Considering Elk Grove

How's Elk Grove like?

Elk Grove is an extremely bland suburbia with zero trace of culture. People commute an hour one way to their 8 to 5 median income state job in Sacramento then commute back to home to their cookie cutter house and watch Netflix and repeat. On the weekends they take their kids to soccer/baseball games or "lay low" and then repeat the cycle until their kids are grown and they can retire and move away from Elk Grove. There are no interesting events, no interesting architecture, no interesting businesses, or interesting geography and ever since Laguna Larry moved to Vegas there are no interesting people. The only bars are at Applebee's, chili's, etc. The infrastructure sucks as there is only buses and all the housing communities were built to encourage car culture. All the surface streets are full of traffic. Traffic and gridlock is only increasing as well.

When I lived there briefly I felt it was like a type of middle class prison. Like if you surrendered all your desires and interests just to have a stable lifestyle. I'd recommend living in North Natomas instead. Atleast you'd be closer to downtown, the bay and the airport.

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How's Elk Grove like?

Yeah, it'd be nice to live closer to the fun parts of Sacramento. But… if I get a mortgage on a place closer to midtown, I'd save maybe $100 a month in uber fees, but pay hundreds more in mortgage fees.

If I bought a house in midtown, I'd be stuck with the higher mortgage payments until I sell the house or pay off the mortgage.

If I get a house in Elk Grove I'd have a significantly lower mortgage. If I ever don't feel like paying $40 for uber I could just go to a bar in Elk Grove or drink at home with some company lol

To be honest the main reason I go to popular bars or restaurants is to go on tinder dates or something. Unless someone else suggests it, I rarely feel the urge to go to popular/expensive bars or restaurants. I'm pretty easily satisfied when it comes to bars and restaurants. As long as they serve decent tequila I'm happy lol.

When it comes to socializing, I usually prefer just spending time outdoors with people.

Being close to the popular bars would still be great! But it's not really #1 on the list of priorities for me at the moment.

If I were married with kids I'm not sure I'd be super eager to go out every weekend anyways lol

I want to buy a house before it gets too expensive. I'm worried that if I wait too long to buy a house, I won't be able to afford it once I start a family. Houses in/near Sacramento are already way more expensive now than they were 5 years ago, and it's probably going to keep going up. I want to get an affordable monthly mortgage while I still can.

Midtown seems cool, and I'd like to live near it, but there aren't any decent homes for sale there that are within my budget.

Places like Land Park and East Sacramento seem nice, but I probably couldn't afford to buy a nice 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house with nice front and back yards there. I could afford to rent there, but that's not really my goal at the moment.

Pocket seems nice, is relatively cheap and has a relatively low crime rate. It's also pretty close to midtown. But it's significantly more expensive than Elk Grove, and the schools tend to be significantly worse. Schools in Sacramento tend to be surprisingly bad in general. And I think Pocket a high risk of flooding. I think Natomas does too. I kinda wanna choose Pocket just because of the proximity to midtown/the rest of Sacramento, but I'm not sure if the drawbacks are worth it.

Sorry for the long post, haha. I'm mostly writing this out to help me articulate my own thoughts. I appreciate the input! I might still change my mind, this is a pretty big decision for me, and I'm still in the very early stages of researching and weighing out all the pros and cons.

reddit
Full Review

How's Elk Grove like?

Elk Grove is an extremely bland suburbia with zero trace of culture. People commute an hour one way to their 8 to 5 median income state job in Sacramento then commute back to home to their cookie cutter house and watch Netflix and repeat. On the weekends they take their kids to soccer/baseball games or "lay low" and then repeat the cycle until their kids are grown and they can retire and move away from Elk Grove. There are no interesting events, no interesting architecture, no interesting businesses, or interesting geography and ever since Laguna Larry moved to Vegas there are no interesting people. The only bars are at Applebee's, chili's, etc. The infrastructure sucks as there is only buses and all the housing communities were built to encourage car culture. All the surface streets are full of traffic. Traffic and gridlock is only increasing as well.

When I lived there briefly I felt it was like a type of middle class prison. Like if you surrendered all your desires and interests just to have a stable lifestyle. I'd recommend living in North Natomas instead. Atleast you'd be closer to downtown, the bay and the airport.

reddit
Full Review

Considering moving from St.Louis,MO suburb to Elk Grove, CA, Is it worth it?

Considering moving from St.Louis,MO suburb to Elk Grove, CA, Is it is growing rapidly and the new casino is well on its way to completion, possibly opening this summer from what I’ve heard. The city is also trying to lure the Sacramento Zoo to a plot of land in the south end of town. Having lived here for over 20 years I would say try to find a spot on the west side where things seem more calm than other parts. Sadly for us, housing costs are about 100K higher than 18 months ago and I don’t know if we will be able to buy a house here anytime soon. The elementary schools including Sims and Stonelake are very good. The middle school that my oldest attends has had trouble with fights almost daily, resulting in a police presence on campus often. I wish you the best in your decision process! As mentioned by another commentator, it does get hot in the summer, and the last couple winters have been pretty dry, for what it’s worth.