If you want a larger house or larger lot for your money you might look eastward to Roseville, Rocklin and Granite Bay. All these towns have great lifestyle and school reputations. One downside is the extra 20 to 30 minutes of commuting time into Sacramento than the closer in areas mentioned.

Hi JD,

There are some wonderful neighborhoods that are within close proximity to your new job. Sierra Oaks or Arden Park may be a great fit for you, as well as Wilhaggin, Del Dayo, or other parts of Carmichael (aka, the American River Corridor). These areas are close to the American River, the river recreation area, public schools with high API test scores, etc. My office is located in the Sierra Oaks area, and I frequently tour listings in these areas and am very familiar with what is on the market here.

I have written a lot about these and other neighborhoods, and if you want to do some research, here are some useful links (each of these has other embedded links to a wealth of info):
Arden Park (95864) / neighborhood info and current listings for that neighborhood - http://soldinsac.com/CustomContent.aspx?fp=2632&ID=4925

Sierra Oaks (95864) / neighborhood info and current listings for that neighborhood - http://soldinsac.com/CustomContent.aspx?fp=1596&ID=4925

American River Corridor (95864 & 95608) / current listings for that neighborhood -
http://soldinsac.com/search/results.aspx?ID=4925&searchI…

Land Park and East Sacramento are also wonderful areas that are reasonably close to your job, but will be a slightly longer drive.

Land Park (95818) / neighborhood info and current listings for that neighborhood -http://soldinsac.com/CustomContent.aspx?fp=1594&ID=4925

East Sacramento (95816, 95817, 95819) / neighborhood info and current listings for the area -
http://soldinsac.com/CustomContent.aspx?fp=1597&ID=4925

School info - http://www.greatschools.net/

If I can be of any assistance, please feel free to contact me directly. You can find my contact information by clicking on my Trulia profile. I, like Elizabeth, also offer a website that has an MLS feed updated every 10 minutes where you can search listings. Good luck in your relocation to Sacramento! This is a wonderful place to call home!

You may like Sierra Oaks, and fortunately, we have an agent on Trulia who specializes in that area -- Erin Attardi.

I would also recommend Arden Park in 95864 and Land Park in 95818.

You may want to interview 2 to 3 real estate agents in the area where you decide to look, choose the agent who seems the most knowledgeable and compatible with you, and then focus on that area. This is a great time to be looking for a new home, and mortgage rates are predicted to possibly drop to 4.5%. Prices are low. The only drawbacks are there is a lot of competition for well priced, attractive homes in desirable locations, and there is limited inventory.

You can search for homes that downloaded directly from MLS every 10 minutes on my web site, if you like, and you don't have to register to use it. http://elizabethweintraub.com.

Good luck in your search!

The 95821, and 95864 areas are very attractive areas for homes that you are looking for. These are very well developed neighborhoods, good solid schools, parks, etc.

You might want to search on a website yourself, (you can sign on to my website and set up your search if you prefer at http://www.suearcher.com ) or one of the realtors here can set you up on a search where you can receive all the information that you are requiring, save listings of interest, reject ones so that you don't have to see them again if they don't. But I would start with that.

Rio Americana high school has solid scores, and while your children are young, it is where the lower grade schools are feeding in to. There are many good public, and private schools in the area where people from other areas of Sacramento are commuting to.

When you have a search set up, there are features that allow you to see where other amenities are, like parks, medical facilities, elementary schools, etc. You can then research the elementary schools.

That would have you close to work, and excellent family home environment and all the services that you are interested in.