to disincorporate and if you've been around the area for a long time you probably remember how crappy Citrus Heights was before it became a city.
Hmmm, yeah, I've read all of the articles, and like I said, there are a lot of CH neighborhoods that are pretty grubby. But according to the news, at least the CH city gov't recognizes the problem, and is supposed to be working on it.
Hmmm, yeah, I've read all of the articles, and like I said, there are a lot of CH neighborhoods that are pretty grubby. But according to the news, at least the CH city gov't recognizes the problem, and is supposed to be working on it.
Have either of you actually lived there?
The investment group is free to do what they want and in the other 43 malls they've bought that means doing nothing. I feel awful for the people of Citrus Heights, the city has had a lot of good ideas for how to transform the mall but the new buyer can't be forced into doing anything.
No, I don't live in Citrus Heights, I live in Carmichael. You don't need to live in Citrus Heights to know that if they are forced to disincorporate they will ultimately become another run down unincorporated area like Antelope or North Highlands. Sac County does virtually nothing for unincorporated areas, no sidewalks,no streetlights, no traffic control, horribly lax zoning laws that allow for investors to build noisy car washes adjacent to the backyards of residences. And Susan Peters my useless supervisor has never seen a problem with approving a permit for a yet another massage parlor, liquor store or smoke shop.
But according to the news, at least the CH city gov't recognizes the problem, and is supposed to be working on it.
Without real, concrete plans that include funding sources it doesn’t really matter if they are working in it or not. Even relatively small infrastructure improvements take a long time from planning to completion. Sacramento has been talking about improving the Broadway corridor for decades and they’re still only about to start work on it.
The Sunrise Mall is completely inaccessible by freeway, so only locals will patronize businesses there. And every year the locals are older and poorer. The prognosis is very very poor no matter what changes they make.
Without real, concrete plans that include funding sources it doesn’t really matter if they are working in it or not. Even relatively small infrastructure improvements take a long time from planning to completion. Sacramento has been talking about improving the Broadway corridor for decades and they’re still only about to start work on it.
The Sunrise Mall is completely inaccessible by freeway, so only locals will patronize businesses there. And every year the locals are older and poorer. The prognosis is very very poor no matter what changes they make.
I've read about Citrus Heights plans too and they have some good ideas, but they don't own the mall, it got sold to a bunch of vultures who will pick the bones clean and then walk away... And I agree with you about how no direct freeway access limits the potential for retail growth in that area.
It's just another 1970's suburb that has been in decline since Clinton was president.
Had folks known that Amazon was going to become god, they probably would not have incorporated. That is the biggest thing that killed Sunrise mall. Folks just go to Macy's, find their brand, try the cloths on, leave them and go order on Amazon.
Citrus Heights High Schools are an example that having a decent sized white population, does not necessarily guarantee high performing schools.
I'm considering buying an investment property to rent to a relative for a few years, then use as a downsized residence for myself. One area I'm considering is the northwest corner of Citrus Heights (roughly Auburn Blvd on the east, Antelope Rd on the south and I-80 as the hypotenuse).
Citrus Heights has been declining because the failure of Sunrise Mall has affected its tax base (recent article in the Sac Bee: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/sa...233972772.html)
but I'm betting that the city will turn around. The area is attractive because there seem to be a number of houses on larger lots, and I would go mad if I had to live on one of the dining-table sized lots in newer developments. I'm aware that the schools aren't the best, but since I don't have children, it doesn't bother me too much; proximity to shopping (e.g. grocery stores) and the crime rate are much bigger concerns.
It does seem that the neighborhoods are widely variable, with some blocks nicely kept up next to some very sketchy areas. I'd be willing to spend $400K - $600K for a property in one of the "nicer" areas.
Anybody out there who lives or has lived in Citrus Heights want to weigh in with some opinions? Thanks.
We have lived in Citrus Heights for the last five years. We bought when the market was just starting to tick upwards and because of the price we paid for our house we haven't regretted our decision. We've noticed this last year that while homes are selling quickly as they have for the last five years, they are taking longer to sell, and it seems as though the prices have adjusted downwards a little bit. A nicely updated home on a large lot is very doable for 400K, or under.
Citrus Heights really is a mixed bag. The closer you get to I-80, the worse it becomes. Honestly, if we didn't live where we live I wouldn't live in Citrus Heights. We live in what is referred to as Citrus Heights area 7 and 8. Basically, it's the area off of Old Auburn between Antelope Road and the Orangevale line. The lots in our area can be pretty big by Sacramento standards, we have a quarter acre lot so we aren't touching our neighbors. The streets are nice and wide, on our street specifically the majority of homeowners park their cars in their garages or at least on their driveway. Really, the best part about living where we live is the proximity to Placer County and Roseville shopping. We are a stone's throw from the Placer County Line and once you cross that line house values go up by at least $50,000. So too do the water, sewer, and energy costs. So we live in Sacramento County but do 90% of our shopping and business in Roseville, without paying Roseville prices.
