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 neighborhood 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.
106 cost of living index
120 cost of living index
111 cost of living index
92 cost of living index
117 cost of living index
103 cost of living index
105 cost of living index
110 cost of living index
103 cost of living index
103 cost of living index
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is California’s statewide median.
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we determined the cheapest Sacramento hoods in 2026
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 2026. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.
The full plate
Detailed list of the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Sacramento for 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by neighborhood name.
| Rank | Neighborhood | Cost Of Living Index |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Village Green | 106 |
| 2 | College Glen | 120 |
| 3 | Wills Acres | 111 |
| 4 | Packard Bell | 92 |
| 5 | Raley Industrial Park | 117 |
| 6 | Parker Homes | 103 |
| 7 | Johnson Heights | 105 |
| 8 | East Del Paso Heights | 110 |
| 9 | Oak Knoll | 103 |
| 9 | Norwood Tech | 103 |
| 11 | South East | 107 |
| 12 | Natomas Creek | 138 |
| 13 | Tallac Village | 121 |
| 13 | American River Parkway | 123 |
| 15 | Robla | 122 |
| 16 | Village 12 | 137 |
| 17 | South Oak Park | 112 |
| 18 | Colonial Heights | 125 |
| 19 | Granite Regional Park | 94 |
| 19 | Freeport Manor | 125 |
| 21 | New Era Park | 143 |
| 22 | Gardenland | 116 |
| 23 | Northgate | 125 |
| 23 | Willowcreek | 140 |
| 25 | Village 2 | 142 |
| 26 | Village 7 | 145 |
| 27 | West Del Paso Heights | 122 |
| 28 | Parkway | 114 |
| 29 | Mangan Park | 122 |
| 30 | Westlake | 145 |
| 31 | Woodlake | 125 |
| 31 | Creekside | 141 |
| 33 | Woodbine | 114 |
| 34 | Hollywood Park | 131 |
| 35 | Colonial Village | 120 |
| 36 | Central Oak Park | 120 |
| 37 | Noralto | 112 |
| 38 | Gateway Center | 131 |
| 39 | Natomas Park | 147 |
| 39 | South Natomas | 126 |
| 41 | Brentwood | 123 |
| 42 | Del Paso Park | 125 |
| 42 | Carelton Tract | 132 |
| 44 | North City Farms | 119 |
| 45 | River Park | 155 |
| 46 | Tahoe Park South | 126 |
| 47 | Johnson Business Park | 136 |
| 48 | Tahoe Park | 137 |
| 48 | Erikson Industrial Park | 123 |
| 50 | South Hagginwood | 115 |
| 51 | Scc | 143 |
| 52 | Old North Sacramento | 113 |
| 53 | Airport | 124 |
| 54 | Richardson Village | 109 |
| 55 | Meadowview | 123 |
| 55 | Gateway West | 135 |
| 55 | Fruitridge Manor | 119 |
| 58 | Arden Fair | 121 |
| 58 | Golf Course Terrace | 126 |
| 60 | Strawberry Manor | 114 |
| 61 | Glenwood Meadows | 126 |
| 61 | Land Park | 154 |
| 63 | Swanston Estates | 115 |
| 64 | Sierra Oaks | 150 |
| 65 | Village 11 | 139 |
| 66 | Elmhurst | 138 |
| 67 | Village 9 | 145 |
| 68 | Norwood I-80 | 120 |
| 69 | Valley High-North Laguna | 128 |
| 70 | River Gardens | 123 |
| 71 | Tahoe Park East | 137 |
| 72 | 147 | |
| 72 | Greenhaven | 149 |
| 74 | Ben Ali | 113 |
| 74 | Midtown | 119 |
| 76 | Village 5 | 138 |
| 76 | North Oak Park | 131 |
| 78 | South Land Park | 143 |
| 79 | Curtis Park | 154 |
| 80 | Cannon Industrial Park | 116 |
| 81 | Poverty Ridge | 127 |
| 82 | Southside Park | 126 |
| 83 | Lawrence Park | 122 |
| 84 | East Sacramento | 164 |
| 85 | Colonial Manor | 123 |
| 85 | Medical Center | 137 |
| 87 | South City Farms | 114 |
| 88 | West Tahoe Park | 129 |
| 89 | Hagginwood | 119 |
| 90 | Del Paso Heights | 107 |
| 91 | Avondale | 117 |
| 92 | Upper Land Park | 148 |
| 93 | Metro Center | 139 |
| 94 | Richmond Grove | 153 |
| 95 | Rp Sports Complex | 141 |
| 96 | Glen Elder | 122 |
| 96 | North Pointe | 130 |
| 98 | Pell-Main Industrial Park | 124 |
| 99 | Boulevard Park | 165 |
| 100 | Newton Booth | 153 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. All 110 Sacramento neighborhoods.
Summary
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, College Glen, Wills Acres, Packard Bell, Raley Industrial Park, Parker Homes, Johnson Heights, East Del Paso Heights, Oak Knoll, and Norwood Tech.
As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Sacramento aren’t all cheap. Csus takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Sacramento.
We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below. Not sold on California? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
Questions and answers
Cheapest Neighborhoods In Sacramento FAQs
What is the cheapest neighborhood in Sacramento?
Village Green is the cheapest neighborhood in Sacramento for 2026. It posts the best combination of overall cost of living, rent against income, and home prices against income. College Glen and Wills Acres are next.
What are the cheapest neighborhoods in Sacramento?
The cheapest neighborhoods in Sacramento are Village Green, College Glen, Wills Acres, Packard Bell, Raley Industrial Park, Parker Homes, Johnson Heights, East Del Paso Heights, Oak Knoll, and Norwood Tech. We ranked all 110 neighborhoods in the city.
How do you decide which neighborhoods are cheapest?
Three measures: an overall cost of living index, rent-to-income, and home-value-to-income, all from Census tract data. Scoring costs against local incomes keeps one luxury tower from skewing the math.
Is a cheap neighborhood a bad neighborhood?
Not necessarily — this ranking measures what things cost relative to income, nothing else. Check our safest neighborhoods in Sacramento ranking before you sign a lease, because cheap and safe are separate questions.
What is the most expensive neighborhood in Sacramento?
Csus lands at the expensive end of the 110 neighborhoods we scored. If your budget disagrees with it, the rest of the list runs cheaper.
