I moved from Los Angeles over five years ago, boy does time fly. I lived in Glendale and surrounding areas all my life. I have four children. My oldest was in the Airforce and I relocated when she came back from Iraq. I can oh so relate to your possible move. West Sac as we call it, is a great place, it is quiet and still has that rural feel. Very much a small town. I am a Realtor and have made a successful career & transition out of my move to West Sacramento. Schools are newer in Southport and API scores are looking better, but as public schools go, there is need for improvement. My kids have gone to both pubic and private here. We do have a great brand new Mega High School. The great thing about West Sac is it is centrally located, and driving to other parts of Sacramento is a breeze; remember I was used to LA Traffic. Safety, we have a fabulous Police dept, Fire dept and they are no nonsense. This gives West Sac a high rating in my book for places to live. It is not overcrowded and our market has certainly not been hit as hard as some other areas. It is a great investment area. 5 min to Downtown, urban living, suburb living, rural living all in one great city. Look at the City Web Site and see the growth and planned development coming. I think you and your family will love It.! Hope this has been helpful.

Victoria Millan
Lyon Real Estate

Hi Jennifer,
Check out this posting: http://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/West_Sacramento_The… - the guy Rob in that posting is very knowledgable about this area so you might want to touch bases with him.
I live at The Rivers and love it (http://www.liveattherivers.com/). It's close to downtown and has arguably one of the best parks around that's private for the residents, nice pools, etc. All W. Sac seems to have taken a beating on price so you'll get more for your money now. The Rivers is VERY close to downtown. This land used to be a golf course so you get the best of both worlds - with mature trees and brand new houses. Off Jefferson is much bigger than The Rivers, new school, community recreation center, stores. It's farther from downtown but is it's own little community. I don't know much about the schools but if I had to guess they are better off Jefferson but you might want to ask around more about that.

Crime check megans law before you look.

The link below is for the West Sacramento school district site.

http://www.wusd.k12.ca.us/

West Sac (as it is commonly referred to around here ) is on the west side of the Sacramento River from the city of Sacramento. It is home to the Sacramento River Cats triple A baseball team. There are a two newer planned communities. Bridgeway Lakest and Southport as well as a lot of older housing.

Here is a link for the city of West Sacramento Community Life information site:

http://www.cityofwestsacramento.org/cityhall/departments/red…