Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.
I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.
And while every neighbhorhood in Sacramento might be more expensive than living in rural California, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.
What exactly are those Sacramento neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?
Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Sacramento are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.
What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in Sacramento for 2024? According to the most recent census data, Village Green looks to be the cheapest Sacramento neighborhood to live in.
At this point, we should make it clear that you do get what you pay for — some of these neighborhoods might not be the best places to live in Sacramento. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Sacramento that deserve a little bragging rights, or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in Sacramento.
For more California reading, check out:
- Best Places To Live In California
- Cheapest Places To Live In California
- Cheapest Cities To Live In America
- Cheapest States To Live In America
Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table
The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Sacramento For 2024
/10
Population: 227
Cost Of Living Index: 93 (3rd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.5 (3rd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.017 (18th cheapest)
More on Village Green: Data | Real Estate
/10
Population: 2,509
Cost Of Living Index: 101 (14th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.9 (13th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.019 (37th cheapest)
More on Wills Acres: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 1,658
Cost Of Living Index: 98 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.7 (34th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.017 (25th cheapest)
More on American River Parkway: Data | Real Estate
/10
Population: 157
Cost Of Living Index: 92 (2nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.3 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.022 (66th cheapest)
More on Packard Bell: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 5,760
Cost Of Living Index: 107 (44th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.2 (22nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.013 (5th cheapest)
More on Village 2: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 5,024
Cost Of Living Index: 105 (35th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.4 (8th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.019 (36th cheapest)
More on Creekside: Data | Real Estate
/10
Population: 223
Cost Of Living Index: 96 (6th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.1 (5th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.025 (77th cheapest)
More on Parker Homes: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 3,165
Cost Of Living Index: 100 (11th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.5 (25th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.022 (63rd cheapest)
More on Gardenland: Data | Real Estate
/10
Population: 2,962
Cost Of Living Index: 107 (44th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.8 (11th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.02 (48th cheapest)
More on Raley Industrial Park: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 4,086
Cost Of Living Index: 103 (22nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.7 (10th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.023 (70th cheapest)
More on East Del Paso Heights: Data | Real Estate
Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest Sacramento Hoods In 2024
To rank the cheapest places to live in Sacramento, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.
Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:
- Overall Cost Of Living
- Rent To Income Ratio
- Median Home Value To Income Ratio
We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 110 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.
Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.
And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Sacramento.” We’re lookin’ at you, Village Green.
We updated this article for 2024. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Sacramento. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.
Summary: Lowest Cost Places To Live In Sacramento
If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Sacramento where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.
The most affordable neighborhoods in Sacramento are Village Green, Wills Acres, American River Parkway, Packard Bell, Village 2, Creekside, Parker Homes, Gardenland, Raley Industrial Park, and East Del Paso Heights.
As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Sacramento aren’t all cheap. Downtown takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Sacramento.
The most expensive neighborhoods in Sacramento are Downtown, Fairgrounds, Mansion Flats, Old Sacramento, and Csus.
We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.
For more California reading, check out:
- Most Dangerous Cities In California
- Richest Cities In California
- Safest Places In California
- Worst Places To Live In California