Sacramento County · CA
Citrus Heights, Sacramento County: Community Guide
Before it was Citrus Heights, it was Sylvan. A real estate agent changed the name in 1910.
Citrus Heights at a glance
Before it was Citrus Heights, it was Sylvan. A real estate agent changed the name in 1910.
Picture it: a cathedral ceiling, a clerestory window and a domed atrium, on a street a short drive from Sunrise Boulevard and every store you might need.
Citrus Heights is a few different places, and each answers a slightly different question. So let's find yours.
Only in Citrus Heights
A Craftsman home from the Sylvan days.
The Historic Rusch Home, a Craftsman house built in 1914, sits in Rusch Park on land the Rusch family donated for public use around 1950. Its gardens, laid out in 1916, are a State Site of Historical Interest.
Old Sylvan and Auburn Boulevard
The part of town that came first.
Auburn Boulevard was the main street. The Sylvan School House, moved in 1927, now sits at the Community Club House on Sylvan Road, and a library opened at Auburn Boulevard and Sylvan Road in 1930. The post office followed in 1947. After World War II, new subdivisions of one-, two- and five-acre lots went in.
The Sunrise corridor
Shops, services and a tract home close together.
Ground broke on Sunrise Mall in 1970, and the area around Sunrise Boulevard and Greenback Lane grew fast. Birdcage Walk opened across the boulevard in 1976, and Sunrise Village began about then at Madison Avenue. The city's history notes that housing tracts and apartments spread out from the corridor mostly in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Streng Brothers tracts
A home with a point of view.
Jim and Bill Streng began building in 1959, and Carter Sparks designed the modern homes. Their atriums are domed in tinted acrylic, with air conditioning instead of radiant heat, skylights and, in some plans, redwood-beamed cathedral ceilings. The Streng Brothers site lists Eastridge and Hidden Ridge in Citrus Heights, and one 1974 Streng home here has been documented. Eastridge, a cluster near the North Ridge Country Club course, saw two single-family sales last year, at $575,000 and $599,000, both 1975 homes of about 1,600 square feet on lots of about 7,800 square feet (a very small sample).
Larger lots
A half acre or more, still inside the city.
Lots here run from about 2,900 square feet to a little over two acres. Typically, homes on lots of a half acre or more sell for about $610k (median across 23 sales last year, from about $428k to $1.16M, a small number). Typical lots are about 8,300 square feet, so a half-acre lot is nearly three times that. After World War II, new subdivisions here were laid out in one-, two- and five-acre lots.
Around Citrus Heights
Shopping centers close by, with Interstate 80 running through town.
The typical single-family lot here is about 7,400 square feet. Interstate 80 runs through the west side of the city. Sunrise Boulevard and Greenback Lane anchor the Sunrise MarketPlace district, which covers more than 400 businesses and has an office inside Sunrise Mall. Sunrise Village and Citrus Town Center are other shopping centers. Some local businesses on Auburn Boulevard and Mariposa Avenue date to the 1930s and 1940s.
Close by
Medical care and a college within reach of Citrus Heights.
Sutter Health runs Citrus Heights Walk-In Care at 5406 Sunrise Boulevard, in the city. Mercy San Juan Medical Center, operated by Dignity Health, is at 6501 Coyle Avenue in Carmichael. American River College occupies a 155-acre site on the old Cameron Ranch in northern Sacramento County. Sutter Roseville Medical Center is at One Medical Plaza Drive in Roseville.
The numbers, in one breath
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 $520,000, 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, 269 single-family homes sold in ZIP 95610 (October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026). The typical home was built in 1976, with 3 bedrooms and about 1,596 square feet, on a lot of about 8,276 square feet. Half of the sales landed between $470k and $575k, depending on lot size, condition, square footage and more, and the median was $520,000. Condos and townhomes aren't included. This is what happened, not what will happen. Ask us for today's numbers.
Good to know before you look
FEMA revised the Arcade Creek flood maps effective February 22, 2024, enlarging the Special Flood Hazard Area in places. Flood zone, special assessments and HOA status vary by parcel. We look these up for each address.
Talk to us
Are you looking for 55-and-older communities, or helping a parent plan a move? Our Well MOVED section is built for that.
Ask us for today's numbers on any street: call (916) 549-3131 or send us a note.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Citrus Heights its own city?
Yes. Voters approved incorporation in November 1996, and it became the fifth city in Sacramento County on January 1, 1997.
What was it called before?
It was called Sylvan. In 1910 a real estate agent divided it into ten-acre lots and renamed it Citrus Heights.
Who designed the Streng homes?
Carter Sparks, an architect trained at UC Berkeley who worked with the firm behind Eichler's subdivisions in the early 1950s, designed them.
The method
How we do it in Citrus Heights
More of Sacramento County
Ready to make your move with Surroundings?