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21 Mar

The Best Sacramento Area Neighborhoods

Posted March 21st, 2007 | View Comments

Subtitle: One man’s opinion.

I’ve been wanting to get into some more detail about many of the beautiful areas / neighborhoods in and around Sacramento, along with photos, detail, and “circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one is and to be used as evidence [in favor of it].”

Yesterday I had another chance to cruise through Sacramento’s Fabulous Forties, and was struck once again by how classically beautiful whole streets in that area are (let alone the individual homes as I’ve linked to above). It’s no wonder that the market there is resistant to the market forces elsewhere.

But of course the Fab Forties is not the only terrific neighborhood in the Sacramento area. One of the perks of this profession is getting to see all the different areas around where you live. Yesterday I dug deeper into some areas I already knew about, previewing some outstanding (and not so outstanding — that’s the point of previewing) homes throughout the Arden-Arcade area. (Don’t let the multi-million-dollar homes on the first page put you off. Subsequent pages go through all the different price ranges).

And — at the risk of pre-empting the longer articles I’d like to write — there are so many more that I love for various reasons:

Obligatory Photo

  • Curtis Park for a mix of charm, affordability, and proximity to downtown.
  • Greenback Estates for pure low price plus relatively safe area.
  • Waterford in El Dorado Hills for beautiful custom homes on large lots that seem to be universally beautiful. (I’m sure there’s an ugly one in Waterford — I just haven’t seen it yet).
  • The Professor and Mary Ann…

And now for the dog ate my homework part: I’ve been spending so much time in a few of these different areas recently working for clients on showings or previewing homes for showings that I haven’t had the liesure time to go through and take the obligatory photos.

Ask anyone who’s everyone: you can’t have a real estate blog without obligatory photos. That’s what makes them obligatory.

It’s the classic dilemma. Work cuts a hole in your whole day.

Oh, wait, that’s not the classic dilemma. That’s the classic worktime joke. This is the classic dilemma: working with clients detracts from snapping photos, but working with clients pays for snapping photos.

Things to do:

  • Write more about the neighborhoods in and around Sacramento.
  • Send business cards to photographers. (Lousy stupid dilemma ain’t getting the better of old Johnnie…)
  • http://www.stpaulrealestateblog.com Teresa Boardman

    Watch where you point that thing

  • http://www.sacramento-home.com/real-estate-agents/ John Lockwood

    Um, ok… and that’s as much as I’ll say here. :)

  • Alison

    I think Midtown is the best neighborhood in Sac for many reasons:
    1. It’s the only truly walkable neighborhood with a great mix of homes, apartments, condos, restaurants, and all the other businesses that are a necessary part of day-to-day life. You really can live here without even owning a car if you want and it wouldn’t be terribly inconvenient.
    2. A great mix of people from all backgrounds- rich, poor, old, young, and people of every ethnic background.
    3. A variety of architecture. Arts and Crafts, bungalows, victorians, Tudors and new construction, among others.
    4. Various price points from $200,000 to $2M.
    5. Centrally located to everything else in the Sac area.
    6. Urban tree cannopy.
    7. the momentum of redevelopment promises many improvements yet to come.
    8. insulation from the potential of significant depreciation of home values (as opposed to Elk Grove, Natomas, Rocklin, etc)

    I’d like to see you give your thoughts on the midtown real estate market. Do you agree or disagree with my points?

  • http://www.sacramento-home.com/real-estate-agents/ John Lockwood

    Hi Alison,

    Sorry, I certainly didn’t mean to exclude Midtown or slight it by lumping it in with “The Professor and Mary Ann”.

    I agree with almost all points, except perhaps numbers 4 and 7. As of today the low price in the MLS is a bit higher than you mentioned at $234,900, and in general midtown’s big virtue is not affordability compared to outlying areas. That’s not a bad thing — as you demonstrate elsewhere, midtown is very desirable. The flip side of that is that it’s not quite as affordable.

    As to #7, the recent real estate slowdown has put a monkey wrench into some of those projects, but in general that’s not a bad argument.

    I have conflicting data that either supports or denies #8 — see http://www.sacramento-home.com/real-estate-events/2007/sellers-markets-in-sacramento_415.html.

    Sacramento’s Midtown is definitely a neighborhood I would have included in a more comprehensive list of the best neighborhoods, and you make an excellent case for why.

  • Alison

    no apology necessary for excluding midtown! You have your opinion, and I have mine. I just wanted to chime in. Thanks for your feedback.

  • http://sacramentorealestategal.blogspot.com Purva Brown

    John,
    Nice blog. And so full of information! We’ve spoken over the phone before – maybe last year. (I just started mine and you’ve already done everything I wanted to do, so I’m having to change my strategy:)) Good luck to you!
    Purva.

  • http://www.sacramento-home.com/real-estate-agents/ John Lockwood

    Hi Purva,

    I remember our conversation. How are things going?

    There is definitely some competition in the local blog community now — a bit more than there was when we talked. There’s probably a lot of good still to be done, especially with niche markets, however.

  • tony

    where exactly is midtown?? what other good neighborhoods are good in sac?

  • http://www.sacramento-home.com/real-estate-agents/ John Lockwood

    Tony,

    Our Multiple Listing Service tends to lump both 95814 and 95816 into something called “Downtown/Midtown”. Most folks I’ve talked to tend to use “Downtown”, “Midtown”, and “Downtown/Midtown” synonymously, but if anyone can break it down better than that I’d love to hear about it.

    There are lots of good areas both in the city and in the immediate outskirts and surrounding counties. It’s hard to say what’s good unless we talk a little more about what you mean by “good”. Large lots? Safety? Good schools? Closeness to everything? Inexpensive? Luxurious? I really should do a longer article series, but meantime feel free to call me at (530) 672-9160 and I’d be happy to share some ideas.

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