Sacramento is still the best move Monica and I ever made, and we think it’s still a good move for nurses. But you should know the hard parts before you come. Jobs are competitive, homes cost more than they used to, and homelessness and crime are a part of life here.
These numbers are from January 2024, when this was first written. Home prices and pay change every year, so check current numbers in Map My Pay.
Why we’re thinking about moving back to NYC
We made a video about why we want to move back to NYC. We want to do it by the time our son starts kindergarten.
That video got a lot more views than we thought it would. We have said great things about working in California for the last three years.
If all of our family lived here in Sacramento, we would never think about moving back. Family is everything to us. We have missed a lot of family parties since we moved away.
But two years is a long time. We can’t say we are 100% sure the move back to NYC will happen. We may change our minds for many reasons. One is the growing immigration issue that has been in the news there since mid-2023.
If you are thinking of moving from your home state to Sacramento, here is what to think about.
Job opportunities
Don’t expect to get hired fast at a Kaiser hospital in or near Sacramento. For nurses, and for a lot of other jobs, Kaiser Sacramento is the hardest place in the state to get hired.
A Kaiser nurse recruiter told me the Kaiser hospitals in the Bay Area are losing a lot of nurses to Sacramento. It costs less to live here, and those nurses still earn the same as nurses in the Bay.
Be patient. Don’t go in desperate for a job, and don’t let it bother you when you don’t get a call back. That is how you should approach your job search when you plan your move.
You may have to work at a hospital that pays less before you land a job at Kaiser. If so, do it.
Cost of living
We moved to California in 2017. Back then, the typical home in the Sacramento, Folsom and Roseville area sold for $255,360.
Today, the typical home in the same area sells for around $402,010.
That doesn’t mean it is too expensive for nurses now. But like the rest of the country, the cost of living is going up. For a newer look, read why Sacramento is becoming less affordable.
Our mortgage as an example
Monica and I paid $697,000 for our house in 2018. Our mortgage is $4,100 a month. That covers taxes, HOA dues and two kinds of insurance.
In 2023, we worked fewer than 20 hours a week and brought home $14,100 a month. That means 29% of our take-home pay goes to our mortgage.
What a median home would cost you
Say you buy a home at that price, $402,010, and put 20% down. With about $8,905 in property taxes and a 6.28% interest rate, your mortgage would be about $2,834 a month.
Now say you want to match us, with 29% of your take-home pay going to the mortgage. You would need to bring home about $9,772 a month.
That sounds like a lot, but here is an example. I used to bring home $4,500 every two weeks when I worked 30 hours a week. You get paid 26 times a year. Divide that by 12 months, and you have about $9,750 a month.
Now, after you pay a mortgage of $4,500 from that, you still have about $5,250. That is a good amount left for a single income to cover other bills or to enjoy. It’s all about balancing your income and your mortgage.
Homelessness and crime
Sacramento County has a big problem with homelessness. It ranks third in the nation for the number of people who have lived on the street for a long time.
That’s a shock, since we rank ahead of bigger places like Seattle and the Bay Area. About 72% of our homeless neighbors have no roof over their heads. Many live in tents around the city. That puts us fifth in the country for unsheltered homelessness.
The county has spent hundreds of millions trying to fix this, and it’s still a big problem. Shelter beds are almost always full. Nearby areas like Roseville, Natomas and Elk Grove are starting to see a rise too.
What happened to us
I don’t want to scare you, but you might see this even in the nicer parts of town. It is just less likely. Someone took our Arlo camera right off our front door.
Another time, I made a mistake. I parked our car outside the garage with the garage door opener on the sun visor. A homeless person broke into the car, took the opener and got into our house. They left with one of our bikes. It was a wake-up call to be more careful.
Our cars have been broken into a couple of times in Sacramento. It happened again when we visited San Francisco. You have to watch out for break-ins around here.
There are also serious crimes in Sacramento, like rapes, shootings and murders. Thankfully, these are rare. They are much less likely in the towns outside Sacramento and in the nicer parts of the city. Stay aware of your surroundings no matter where you live.
Our answer: yes, still move here
After all of that, you might be second-guessing your move. But Sacramento is fairly safe. If you want a more family-friendly city, there are plenty to choose from. Rocklin, Granite Bay, Folsom, El Dorado Hills, Elk Grove, Roseville and Auburn are just a few.
For us, moving to Sacramento is still the best decision we have ever made. So pack your things and come. To see how Sacramento stacks up for nurses, read why Sacramento nurses beat all others.
Your next move
See what you’d take home, then make the move
Map My Pay shows what nurses take home after taxes and rent at 465+ hospitals and in 21,000+ cities. It’s the app I co-founded so you can compare cities before you pack a single box.
The Nurses to Riches Accelerator is the plan Monica and I used to go from $37 an hour in New York to $143 an hour in California: license, city, hospital, and what to do with the money after.
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Written by Jason, RN. I went from $37 an hour in New York to $143 an hour in California and paid off $128K of debt in under a year. I share our numbers in the Nurses to Riches newsletter and on YouTube.