Reviews & Comments
Carmichael, CA
Carmichael — worth every cent -
6/20/2022We lived in Sacramento since 1978, and in Carmichael since 2019. We’re very happy here. Carmichael is one of the nicer suburbs of Sacramento. The part of Carmichael that we live in is called Maple Grove, and it’s one of the nicest areas. We once went out of town for 4 days, forgot to lock the doors, forgot to shut the windows, and nobody broke into our house. We once left the keys in the front door (outside) overnight, which included car and house keys, and the next day it was discovered only when a nice neighbor rang the doorbell to notify us. The car was still there, and no one broke in. When we lived in “town” (Sacramento), if we left anything in the front yard unattended for 5 minutes, it would be taken; if we left the garage door open unsupervised for 5 minutes, someone would steal something; twice a car was stolen from right in front of our house. This doesn’t happen in our Carmichael neighborhood. We realize some other Carmichael neighborhoods might not be as nice or as safe as this one, but overall we believe Carmichael is a great place to live. It has a little bit of a rural feel, but it’s right in the big metropolitan area, 5 minutes away from whatever we want. Probably the biggest issue is the homeless invasion of the American River Parkway, which includes Sacramento, Rancho Cordova, Fair Oaks, Gold River, Folsom, Carmichael. A good chunk of the parkway is in Carmichael, so we have our share of homeless here, predominantly along the riverfront. This has been a problem in the 44 years we’ve lived here. This year (2022) the politicians have promised to do something about the illegal campsites along the river, like build shelters and “tiny homes” for the homeless, and clear the encampments once and for all, because otherwise citizen vigilantes have threatened to take the matters into their own hands. Personally, we’ve avoided the beautiful Jedediah Smith 33 mile river bike trail on account of the homeless situation. It’ll be great to find shelter for the homeless. We have excellent public parks and golf courses, rafting, hiking, horseback riding, outdoor activities galore here in Carmichael, and the weather is fantastic, if you enjoy long, hot, dry summers. Sacramento Metro is one of the top 10 sunniest places in the USA. The hottest part of the day doesn’t hit until mid-afternoon, like 3pm. So you have the earlier part of the day to enjoy without the heat. And the evening and night bring the “Delta breeze” (winds from the southwest) from the Pacific Ocean through the Golden Gate. We tried to move away in 2017 by buying a beach house, but we missed it here too much (Northern California beaches have winter year-round, no summer, no heat, no bikini weather, never) and came right back. Carmichael, particularly Maple Grove, is the best place ever, and we’re not ever leaving. Real estate is pricey here, but the houses are good-sized, lots are huge, people take care of their properties, neighbors are friendly, streets are quiet, and it’s worth every cent. We love just walking through our neighborhood. All the houses are unique. People have lovely front yards, mostly not grass. We have no shortage of water here to maintain landscaping. A couple of drawbacks of the Sacramento Metro area are that there’s a lot of traffic and the air pollution can get bad in the summer. We didn’t have much traffic 44 years ago, but the area has grown a lot since then. Carmichael was pretty much fully developed back then, but areas such as Roseville, Elk Grove, Folsom, Rancho Cordova, West Sacramento, South Sacramento (Laguna), North Sacramento (Natomas), etc., have added tens of thousands of new houses since then, and folks have moved here from the Bay Area and other places. We think the traffic and air have improved since 2020 when Covid hit because many people are still working from home. The economy is excellent here. We have a lot of job opportunities because this is the State Capital. The State employs a huge amount of people. State jobs pay well. In addition to the state, there are a lot of good paying private-sector jobs here. It seems, at the time we’re writing this, there are more jobs than employees. We are retired, but we regularly receive phone calls from employers who want us to come to work. It can be expensive to live here, but it’s worth every cent.