Midtown, Land Park, East Sac? (Sacramento, Riverside: apartments, leasing, condos)

[la_cavalière]

Hi all,

My husband has just been offered a job in Sacramento, so we'll be packing up soon and moving clear across the country to California. We're so sad to leave the beautiful state of Maine, but we're looking forward to exploring a new city and state.

We are in our mid-40s, two small dogs, no kids, and enjoy walkable urban neighborhoods near parks, walking trails, restaurants, etc. We also enjoy hiking and kayaking. My husband will be working in the southeastern part of East Sacramento and prefers a short commute. We'll consider condos, but are dreaming of renting a nice house with a yard and a garage. Not looking to buy as we will likely move again after a year. Budget is around $2400-$3000/month.

I've been perusing this forum for a while and have figured that our best choices would be Midtown, East Sac, Land Park or possibly South Land Park/Pocket. However, it seems that a lot of the restaurants and stores outside of Midtown are in strip malls -- not really our idea of an urban, walkable neighborhood. Hopefully I'm just looking on the wrong streets. Can you direct me to the more walkable commercial streets of Land Park, East Sac & Pocket?

Thank you!

[wburg]

No, that's pretty much accurate, the commercial streets outside Downtown and Midtown are all basically strip malls, with the exception of a few older neighborhood shopping centers dating from 1910-1930 in the old streetcar suburbs. East Sacramento is a good choice, the J Street, H Street and Folsom Boulevard corridors have a few strips of streetcar-era commercial development interspersed with later strip-mall type development. Alhambra Boulevard used to be more like that but has since been almost entirely rebuilt for car-centric uses. If the job is in East Sac it's conveniently close, most of the housing in East Sac is single-family homes with a few apartments and a couple of condos.

Land Park is nice too but a little farther away, the more urban "streetcar suburb" corridors are along Riverside Boulevard and 21st Street, and to some extent Broadway, but since there aren't streetcars anymore (except Light Rail alongside the UP right of way) development since the 1930s has been mostly auto-centric. Curtis Park is a little more compact, it is located just to the west of Land Park and east of Highway 99. Otherwise it's similar to East Sacramento physically. Land Park has large populations of Japanese and Chinese, and a lot of Portuguese, while East Sacramento has a lot of Germans and Italians, but neither is by any means a strictly ethnic neighborhood.

The Pocket was farmland until after World War II, and all post-WWII development in Sacramento is built around a very car-centric suburban model, including two recently built neighborhoods that were supposed to be "new urbanist" transit-oriented neighborhoods but were built without the transit. What little remains of Sacramento's traditional urban neighborhoods, or more recent examples of urban neighborhood construction, are found in the central city grid and immediately adjacent corridors.

[caligirlz]

You might want to consider 4100 Folsom Blvd (41st St & Folsom Blvd). It's a 10 story condo complex in a beautiful setting & fantastic views. There is an extensive yard, much like a hidden oasis, rarely used, and a massive pool. Plus, it's gated. It is primarily a purchase type property, but many units are for rent, and the complex even has it's own rental unit on the ground floor. I rented there for 5 years before moving out to the suburbs, and it was the perfect central location to walk anywhere in East Sac, and even into mid-town. It's a very short walk to the light rail too. I even walked to the grocery store. Rentals are frequently listed here. Sacramento rental house for rent Sacramento rentals home for lease property management Folsom managers renting leasing rental property Mckinley Park East Sacramento Midtown grid, Landpark , Folson, Elk Grove, Roseville, duplex, condo and apartment re

[la_cavalière]

Thanks, wburg & caligirlz! After checking out craigslist, trulia & sacrentals.com, it seems nice East Sac rentals are few and far between and rent quickly. Hopefully more will be available when I come out for a house-hunting trip in a few weeks.

[wburg]

whoops...Curtis Park is west of 99 and east of Land Park, not the other way around!

[ryuns]

That's a decent budget so East Sac would seem a likely candidate given the proximity to your husband's work, but as you mentioned, there might not be toooo many rentals. You might also consider the northern and southern flanks of Midtown (Boulevard Park, New Era Park; and Poverty Ridge, Newton Booth, respectively).

For the record, we live in Curtis Park and love everything about it--our neighbors, the trees, our 1915-built house, the parks, the walkability/bikeability, the super eclectic restaurants. It definitely meets all of your criteria, but considering where your husband is working, I'd probably consider East Sac first.

Get Your Walk Score - Find Walkable Apartments and Rentals can be a useful guide, though, somewhat ironically, the types of places it sounds like you'd be interested in having nearby are less likely to show up on the score because the smaller, family-owned businesses may not appear on there.

Good luck on the search and the move!

[la_cavalière]

So... just to have another option, what about living near Folsom's Historic District? It seems there are a lot more houses in our price range, and the proximity to the American River Trail and Folsom Lake is appealing. What is the "feel" of this area? Are there any other areas within Sacramento County with a small town (rather than a suburban) vibe?

[wburg]

It kind of ruins the "short commute" idea. Folsom definitely has a suburban rather than small-town vibe; most of the small towns in the region were absorbed by the suburbs long ago.

[caligirlz]

The benefit of the Folsom historic district is that you would be close to light rail which would take your husband all the way into downtown. I know many people who do the LR commute. I hear it much better than trying to make the drive into downtown.

If you enjoy outside recreation, Folsom is a great place to live. There are numerous trails throughout the neighborhoods & connecting to the American River Trail (ART). I would say that Folsom has more of a small town atmosphere than say, Roseville. Friends who live in American River Canyon walk to the Folsom Historic District & love it. You can actually walk on the ART to get into the historic distric if you don't want to drive. There's lots of restaurants, bars, & specialty shops in old town. The real shopping is further down E Bidwell.

I don't know about rentals, except apartments, but I do see lots of "for rent" signs when I drive through the historic neighborhood.

[wburg]

As long as the husband doesn't plan on working any later than 7 PM--that's when trains stop running to Folsom. It's also not all that walkable from a practical perspective--you can walk to the restaurants and antique shops, but not places like your dentist or the supermarket. And other than the one light rail stop there's basically no public transit out there, nor bike lanes for transportation other than recreational use.