What's Vacaville like?
 

Hi: Just watched an episode of House Hunters and was intrigued by this town in Northern California. It looked like a nice place to live and the home prices were relatively affordable. Anyone have any feedback about the quality of life there? Is it a sleeper town for those working in San Francisco or is it too far away? Thanks!

A Fodorite lives there. Perhaps she will sign in and share.

I watch House Hunters fairly often, and I've seen prices on houses that are nowhere near today's prices. My sister looked for several years for a house in Austin, and never could find one within her budget. In the past few weeks I saw a House Hunters show there, and the prices were at least a hundred thousand dollars less than anything she found.

I'd pay attention to the locations and setting more than to the prices.

Vacaville is quite a bit closer to Sacramento than it is to San Francisco. It's a slog getting to SF any day any time, but in commute hours on Rte 80 -- I can't even imagine trying.

Vacaville is now my hometown.

It has a population of just under 100,000. The city leaders do a good job especially considering the economic problems that CA has.

Vacaville has the Premium Outlet Stores along with the usual big box stores such as Walmart, Sams, Home Depot, Lowes, Costco etc. It also has Ross, Marshall's and Burlington Coat Factory. The supermarkets are Safeway, Raley's and Nugget along with a few discount grocery stores and an Asian supermarket.

The historical downtown is lovely and and there are lots of events there during the year which thousands enjoy attending. The independent restaurants are basically located downtown wherein the chain restaurants are closer to the Outlets.

Regarding housing one will find residences in a lot of different price ranges and due to the economy prices have basically dropped due to foreclosures. Houses in the countryside, which is west of the city and located between the city and the Vaca mountains (the other side of the Vacaville mountains is Napa Valley) are where basically the expensive properties are located.

Families seem content with the schools from what I know and there are lots of sport activities for the children.

Now, about commuting to San Francisco. I-80 cuts through Vacaville. I-80 is normally very busy and at times like a parking lot although that tends to be going east on Fridays and west on Sunday due to all the visitors to the Lake Tahoe are. Sadly since the residents of Solano County didn't vote for the small sales tax increase decades ago we do not have BART. There is the commuter bus that makes round trips early morning from Vacaville to the Pleasant Hill BART station. The bus takes about an hour and BART into San Francisco takes almost another hour. The last commuter bus leaves at 7:15AM. The same commuter buses are in service toward the late afternoon and make runs back and forth between the Pleasant Hill BART and Vacaville. It seems to me that the people that work in San Francisco tend to drive to the waterfront in Vallejo and take the Vallejo/San Francisco ferry back and forth to work.

The weather is normally very nice. We get a few real bad rain storms of course in winter and August and/or September can get very hot although not always. Sometimes there is some snow on the outskirts of Vacaville, again west of the city boundries, which get a lot of residences excited, lol.

Crime is low, our PD are usually very pleasant and do a good job and our FD employees are well respected also. There tends to be some gang problems in the lower income area just west of downtown but our PD does a good job, well as good as possible, keeping an eye on activities. Basically it seems many of the crimes are committed by people from out of town and of course the local gang members.

Vacaville has a good medical community and two good hospitals.

When I moved here from the SF Bay Area I started wondering if the residences were on Prozac, lol, as most people are so pleasant and polite and not in such a hurry as I was use to all of my life.

Vacaville will never get the award for being the fashion center of CA but most people dress decently, well unless we get the real hot summer weather that is.

Bottom line, Bowspirit, since I am retired I enjoy Vacaville. I would not want to live here and work in SF but I have never had more then a 15 minute commute so I know I am spoiled in that regard.

I wish I had seen the House Hunter program!

Fabulous post, LI!

Appreciate that too.

Regarding homes in Austin - I've seen a few shows where people find nice houses less than or around $200K. None of those have been IN the city limits. Most of those are north of the city -Cedar Park, Round Rock, Pflugerville. Probably an hour commute in the AM and PM.

Vacaville is NOT a reasonable town for communting into SF.

The HGTV House Hunters show is not a good indicator of home values anywhere, and you should look at the credits at the end of the programs to see what year the episode was filmed. I've seen some repeats lately that were from 2009. Also, House Hunters never shows a map of the town to give you a sense of where properties are in relation to anything. There's a similar show filmed in Canada (mostly in/around Toronto) that does show the properties on a map and talks about commute times.

Have you looked at www.zillow.com to check out property values?
My son lives in Suisun City, one of those towns west of Vacaville that LoveItaly referred to, and commutes into SFO every day (by motorcycle, I'll admit). It is adjacent to Fairfield and seems quite nice to me.

If nothing else, you can visit the Jelly Belly candy factory while researching the area.

Hi there Bobmrg, yes Suisun City is one of the seven cities in Solano County. Travis AFB is between there and the northern/east end of Fairfield which is the county seat for Solano County. Vacaville is not considered part of the SF Bay Area but rather part of the Sacramento Valley as the invisible line is drawn between Fairfield and Vacaville.

The small city of Benicia which is located along the Carquinez Strait in the s/e portion of Solano County might be a good place to check out also although prices are higher normally compared to Vacaville. But the OP didn't indicate how much they want to spend on a residence. Being in Benicia and working in SF would mean about a 15/20 drive west to the Vallejo/SF ferry and the hour long ferry to SF. Or one could drive to the Pleasant Hill BART station, about 20 minutes and take BART in to SF. Benicia is considered a lower priced community compared to a lot of communties in the other SF Bay Areas. Besides zillow it would be good to go to Realtor.com also. Best wishes.

