Greetings, Golden State renters, and welcome to your virtual Rocklin, California apartment hunting headquarters! Situated 20 miles northeast of capital city Sacramento in the Sierra Nevada Mountain foothills, Rocklin is one of California’s fastest growing and most family-oriented communities. Featuring apartments ranging from cozy 1BR crash pads to sprawling luxury units, Rocklin is sure to have an apartment that’s perfect for you. Ready to hop aboard the NorCal Express and join the 56,000 (and growing) number of peeps who call Rocklin home? Sure you are! First, though, here are a few things you might like to know about life in Placer County before taking the Rocklin leap…
Rocklin is the quintessential Californian “bedroom community:” mostly residential (although a few business, including Oracle, are scattered throughout), largely suburban, and featuring all the amenities of modern suburbia (strip malls, shopping centers, parks, playgrounds, family restaurants, highly regarded schools, and a whole lot of neatly manicured lawns)
Greetings, Golden State renters, and welcome to your virtual Rocklin, California apartment hunting headquarters! Situated 20 miles northeast of capital city Sacramento in the Sierra Nevada Mountain foothills, Rocklin is one of California’s fastest growing and most family-oriented communities. Featuring apartments ranging from cozy 1BR crash pads to sprawling luxury units, Rocklin is sure to have an apartment that’s perfect for you. Ready to hop aboard the NorCal Express and join the 56,000 (and growing) number of peeps who call Rocklin home? Sure you are! First, though, here are a few things you might like to know about life in Placer County before taking the Rocklin leap…
(Not Quite) Rockin’ Rocklin
Rocklin is the quintessential Californian “bedroom community:” mostly residential (although a few business, including Oracle, are scattered throughout), largely suburban, and featuring all the amenities of modern suburbia (strip malls, shopping centers, parks, playgrounds, family restaurants, highly regarded schools, and a whole lot of neatly manicured lawns). In other words, if you’re a sucker for Wal-Marts and Costcos, bowling alleys and picnic tables, you’ll find yourself right at home in Rocklin. If, au contraire, you’re the up-all-night-and-party-like-a-rock-star type, you might find yourself a wee bit underwhelmed by Rocklin, where nightlife is relegated largely to the Thunder Valley Casino and a modest smattering of corner bars.
We don’t want to give you the impression, though, that the only thing to do in Rocklin is landscape the lawn and chase the 2.7 kids and dog around the white-picket-fenced yard. The city also boasts a variety of fishing, boating, and hiking hotspots, a couple of state-of-the-art golf courses, and a pair of multi-purpose shopping/entertainment destinations (Toy Row and Blue Oaks Town Center). Plus, with Sacramento located so close nearby, there’s no reason Rocklin residents can’t enjoy both the comforts of suburbia and the excitement of the big city.
The Leasing Life
Homeowners outnumber renters nearly 3 to 1 in Rocklin, but that doesn’t mean apartments are tough to come by (trust us, they aren’t!). Most properties have vacancies year-round, and dynamite move-in deals pop up regularly, so shop the market leisurely for the best possible deals. Rocklin is undoubtedly a renter’s market, and even in newer, master-planned communities like Stanford Ranch, apartments and rental houses remain available.
Another plus for tenants is that they won’t have to sift through many dump apartments and clunkers in Rocklin, where one in three units was built in the past 15 years and only about 7% of all residences sprouted up pre-1970. Amenities, meanwhile, tend to be first-rate; if you’ve got about a grand to spend on a 1BR unit, you can expect to get close to 800 square feet of living space, a balcony and/or patio, numerous community perks (rec center, resort-style pool, business center, etc.), and in some cases a fireplace, gourmet kitchen, and built-in washer/dryer unit. The only downside is that the city’s cost of living index is roughly 30% above the national average, so be prepared to pay top dollar for necessities like groceries, utilities, and gasoline.
When you’re ready to submit a leasing application, be prepared to show proof of income, renting history, bank account info, and proper identification. Few landlords place extremely stringent requirements on potential tenants, but some do perform background checks on newbies to make sure they don’t have a history of dodging their bills or paying their landlords with Monopoly money. If you have some shady skeletons in your leasing history, you’ll need a reputable co-signer to help you seal the deal for a primo apartment in Rocklin.
Landlords in Rocklin tend to have drastically different policies, meanwhile, regarding pets, subletting, and roommates, so make sure you understand and agree with every last detail of your lease before signing it. If something in your lease doesn’t feel right – i.e. you have to include a piece of your soul in the price of your monthly rent – just shrug it off and move along to the next place on your list, since most complexes in Rocklin offer comparable amenities and living space.
Rocklin is also home to a large number of recent retirees, many of whom live in the senior-friendly Whitney Oaks community. Senior apartments range from all-inclusive luxury pads to low-budget, income-sensitive units; if you’re part of the AARP crowd, you should have no problem finding a sweet apartment surrounded by plenty of kind red souls in Rocklin.
Bumming Around Rocklin
As the population of Rocklin has ballooned over the years (increasing more than 50% from 2000 to 2010), traffic has become an increasingly frustrating daily conundrum for commuters. Even on many of the side streets, gridlock is inevitable, turning a 20-minute trek from one side of town to the other into an hour-long misadventure. Especially if you’re making the daily trek to Sacramento, you might want to consider avoiding the main roads and hopping aboard a PCTA city bus (which connects to the Regional Transit public rail system… don’t worry, you’ll figure it out!) instead.
Safety First
Rocklin is generally regarded as one of the safest communities in the Sacramento metro area, and crime rates in the city pale in comparison to most other California communities of a similar size. Still, we recommend you scout out a neighborhood in advance – whether you’re targeting an apartment in Stanford Ranch, Brookfield, Whitney Oaks, Twin Oaks, or any other part of town – to make sure you’re comfortable with it before considering signing a lease there.
And now that we’ve covered the basics, it’s time for the fun part: finding you the domicile of your dreams in Rocklin! Best of luck and happy hunting!
