Moving to Placerville

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  • Placerville? Grass Valley?

    –
    Feb 14, 2018

    We're ready to leave the bay area and are considering the Sierra foothills. We like the idea of both the Placerville area and the Grass Valley area. We'd like to be surrounded by nature and have a much smaller mortgage and property tax bill.

    I'm concerned though about starting over in a new place. It took a very long time for me to make friends here and it terrifies me that I'll be alone up there with only my husband and daughter for company. I'll be working from home so I won't be able to make friends through work. That really leaves my daughter's school and activities as the only places that I'll meet new people. Are people around there friendly? She'll be in fourth grade when we move and it scares me that people will already have their friends and won't have any interest in making friends with a new parent. 

    Any thoughts about where we should be looking? Are there groups like BPN for those areas?

    Thanks

    Feb 14, 2018

    No responses received.

RE:
Advice about moving to sierra foothills area (Apr 9, 2020)

I grew up in/near Placerville.  It's a great place to raise kids!  Schools are great- there is a great downtown with good restaurants, coffee, shopping to some of the best Bay Area neighborhoods.  On off hours, the drive is easily 2.5 hours.  EASY access to amazing outdoor activities.  Weather is great!!  It's def a different political scene than the Bay Area and less diverse but you can compensate for those things in other ways!  My family that still lives in the area hasn't had issues with insurance based on fire risk- even with recently purchased properties.  If you are living close to town, the risk is probably equal to many parts of the Bay Area/North Bay.  Also, easy access to very good healthcare- locally and reasonably close to UC Davis for specialty care. Happy to answer any other questions.  

Apr 15, 2020

Archived Q&A and Reviews

Moving to Elk Grove or Placerville

June 2005

We're curious about the towns in between Sacramento and Truckee, and in particular have heard that Elk Grove has good public schools. We'd need to be within 45 mintues to an hour from Sacramento. Elk Grove looks affordable, but suburban from what I can gather off of the web. We prefer greenery and a little space, an acre would be great! Would love to be in a rural place, but are also concerned about the availability of good schools going through high school. I'm particularly interested in hearing from anyone who has moved recently from the Bay Area. Any information about schools, neighborhoods, culture, is appreciated! Ready to cash out

We just moved from Berkeley to Cameron Park. Both my husband & I are both native SF's, so it was a big move for us. The El Dorado Hills/Cameron Park/Placerville area is really expanding. Alot of people have moved up here from the bay area and a lot of money is going into the schools. There are a lot of nice restuarants/delis/bakeries springing up. In the sacramento/El Dorado county area there are 5 Charter Public Montessori Schools K-8. The private schools are less expensive. Our daughter is now in a Montessori preschool full time for $450/month, before in Berkeley we had her 9-1pm 4 days a week for $630. Above El Dorado Hills you can get houses with acreage, at a reasonable price. Last year we bought a 3/2 with 1/3 acre for under $300k. But the market is really booming. Folsom also has nice areas with trees. From Placerville is about 45 minutes to Sacramento, from Cameron Park 1/2 hour. The traffic is getting bad, but it doesn't seem to be as bad as the bay area. If you have flexible hours and head back up from Sacramento before 4pm is ok. Elk Grove is off of hwy 5 and the traffic is extremely bad on 5. Not many trees there. Good luck. renfrews

I grew up in Placerville and went to college in Sacramento before moving to the Bay Area. My parents and in-laws still live in the Placerville area so I'm often driving up there on weekends for visits.

You're right about Elk Grove....suburban! But nice. The whole neighborhood is new so the schools are new as well. I don't really know much more than that except that it's HOT there in the summer, as anything in the Central Valley is going to be.

Placerville and the surrounding towns are nice though. I haven't done any recent research on the school districts, but I graduated high school in placerville and I think I turned out a pretty smart cookie!

Placerville is very........''conservative''. As would probably be expected from any small-ish town in the foothills. They seem to be in a time-warp! It's practically identical to what it was like in 1989 except now they have a Wal-Mart, TWO drive through Starbucks and an In-N-Out! My parents still commute from Pville to Sacramento, my mom works in Folsom and my dad in downtown Sacramento. The traffic has gotten just terrible. They work alternate work hours of 6:30-3:30 but that is becoming common up there and those commute hours aren't really much better or worse than the ''normal'' ones. The great thing about Pville is that it's an hour from Sacramento and and hour from South Lake Tahoe...lots of things to do in the area. It snows in Pville and it's not nearly as hot in the summer. There's still traffic lights on Highway 50 through town and as Apple Hill gets more popular, Friday nights driving through town become a chore, but the locals know how to get through on other roads.

That's my brief description, let me know if you want more info about Pville or the surrounding towns (El Dorado Hills, Folsom, Cameron Park, etc) tiffany