Davis Neighborhoods, From the Train Station to the Wildhorse Greenbelt

Davis neighborhoods fit inside a city of about 10 square miles. The Census Bureau puts its land area at 9.97 square miles, and the California Department of Finance counted 66,002 people living there on January 1, 2026. Interstate 80 and Highway 113 meet on the city's edge, and downtown Sacramento sits about 11 miles east across the Yolo Causeway.

Davis started as Davisville, a Southern Pacific depot stop in 1868, and incorporated as a city on March 28, 1917. The rail line still shapes the town. The Amtrak station on Second Street is a short walk from downtown, and the tracks and freeways split the city into the parts of town locals use when they give directions.

UC Davis sits on the southwest side of town, and its land is not part of the city at all. The campus received a record 120,131 applications for fall 2025, according to its July 28, 2025 release. That pull keeps housing demand steady in a city that adds homes slowly.

Locals split the city into six informal districts: Central, Downtown, East, North, South and West Davis. Each one has its own streets, parks and housing.

Central and Downtown. Old North Davis is the city's officially designated neighborhood, directly north of the downtown grid. Downtown takes in Aggie Village next to campus and Olive Drive on the south side of the tracks.

East Davis. Mace Ranch covers the land between East Covell Boulevard, Mace Boulevard and Second Street, on 1,760 acres the Mace family bought as farmland in 1950. Mace Ranch Park is its largest park, and the Second Street Crossing shopping center opened its Target in October 2009. Wildhorse sits east of Pole Line Road and north of Covell, wrapped around the public Wildhorse Golf Club and a greenbelt with an agricultural buffer at the city's edge. Davis Manor, Rancho Yolo and Lake Alhambra Estates are East Davis neighborhoods too.

North Davis. Above Covell Boulevard you find Covell Park, Senda Nueva, Northstar and North Davis Farms.

West Davis. Westwood, Evergreen, Aspen and Stonegate line the west side. Village Homes covers about 70 acres there, with about 245 residences (UC Davis, January 2026), shared garden strips and bike paths running behind the houses.

South Davis. Willowbank sits south of I-80. Unincorporated El Macero lies outside city limits and is often counted as part of South Davis.

We go deeper on each part of town on our pages for buying a home in Davis and selling your home in Davis.

Davis is flat, and the bike is the default way around. The city has held Platinum Bicycle Friendly Community status since 2005 and counted 63 miles of bike paths in 2021. Unitrans and Yolobus buses connect at the train station.

The calendar runs on the campus and the park. UC Davis opens its campus for Picnic Day every April. Sudwerk, Three Mile Brewing and Dunloe Brewing pour within a short ride of each other, and the Davis Food Co-op anchors G Street.

The trade-offs are worth hearing before you fall for a house. Supply is thin because Measure J sends edge-of-town growth to the ballot. Summer afternoons average 93°F in July. The drive east crosses the Yolo Causeway, where Caltrans is building the Yolo 80 managed lanes. Compare Davis with its neighbors in the Yolo County neighborhoods guide or our Sacramento neighborhoods page.

Every neighborhood has a median, and in Sacramento the median only tells part of the story. Lot sizes vary. Eras mix. Custom homes sit beside tract homes. So even where the median is $895,000, there are one-of-a-kind homes that sell for far more, and the street, the lot and the details move the number.

Last year, 330 single-family homes sold in ZIPs 95616 and 95618 (October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026). The typical home was built in 1977, with 4 bedrooms and about 1,918 square feet, on a lot of about 6,970 square feet. Half of the sales landed between $745k and $1.12M, depending on lot size, condition, square footage and more, and the median was $895,000. In Davis, 42 of those 330 sales closed at $1.35M or more, and the highest reached $3.73M. Condos and townhomes aren't included. This is what happened, not what will happen. Ask us for today's numbers.

Source: MetroList, single-family homes that closed October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026. Any single-month figure elsewhere on this page is a separate, shorter snapshot.

The best way to compare Davis neighborhoods is to start with your days, not a map. Tell us where you work or study, how you want to get around and the monthly payment that feels right. We will show you which parts of town fit, with the loan numbers worked in. Contact us to talk about Davis and we will set a time that works for you.