Living in Modesto, California

Modesto is a Central Valley city that flies under the radar for many California movers. It's an affordable, medium-sized city about 90 minutes from the Bay Area, with strong agricultural roots and an increasingly suburban population. It's also the hometown of George Lucas and the inspiration for American Graffiti — a detail that still gives locals a sense of cultural pride.

It’s not a place that tries to compete with the flash of coastal California. Instead, Modesto offers families, retirees, and first-time buyers a shot at a quiet, manageable life with decent space, strong community ties, and proximity to work centers like Stockton, Sacramento, and even the East Bay for some commuters.

Modesto has beautiful neighborhoods, like Graceada Park or Coffee-Sylvan areas, with cool, older, renovated homes. What’s more, these homes are priced incredibly reasonably compared to other options closer to San Francisco. If you’re looking for a beautiful, historic home at a reasonable price, Modesto should be on your short list.

For a smaller city, Modesto has a lot going on. The revitalized downtown has great restaurants, the Gallo Center for the Arts, McHenry Museum, and an increasingly active restaurant and brewery scene along 10th Street and J Street. Parks like Graceada Park and Dry Creek Regional Park give residents green space, and Modesto’s proximity to Yosemite, the foothills, and the Bay makes weekend getaways easy. There is also a thriving art community, a majestic park with an outdoor theater for free summer concerts.

This is how the people of Modesto live in these walkscore-friendly neighborhoods. Enjoying the “downtown” activities of a city that created its scene to accommodate the distance to other metros.

If you want to see what locals get up to in Modesto, check out the calendar of events.

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

Modesto is truly an agricultural center of the United States. The area produces 8% of the entire agricultural output of the country, so expect lots of local workers to depend directly or indirectly on farm production. The corporate business here is also connected to the food industry. Foster Farms and Save Mart Supermarkets (which operate Lucky’s, FoodMaxx, and Albertsons) are here.

While Modesto’s economy is still tied to agriculture and food processing, it’s diversified in recent years. Key employers include:

• E. & J. Gallo Winery (the world’s largest family-owned winery)
• Memorial Medical Center and Doctors Medical Center
• Stanislaus County and Modesto City School Districts
• Frito-Lay, Crystal Creamery, and other food manufacturers
• Amazon and distribution centers on the city's fringe

Some residents commute to Stockton or even the Bay Area (via ACE train or I-580), though that’s a long haul. More and more work-from-homers are making Modesto their home.