Thoughts on Green Grass, CA? (San Francisco, Sacramento: renting, home, to buy)

[GiveMeCoffee]

My SIL is considering a move to Grass Valley. She and her soon-to-be-ex are currently living in the Bay Area, and their daughter is almost 8. I had some questions for the hive mind of CD

How is the COL compared to the Bay?
How are the local schools? My niece is in a private school now, but I know she's open to whatever's best.
What's the political climate like?
If you live in / know the area, what's your favorite thing about it?
What else should a newcomer know?

Thanks so much!

[Hemlock140]

I had a brother in nearby Penn Valley for years, but they recently sold and moved to Oregon. They were about 8 miles from Grass Valley and did their shopping there. The biggest issue was fire danger. Their daughter did fine in the schools there, despite the low ratings and very small district. Grass Valley has far more schools but they are also rated pretty low. I would suggest visiting them before deciding on where to live there, to try for one of the best schools. For California the cost of living there is very low, and much lower than the Bay Area. Their home on acreage went for under $400k. In fact they are renting in Oregon because they didn't end up with enough equity for a down payment in the much more expensive Portland area. He was commuting to Sacramento the problem being not many good jobs in Grass Valley. From what they have told us, Grass Valley and most of Nevada County is very mixed politically, with an almost even split between Republicans and Democrats but in 2020 Biden got 58% to Trump's 40%.

Hopefully someone there gives you more specific information, but with only 14,000 population there may not be too many there on City Data.

[wburg]

Compared to what part of the Bay? Like, San Francisco/Oakland, or Livermore or Petaluma? It's a small mountain town that mostly functions as the working-class neighbor of fancier, more tourist-oriented Nevada City, where one finds things like hardware stores (there's an old joke about Nevada City that claims the only place to buy nails there are tourist shops where you can buy a vintage square nail for $4 each) and other more utilitarian businesses. Nevada County is more liberal than the more remote mountain counties, and even more so than traditional Republican strongholds Placer & El Dorado Counties, but considerably more conservative than Sacramento County. Commuting to Sacramento would suck.

[GiveMeCoffee]

Originally Posted by wburg

Compared to what part of the Bay? Like, San Francisco/Oakland, or Livermore or Petaluma?

They live near Oakland now. Most of her work is remote, so commute is not an issue.

[evening sun]

I love Grass Valley, but it is a bit isolated. Maybe Chico or Oroville would be better, easier access to the freeway. When we looked at housing prices there I thought it was overpriced, for Norcal in general ( outside of the big cities)