Moving in Sacramento area, working in Rancho Cordova (Elk Grove, Folsom: homes, neighborhoods)

[montreid]

How about the Pocket area? Looks like nice homes there I don't know about the commute times to Rancho. We're in the same boat, looking to commute to both Rancho and Elk Grove and want to be in newer homes.

[edwardius]

What is your budget?

The Pocket isn't really urban, while its inside the city of Sacramento the neighborhood itself is quite suburban. The commute from the Pocket to Elk Grove would be a breeze, but the commute from the Pocket to Rancho Cordova might be unpleasant. (There just isn't a good way to get to Rancho Cordova without fighting either a lot of unpleasant freeway traffic or spending forever on surface routes). The other issue is the schools. In the Pocket your kids would be attending the Sacramento City Unified School District Schools. That district has a series of magnet programs. If you do well on the lottery your kids might attend Didion School which is an excellent school. But if not, your other options in the Sac City District aren't so great.

You might want to spend some time looking at the school performance map here.

California School Performance Maps

If you want to new house, you probably have more options in Elk Grove Unified School District. If I was committed to finding a new home I would probably be looking at somewhere near Sheldon or Vineyard.

If school quality was more important than having a brand new home (and your budget is big enough), I would probably look in the areas immediately north of the American River, (Sierra Oaks, Mariemont (Arden Park) or Del Dayo.

Here is a map of educational attainment in the area and one of ethnicity if that is important to you.

STI: ERsys - Sacramento, CA (Education)

STI: ERsys - Sacramento, CA (Ethnicity)

[Majin]

Pocket is a bit less suburban than Elk Grove or Natomas, but yes it's pretty suburban.

[LittleSaigon]

LittleSaigonSouth Sacramento will have a Little Saigon on the Stockton Blvd somedays
The Vietnamese community still have big meeting for 1/17/2010 at King Palace Restaurant on Stockton Blvd
I hope somebody involve with us to help the economic growth in the future


Thank you

LITTLE SAIGON

[LittleSaigon]

[LEFT]January 6, 2010
To Whom It May Concern:
The City of Sacramento is home to one of the most diverse population of immigrants in
the United States, who are an integral and vital part of the City’s cultural richness and
economic vibrancy.
We would like to hear your thoughts on the City of Sacramento naming a portion of
Stockton Boulevard the “Little Saigon” District.
The City of Saigon is a beloved city for many Vietnamese. “Little Saigon” could serve as
recognition for the contributions of the Sacramento Vietnamese community over the last
35 years.
Other cities have had success redistricting and proven that it attracts tourism and
investors; while simultaneously increasing economic growth for the community.
You are cordially invited to attend the Little Saigon district community discussion at the
King Palace Restaurant (5829 Stockton Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95824) on January
17th, 2010 at 4:00pm.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas.
Sincerely,
Kevin McCarty
Councilmember
CITY OF SACRAMENTO[/LEFT]
[SIZE=2][SIZE=2][LEFT]CALIFORNIA[/LEFT]
[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=1][SIZE=1][LEFT]OFFICE OF THE
CITY COUNCIL
KEVIN McCARTY[/LEFT]
[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=1][SIZE=1][LEFT]COUNCILMEMBER
DISTRICT SIX
CITY HALL - 5[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=1][SIZE=1]th [/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=1][SIZE=1]FLOOR
915 I STREET, SACRAMENTO, CA 95814-2604
PH 916-808-7006 FAX 916-264-7680 kmccarty@cityofsacramento.org[/LEFT]
[/SIZE][/SIZE][LEFT]Dinh Bui
Little Saigon Committee

LITTLE SAIGON [/LEFT]

[montreid]

edwardius: Thank you for the information. I can handle a 30min commute to Rancho, that's fine if lower Pocket is a doable distance to there. We are partial to a suburban environment since the wife despises parallel parking. I'm aware of Sac City and the Magnet series may be of benefit.

Our other alternative is looking at East Elk Grove in the Bradshaw/Bond area with their gated communities there. Taking Excelsior or Bradshaw to Rancho and Bond into Laguna looked feasible--at least on the weekend and safe enough with gated and top 10% schools. How is the commute there?

The last could be Rosemont, but it didn't look like any newer builds there that would work for us. Thanks again everyone!

