Vine Hill

For a long time, I thought that this neighborhood was just part of Martinez. It was only recently that I realized it was considered as partly separate from Martinez. Vine Hill is one of the last stops on the northern end of Contra Costa County before you cross the George Miller Bridge (still called the Carquinez Bridge by anyone who has been here more than 5 minutes) and go over to Benecia.

If you have driven it you probably are more familiar with the refineries that make up the area than anything else, and Vine Hill certainly does have its share of these (which means you should always be ready to shelter in place when the refinery has one of its periodic spills).

This neighborhood is actually fairly typical of a lot of older California suburban neighborhoods, filled with smaller 1950’s style Ranch homes for the most part. About half the homes here are from that period, the rest offering a fairly even range of offerings across several periods.

The median home price here is $225K, with home prices ranging from $100 K to $350k.

The other benefit of living here is that the Martinez school system (which I think is what serves the area) is actually pretty strong.

Crime, although not non-existent in the area, is fairly low with only the occasional assault or robbery--mostly small time stuff in this area along the lines of disturbing the peace.

Overall, this is is a pretty good place in terms of being affordable without making too many sacrifices in terms of quality of life.