Sierra Rd, Ygnacio Valley

Sierra Court in Concord is a short S-curved lane to the south of Monument Blvd., the main artery that cuts through Concord. On its western end, Sierra Drive is mostly made up of apartment buildings of the shoebox shaped variety. Sierra is fairly leafy however, which keeps these from seeming rather oppressive like they sometimes do in other locations.

On the eastern end of Sierra Drive as it curves to the south for a block, the street is mostly made up of single family homes--Contemporary style homes for the most part. Just to the east past a hedge is an industrial section of Concord filled with warehouses and businesses.

If this were a lane in another city, such as just to the south in Walnut Creek you could add a good $300 to rent just because of the change in zip code. Because, however, it is in Concord--which has a negative reputation--you can rent a one-bedroom apartment here for around $1000.

Homes around here also sell for far less. A 4-bedroom here recently sold for $330,000 and a condo went for $95,000.

What do you give up for the cheaper rents and lower home prices?

Crime could be a factor, but it is hard to say since I can’t find crime data that is neighborhood specific for Concord. I do know however that overall crime in Concord is about even with the national average.

Schools are the other factor. Schools here have API’s on the lower end of the spectrum with the local elementary having an API of 4 and the Oak Grove Middle School having one of 2. (That is out of 10.) So that is a big drawback if you are going to send you kids to public school here.

There are several upsides to living here however. One has to do with commute times. As compared with Pittsburg and Antioch, commutes from Concord to Walnut Creek, Oakland and San Francisco are far shorter and much more manageable.

That proximity also means that it is much easier to go out to relatively nice places and to live at a higher standard of living than you might otherwise be able to. Overall, this is a pretty nice spot--a bit of a steal perhaps.