[edwardius]

I am thinking that your commute from the lower Pocket to Rancho is probably closer to 40 min than 30 min. Remember traffic is heavier in the morning on 50 heading out of downtown than heading into downtown. So you are fighting traffic on 5 heading into downtown Sacramento and then you are again fighting traffic on 50 heading into Rancho Cordova. Traffic is worse on 99 than 5, so that isn't an alternate route. The lights and traffic on Florin and Meadowview really slow you down trying to get to Power Inn Road or S Watt. So there isn't a good surface route alternative. Additionally as Elk Grove gets bigger traffic on your route is only going to get worse. (Given how fast Elk Grove has grown in the past and how fast it will probably keep growing in the future its something to think about). If you were working downtown, then I think the Pocket is an excellent choice, but I wouldn't want to commute from the Pocket to Rancho.


I think East Elk Grove (or even Wilton) is a much better alternative. Between Elk Grove and Rancho Cordova, large parts of Bradshaw, Excelsior and S. Watt aren't built out. That would make your commute much more manageable and probably not materially make your wife's commute any worse than the lower pocket.

If you are looking in East Elk Grove you also might want to look at Dillard. The home sites are bigger. They have a special zoning there to enable people to have equestrian estates. I suspect that will probably insure that area stays a little more exclusive than the rest of Elk Grove.

[montreid]

Thanks again edwardius.

We drove the Pocket/Rancho route this past weekend and I agree that there are too many potential traffic areas that could bring commute times toward the 45min range.

Quite a few nice communities along Bradshaw ranging from Calvine down to Bond. I know that going north of Calvine is starting to ask for trouble so that does concern me a little (vs staying a few miles lower toward Bond).

The other option that we are entertaining is Fair Oaks with their communities and having a smaller house for it. It still has larger lots, some new build areas, but that puts us closer to Hazel instead of Sunrise. From the look of the traffic maps, there's a significant traffic jam between that 1 mile on the West-East 50, but how do the surface streets run on Hazel and Sunrise there?

From Hazel/Winding Way, we are estimating my commute to Mather AFB to be 15-20minutes while Elk Grove about 25-30minutes via Sunrise/GrantLine/Bond. Is that an adequate guess?

[Jimbo15]

I would look at Gold River instead of Fair Oaks. From Gold River you have many avenues to Rancho Cordova including side streets. Depending on where you work in Rancho Cordova, you might even be able to ride your bike along the bike trail.

The schools are excellent and neighborhood is top notch.

https://www.city-data.com/school/gold...center-ca.html

and the median income was almost 120k.

https://www.city-data.com/city/Gold-R...alifornia.html

If you live in Fair Oaks, traffic gets bogged down on both Sunrise and Hazel. There aren't enough bridges in the area to support all of the people trying to cross the river. The roads in that area funnel traffic into those streets.

If you live in Gold River you avoid the bottleneck crossing the American River.

The other neighborhood to consider might be Anatolia. Its Sunrise near Douglas. It has some of the higher performing schools in EGUSD.

From Fair Oaks to Mather I am thinking its more like 20 to 25 mins and probably closer to 35 to 40 mins to Elk Grove. Grantline Road is already near capacity. The problem is that Mather kind of funnels all traffic between Elk Grove and Folsom/Fair Oaks onto Grant line Road and there aren't many good alternate routes.

I also second Edwardius's suggestion about Sierra Oaks, Willhaggen, or Del Dayo. Traffic up and down American River Drive is minimal, so you can get to Watt Ave fairly quickly.

https://www.city-data.com/school/del-...entary-ca.html
https://www.city-data.com/school/sier...entary-ca.html

Once you get across the river, there are many side streets (La Sierra Dr, Folsom Blvd to get to Mather). For your wife, she also has many alternate routes, Watt, Power Inn, Bradshaw or Excelsior.

[montreid]

Jimbo: thanks for the input. We looked at Gold River because that we an ideal location and school on paper, but the house were not the style we were interested in....very plain 70s styling and couldn't believe that CC&Rs were there....mostly box hedges and evergreen trees.

Anatolia would be very nice too but for the toxic waste potential and water shortage issue that will stub growth of any kind--both commericial and residential. Not to mention the lack of a sizable grocery store. We liked Mather, but same issue for lack of retail nearby.

Sierra Oaks and Del Dayo look a bit more urban than we'd like unless there's a section that I'm missing of newer builds. How's the schools there?

The additional 5-10 min commute is worth the housing style IMHO, and looks like southern edge of Fair Oaks meets the school and house style, just the cost a little more and the bottleneck that you mentioned (guess it's pretty significant--I tried to activate the traffic cam, but can't get sunrise streets to come up).

So no go for Rosemont, La Riviera, or College Glen?