Some new homes were recently built on Antelope road between Sunrise and Auburn Boulevard. They are your typical Lincoln style cookie-cutter homes, where you can reach out and touch your neighbor. The homes were starting in the mid $400,000 range. The neighborhood is teeny tiny and fronts a very busy road, but because of Citrus Heights' limited ability to expand outward new homes are going to continue to be built on small parcels and right next to each other. So if you want more land like we did you have to look in our area.
The downside of living where we live is the majority of schools in Citrus Heights are not good. Our child's designated school was San Juan High School, which, if you've lived in this area long enough you know about San Juan. This isn't to say that San Juan hasn't made efforts in the last decade to change their image, but the fact of the matter remains that San Juan is not a great place for education or sports. Being that we are so close to Roseville schools, which are exponentially better, but unable to go to the schools without an interdistrict transfer is a consideration any parent should think on. We did inter-district transfers for middle school and high school, and the San Juan Unified School District fought us tooth and nail on those transfers even though we are a stone's throw from Oakmont High School. Eventually we were granted those inter-district transfers and our child's experience at both Eich middle school and Oakmont high school has been second to none.
Regarding the Sunrise Mall. Yes it is a pathetic sight to see. For those of us who grew up in the area it's turning into what the Old Town and Country Mall looked like before it was torn down. It's a ghost town with something like 25% of the businesses sitting empty. We really hope the Citrus Heights city council and city manager does something with that area that improves the appearance, value, and attractiveness to the area and all of Citrus Heights. The fact that the private company that bought the land is the equivalent to a vulture picking the bones off a dead animal doesn't sit well with a lot of us. We're afraid that it will turn into a blight before anything is really done with it, thus once again turning Citrus Heights into a not so nice place. A nice planned village with a grocery store, Park, a mix of low-density and high-density housing would be awesome.
I think you are jumping the gun on buying in Citrus Heights for a couple of different reasons. First I just think we are at or near the peak of the current real estate cycle. Between the trade war with China and possibly starting a war with Iran. I think its pretty likely we might have a recession in the next several years.
Second, I think the real estate market has not fully processed the effect of weakness of the Sunrise Mall. When retail is doing poor in an area people assume the neighborhood is distressed too. The decline of the Country Club Mall and the Country Club Centre Malls in Arden Arcade make a lot of people think that neighborhood is in trouble. Walk around the Sunrise Mall. Since Sears died, the number of stores in the mall that are closing continues to go up and the kind of stores that they are offer just aren't that nice. At this point, Birdcage is doing much better than Sunrise and I think its going to get much worse before it gets better. JCPenny and Macy's at the Sunrise Mall just don't have many customers, the stores look tired and dated. Target is a much nicer store than either of these department stores. I also see no effective plan to do anything about it. The mayor of Citrus Heights flying out to meet the mall owner is not a plan.
As the region gets bigger, we haven't seen any evidence that the economic distribution of wealth is changing. What I am getting at is that if the population of the Sacramento region goes up by 10% in the past decade, the means that the number of people in 10% the bottom half of the economic distribution also goes up by 10% and these people need to live somewhere. In areas with a lot of brand new housing like say Lincoln, Roseville, Folsom and El Dorado Hills, they aren't adding much housing for the bottom half of the economic distribution, so the poor people aren't moving there. In addition there are some neighborhoods that are gentrifying say downtown, West Sac and Oak Park where the poor people are being priced out of their neighborhoods and they need to find replacement housing. In the existing poor neighborhoods like say Del Paso Heights and Meadowview they aren't really building additional housing for the poor people. So some older neighborhoods are going to filter down to become that supply. I would say this is happening in most of the places with housing built between 1940 and 1985. You are seeing this in Rancho Cordova, Antelope, Arden Arcade, Carmichael, Citrus Heights, Fair Oaks even in newer neighborhoods like South Natomas as well as the parts of the City Sacramento built between 1940 and 85.
If Citrus Heights had a better plan for how it was going to fix up the Sunrise Mall, I would be less bearish on Citrus Heights but I don't see it. Basically I think as the Sunrise Mall gets worse, which I think could happen if and when either JCP or Macy's pull out, I think the apartments and condos near the Mall are going to get much worse.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
