Citrus Heights, California

California can be obscenely expensive for those not used to coastal housing prices. The Sacramento area is cheaper than its counterparts on the coast but Citrus Heights gets more gentle on the wallet with a median home price hovering around $450k. If you work in the capital or are looking to escape the Bay Area housing crisis and can work from home then Citrus Heights should be on your shortlist. This is true if you're a lover of the outdoors and the skiing and mountains of the Sierra as Citrus Heights is just an hour from the foothills and just another 45 minutes or so the rest of the way to Tahoe.

Suburban families get nice homes, blocks, schools, and outdoor recreation. However, if you want a suburb with a built-in nightlife this ain’t it. There are a couple of casinos and bars/restaurants but if you want to go out you have to drive the 15 miles to downtown Sacramento. Many suburban cities have purposely built up their commercial districts so locals can have some fun without the big drive but Citrus Heights isn’t one of them (yet!).

As noted above the lifestyle of Citrus Heights is pretty much entirely built around families and children. Suburban homes, nice blocks, good schools, and plenty of great parks and sports fields for kiddos to play dominant activities. There are plenty of more adventurous outdoor activity spots both in-town and east of the Sierras so if you’re an outdoor person or family you’ll like it here.

The nightlife lifestyle is largely spent making the commute into downtown Sacramento. Not unusual for a suburb to have the in-town lifestyle filled with family fun and then nights out making the 20-30 minute drive to the big city.

To see what locals get up to for fun in Citrus Heights check out the calendar of events.

We highly recommend visiting Citrus Heights and staying in the community in a VRBO rather than a hotel to get a feel for living among the locals. You can receive discounted fares on travel via our partnership with Expedia as well.

Citrus Heights is primarily served by the San Juan Unified School District. This can be a good thing as the district rates a B+ on niche.com.

As with many school districts with this level of ranking, you get varied scores from the many different schools in the district. This means keeping an eye on the neighborhood for the schools it zones for as the scores can range from C’s to A’s depending on your block. There are several private and religious schools with very high rankings including St. Mark’s Lutheran among several others.