Relocating to California

[phinner]

When my wife and I started looking for a new house/neighboorhood to buy 4 years ago, we looked almost exclusively in Carmichael. A lot of the areas here are established owners and keep their properties up very well. The thing that steered us away from areas like Elk Grove, Natomas, and Roseville was the crackerbox, no-elbowroom way they built the houses in those places. Plus the proximity of South Sac to Elk Grove and Del Paso to Natomas.

We have absolutely no regrets about buying in Carmichael. Our area is extremely quiet - almost spooky quiet. We have over twice the land that you'll find in most neighborhoods now. And all the neighbors are very nice. Plus with Carmichael being land locked, you don't really have to worry about the sprawl the other places have experienced.

[rickca]

I was just actually in Texas and in the Arlington / Dallas area.. I have to say the people / crime there I think are going to be less than Sacramento itself as the urban areas of Texas seemed safer to me than those in California. I understand the people being different as Texas seemed "southern" to me which I guess it is. Anyways I would recommend the foothills of Sacramento, I have been to Citrus Heights recently and I think coming from Arlington you would find this to be a bad area. As for your comment on "northern California not being what you remember" I'm afraid you are very right about this.. I am only 23 years old and can remember back when the area where I grew up was very different, it seems that for whatever reason Nor Cal has become a magnet for low lifes and criminals (of course there are still plenty of decent people too). The thing I didn't like about Texas was that there seemed to be almost no outdoor recreation.. no mountains, not even hills in most areas, kind of boring landscape so I can see why it could get old at least if you like the outdoors. Two areas I have looked at that you may want to consider would be Colorado or the Pacific Northwest which aren't hot and humid like Texas but they have more extreme weather than California.

Sort of off topic but I think California is becoming another "east coast" its going to just get worse and worse as the metropolitan areas grow and the "rat race" here is getting pretty bad, I'm afraid that the secret is out about the good it has to offer as far as the weather, etc but I just don't see the future for the state being that great.