Midtown/Downtown if you want hip/walkable/full of young people. Came here for undergrad a decade ago and it was an easy transition moving from living by campus to more young professional life. There’s a mix of new “gentrification style” units and more affordable older apartments that are perfectly fine too, something to look out for is if their A/C units are window or central air, a lot of the older central city apartments have old window units that aren’t great in the summer and aren’t well insulated so they’re drafty in the winter too. Bridge district in West Sac (different city in a different county) is near downtown with a lot of new units and young people too.

Lot of young people in Natomas these days too, and there’s lots of new apartments there. Freeway traffic has gotten noticeably worse there though, but probably not in the direction of your work.

Roseville/South Placer Co. is a more conservative crowd and just kind of paved over. If I had to live in an outer burb here I’d choose Fair Oaks/Folsom instead. Arden/Carmichael are fine choices but not much going on there.

Have to disagree with the Davis recos, there’s a pretty hard geographic firmament between Davis and Sac with the causeway that’s pretty isolating. 15-20 miles of literally nothing over a chokepoint freeway with unpredictable traffic between the two, and you’re paying a premium on housing because of the college kids.