Arden-Arcade, California

Arden Arcade is a suburb of Sacramento and many live the quiet suburban lifestyle in family-friendly neighborhoods. Much of the lifestyle of those who stick to Arden Arcade is spent shopping at the big box stores and the mall in the area. More adventurous socializers driven into Sacramento, which is just a few miles outside the city center and enjoy the social and cultural options the state capital offers. It’s a classic suburb for that reason - a mix of quiet suburbia and bigger city options close by.

It must be noted though that the location of Arden Arcade, just east of Sacramento, makes it about as ideal is it can be for heading east to Lake Tahoe, or the Eldorado National Forest, Bear Valley, etc. You’re in about as ideal a spot as you can be for being around a major metro and yet having really quick access to some of the most amazing mountains on the planet. The Sierra’s run just an hour east of Arden and for those into an outdoor lifestyle its a pretty perfect combo.

As was also noted though, Arden has an incredible variety of housing and neighborhood options and so there are also walkable and younger population neighborhoods for those who are just looking to live a less expensive life outside Sacramento. There are tons of apartment buildings and inexpensive restaurants/bars and shopping if you’re working hard to build a nest egg. For those weekends when families want to stick closer to home but still get the kiddos outdoors, there are tons of parks in the city. Arden Park, Arden Creek and Larchmont are great park options, with community pools, sports fields and courts, open green spaces and playgrounds to keep the kiddos (and grownups) busy and healthy.

Arden Arcade is part of the San Juan Unified School District. It rates a B+ on niche.com. One of the more notable characteristics of the schools is how varied the performance of the school districts is, similar to the great variety of housing types. There are A rated quality schools and C rated quality schools so if you’re paying close attention to standardized scoring on niche.com or Greatschools.com then keep an eye on how the neighborhoods are zoned.

There was an exodus of families from the San Francisco area to the Sacramento area during covid and lower costs drove much of this. If you can work remotely and want to be in a better position to afford a home then Arden Arcade should be on your shortlist.