Can lesbians with little money move to Davis/Sacramento area? (San Francisco: real estate, apartment) - California (CA) - City-Data Forum

sapbell · 05-04-2009, 11:03 AM

My partner and I are moving to Northern California because I am starting graduate school. Although my school is located in San Francisco, I will only be attending classes once a month and am willing to travel a couple hours to get there. We aren't particularly thrilled about moving to the area simply because of affordability (or lack there of), but the program is perfect for me and I was lucky to get it in.

We will be leaving chicago where we live in an apartment in the city with our two dogs. We are tired of the city and would ideally like to live in a small town. My partner's job will transfer to UC Berkeley or UC Davis, but we don't expect to be able to rent within an hour commute of Berkeley given that we want a house with a fenced-in yard for the dogs.

Safety is important to me, as is living somewhere that is gay-friendly. (I know small towns can lean towards conservatism.) I think Davis is outside our price range.

We would like to rent a house with a yard for $1300. I hope that isn't totally laughable, especially if we move our search to the Davis/Sacramento area.

I'm trying to amass a list of towns that I can research and that we can then visit on a whirlwind tour. I'd love to get direct suggestions about places to look or places to avoid. So far most of the "gay friendly" town searches bring back places that are unaffordable and too far for my partner's commute (Santa Cruz & Guerneville). Besides, we don't need to live in a huge gay community, just somewhere we won't be stared at or made to feel unwelcome. The "affordable town" searches bring back names of places that may or may not be conservative insular communities. I can't figure it all out.

Please help keep my head from exploding.

Thanks,
sap

wburg · 05-04-2009, 01:54 PM

$1300 might be a stretch for a house with a yard, but you can probably find a duplex or fourplex with a yard in midtown Sacramento, which is the heart of Sacramento's GLBT community. And actually, in this rental market, you might be able to get a small house with a small yard (downtown lots are either 40x80 or 40x160 feet) for that price or a bit more. You would be close to Amtrak's "Capitol Corridor" commuter trains that run to the Bay Area (with stops in Berkeley and San Francisco--kind of like Metra but more comfortable, the trip takes about 2 hours to Berekely/SF.) Sacramento is technically a big city, but the neighborhoods around downtown Sacramento are pretty residential in scale--personally they remind me of Oak Park in the Chicago area. You might also consider some other neighborhoods near the central city, like East Sacramento, which kind of reminds me of Elmhurst. Depending on your field of study, midtown/east Sacramento can be useful to a grad student because there are some large research libraries nearby (including state libraries and the Sac State university library.)

Davis is ten minutes closer by car or Amtrak to the Bay Area, but it is a pricey place to live--so much so that a lot of UC Davis students (and faculty) live in Sacramento.

Curmudgeon · 05-04-2009, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wburg

$1300 might be a stretch for a house with a yard, but you can probably find a duplex or fourplex with a yard in midtown Sacramento, which is the heart of Sacramento's GLBT community. And actually, in this rental market, you might be able to get a small house with a small yard (downtown lots are either 40x80 or 40x160 feet) for that price or a bit more. You would be close to Amtrak's "Capitol Corridor" commuter trains that run to the Bay Area (with stops in Berkeley and San Francisco--kind of like Metra but more comfortable, the trip takes about 2 hours to Berekely/SF.) Sacramento is technically a big city, but the neighborhoods around downtown Sacramento are pretty residential in scale--personally they remind me of Oak Park in the Chicago area. You might also consider some other neighborhoods near the central city, like East Sacramento, which kind of reminds me of Elmhurst. Depending on your field of study, midtown/east Sacramento can be useful to a grad student because there are some large research libraries nearby (including state libraries and the Sac State university library.)

Davis is ten minutes closer by car or Amtrak to the Bay Area, but it is a pricey place to live--so much so that a lot of UC Davis students (and faculty) live in Sacramento.

