East Sacramento

East Sacramento is really a pretty big area that could be itself broken down into several different neighborhoods if you were so inclined. Some people break it down according to the parks: McKinley, Herschel, East Portal, and Lubin. In that way you can roughly get this expansive area broken down into smaller sections. This is not a bad way of doing it.
McKinley Park, itself, the actual park that is, is fairly large with tennis courts, a baseball field and a garden area. It is also home to Clunie Community Center which runs a pool on the park grounds.

McKinley Park is also fronted on the east by a number of very attractive Tudor style cottages which perfectly match the early Century style lamps that are a common feature of this older area of Sac. On the south it are larger manor style homes on palm lined H Street. On the north it’s a little California bungalow city and on the west? A Greek Orthodox Church and a bank just to break up the fun for residential architecture lovers.

The UC Davis Neurosurgery Clinic is on the far north of neighborhood. While Mercy General Hospital is on the southeast of what you could call the McKinley section of East Sac.

Despite the attractive homes in the area of McKinley rents through East Sac remain relatively moderate, with a two-bedroom home going for about $1250/mo on average. And you can find some absolute steels in the area.

The Herschel Park area sprawls out to the east surrounding yet another hospital, Sutter Memorial. The homes here are a bit more difficult to describe. There are a number of Ranch and Prairie style homes but then there are also a fair number of unusual homes with strange architectural features that you don’t see that often—such as a backyard garage whose driveway has an overhanging bedroom extension for the main house—or dormer windows and strangely sloping roofs. Kind of cool really.

The neighborhood is also unusual for having a number acutely angled corners on streets, so that you get pointy extensions, too narrow for buildings.

The East Portal Area borders Cal State Sacramento and is made up of mostly bungalows and Ranch homes. Kit Carson Middle School is here (test scores indicate this is a pretty awful school) and so is St. Mary’s—which, of course, is a private Catholic school, so who knows how good the instruction is.

And then there is the Lubin Park area on the southwest of East Sac, which is a residential area that is largely made up of bungalows and older homes. It is also home of Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Taken together, East Sacramento does have a few unifying characteristics. The streets, for example, tend to be slightly wider than in other neighborhoods, though the abundance of trees along sidewalks does not make it feel like a race track at any point. The homes through East Sac also tend to be of the older variety.

Home prices throughout East Sac vary quite a bit with most homes going for under $500K, but about 20% rising above that amount. You will even find a handful of homes for sale at over the $1 Mil range. ($3.2 mil is the high I recently saw).
The schools vary as well, which is one of the reasons why I can’t recommend the neighborhood for families.

What about nightlife and that sort of thing?

There are a number of bars in the area ranging from sports bars to places that dub themselves dive bars. There are also a number or restaurants in the area, ranging from Mexican to Italian, but also including a few more unusual choices such as Moroccan food at Café Morocco.

Put simply, this is a whole bustling little city in itself here. Very good spot to get a house if you can.