Anytime you have to cross the Bay Bridge going to/from SF means a hellacious commute. I have a friend who lives in Berkeley who has a 13 mile commute to and from SF and it can take her an 1 1/2 to travel those 13 miles in evening rush hour. Sometimes it can take 45 mins or more just to get on the Bridge. And I80 on a Friday afternoon is a parking lot.

Bobmrg the only way a commute to and from Suisun City to SF (SFO is the airport) and not lose your mind would be to use a motorcycle and lane split.

If you are seriously thinking about working in SF or close - you would have to be a masochist to try and commute from Vacaville.

Then you would go stark raving mad.

What a thorough and informative post, LI! Kudos~

Oh, thanks Deb and SF7307.

I did fail to mention a couple things however. Vacaville has two CA state prisons which are located along the east side of I-80. Now these two prisons, the CA Medical prison and the CA State prison are very high security prisons. The last time I remember that a prisoner escaped was about five or six years ago. The horns sure blew and the prisoner was captured within half an hour. The prisons are basically not even that noticeable from one of the main streets that pass by them. A joke here is that however one never wants to bike down that street wearing blue denims, lol.

I learned after I moved here another reason that crime is so low is that it is typical for neighborhoods to have neighbors that are active or retired from the PD, the FD and also prison guards. Good eyes and ears.

We have two beautiful libraries, one on the east side just a few blocks from the Outlets and another one in downtown.

My one dissapointment is the 16 screen movie theater however. It tends to basically show movies that are more geared to young males I am sad to say.

Again, and I thought I made it clear but maybe not, I personally would not want to live in Vacaville if I worked in SF. Some people do but one has to add about four hours of commute time to their work day which would not be my choice or even energy level.

LoveItaly: You are the bomb. Great information. Excellent information and feedback from everyone, so a huge Thanks!

Clearly, this isn't the place to be if one was commuting to S.F. I will look at a map and google the distance between Vacaville and Napa. I'm just leisurely looking around for another adventure; I wouldn't mind spending some extended time in Northern California. However, I have to say that I'm not too jazzed about living in a town with 2 state prisons as the towns in the Northeast that have similar situations seem to have lower property values.

LoveItaly: What led you to move to Vacaville? What drew you there? Were there other areas that you considered? Again, thanks.

I grew up in Vacaville- dad is retired AF. I'm 33 and now live out of state but my mother still lives there. If you enjoy visiting Napa/Sonoma it's only about 30 miles away, 40-45 minute drive. It is quite a bit more affordable than living in Napa, and is close to Davis (UC Davis has a world class university and vibrant local student life, restaurants, coffee shops, etc). It's about 55-60 miles to San Francisco with about an hour drive (traffic willing). Commuting to SF/Oakland/Berkeley are is not advisable- you will live your life on the freeway. I have lived in Los Angeles, Orange County (CA), Manhattan (NY), and Miami, and have to say that big cities have spoiled me- Vacaville is much too sleepy and overrun by big box stores and small town sensibilities for me now. However, I'm single and career-minded. If I had stayed in the area, married, had kids (like many of my classmates/peers) Vacaville is a nice place to raise kids, I always tell people I feel lucky to have grown up there. If you enjoy day trips or weekend trips, Lake Tahoe is an easy 3.5-4 hour drive north, there is also Benicia, Green Valley, Napa, Sonoma, Petaluma, etc. Not to mention the coastal areas of Pt. Reyes. It's close enough to the Bay Area (SF, Oakland, etc) that a day trip is completely do-able. I always believe you get out the same amount that you put into something; if you have specific interests or worship in a certain denomination it would be worth checking out specific groups or ways to be involved in the community (because the place is still a small "who knows who" type of town) before making any serious decisions about it. As far as the prison, I-80 basically splits the town in half, you can avoid "that half" entirely, it is still in a pretty remote area on the way out to the Air Force Base.
All in all, I am a product of the local schools (went to all public schools- they have dedicated teachers and staff, many who go back generations- I have a handful of friends whose parents were my teachers and they passed their talent and passion for education onto their kids, and their kids- my old classmates- are now teaching!) and community. I did find the town to be a bit "small town" in the way that, for example, during football season, the entire town seemed to stop for the Friday night football games- but I was a teenager who wanted to get out into the world. I have a lot of classmates/friends who stayed nearby, and a lot that left for college only to return to marry and raise families there. I think that says a lot about the town- it's a community-minded town, a family town. In the past few years I have noticed that the economy has taken its toll- some areas that were always pleasant/well kept seem a little more shabby and not as well maintained, and some tenants at shopping centers have disappeared, but that is true of towns everywhere in the US, unfortunately.

Miss you LoveItaly :((

My Q: Why would one choose to live in Vacaville?

Why would someone top this thread? Topping <i>Vacavillle</i>?

MichelleY....We think of her everytime we drive thru V'ville and taste cilantro.

Kal - me too.....

Bowsprit, I thought you wanted to live in Charleston!!

OH. It was so bittersweet to read LoveItaly's post. I miss her.

*snif*