I agree. OP, Sacramento sounds like where you will be most comfortable and can likely afford more easily.

bluevelo · 05-04-2009, 11:05 PM

As long as you stay out of the 'burbs, and within the Sac city proper - but stay out of North or South Sac - Midtown is your best bet. California is a lot more tolerant of gays than what you're going to find in Chicago or basically anywhere east of the Mississippi river.

The options the above posters mentioned are all good... right now, with the economy down, there are lots of good rental deals available. Warning - you may have to pay a huge deposit to keep the dogs, though.

People ride bikes around here like crazy and I think you'll like Midtown just fine; and it is possible to ride a bike over to Davis as there's a separate bike lane on the I-80 causeway to Davis. Flat as a pancake so you can easily ride a single speed or coaster just about anywhere.

I might see you out walking your dogs as I work downtown, live in Tahoe Park and ride through Midtown all the time... even if I'm a boring straight guy LOL -

edwardius · 05-05-2009, 12:37 PM

If you are going to school in SF and your partner is working in Berkeley, you might be better off living somewhere closer.

Have you looked at the Pittsburg Martinez Concord area? On Bart, you are going to have a lot more trains running into both Berkeley and SF. Or perhaps Hayward, Castro Valley.

2 Bedroom Home w/ Yard near BART (http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/apa/1152963056.html - broken link)

Townhouse, 2 blks. BART, 1/2 month free rent (http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/apa/1153585304.html - broken link)

These are places that would work that you could afford that are in gay friendly communities. These areas are also a lot closer to where you might be going to school and closer to where your partner would be working.

wburg · 05-05-2009, 01:26 PM

Admittedly, if your partner moves to UC Berkeley you will probably save money and time in the long run by moving to Berkeley or elsewhere in the East Bay vs. living in Sacramento and commuting. If her job goes to UC Davis, then living in Sacramento is a far less expensive option.

sapbell · 05-07-2009, 08:21 PM

Thanks for all the replies. I've been so busy dealing with moving estimates that I haven't had time to really check back in.

I appreciate the suggestions.

Queen of Quite Alot · 05-08-2009, 11:14 PM

I live in South Land Park. We have gay couples in our area. I teach at a local school and I think that the gay families seem to feel very welcome. I hope so. I see it as a sign of a healthy neighborhood when we have all kinds of diversity and no one thinks that much of it. A friend of mine who happens to be a lesbian, runs our after school program. If anyone here had an issue, I'd know it. $1300 here is very doable. You could even buy a little house here, for investment, live in it and pay less than $1300. Sell it when things go up again. My next door neighbors may be looking to sell or rent their house with a yard for about $1000/ mo.

My "neighborhood" is within these boundaries: Sutterville Road to the north, Freeport Blvd to the east, Del Rio to the west and Fruitridge to the south. There are other areas near us that are good too. This is a safe, affordable little area and I'd love to have you here.

sapbell · 05-09-2009, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Queen of Quite Alot

My "neighborhood" is within these boundaries: Sutterville Road to the north, Freeport Blvd to the east, Del Rio to the west and Fruitridge to the south. There are other areas near us that are good too. This is a safe, affordable little area and I'd love to have you here.

I can't tell you how helpful it is to have actual street names. Knowing what "neighborhoods" within which to look for a place is only the start of the battle. It's a good start, but it's a small start. Now I'm sitting here with my homemade maps of what I think constitute those "neighborhoods" trying to figure out if the rentals I find are actually within them or not.

I was also told recently by someone who works in real estate in Sacramento that the city is a little tricky in that one block can be really nice and the next, not so much.

edwardius · 05-10-2009, 01:06 AM

These should help.

http://maps.cityofsacramento.org/pdf...20streetsE.pdf

http://www.saccounty.net/coswcms/gro...sac_003580.pdf

This is a map of election results for prop 8 to amend California Constitution to prevent gay marriage. If you were looking for the most gay friendly neighborhoods in this region these are the areas I would focus on.

http://www.sacbee.com/1232/rich_media/1355616.html (broken link)