Primarily built in the early 1950s around McClellan Air Force Base, offering hidden gem restaurants and bakeries.
Originally built to support McClellan Air Force Base, North Highlands consists of mostly post war ranch style homes. One of the only nearby areas where you can live on a hill, North Highlands features a wide variety of hidden gem restaurants and bakeries.
Joseph Olson · on North Highlands
Every active listing in North Highlands, updated hourly. See one you like? Call me and I’ll tell you what the photos leave out.
An unincorporated community of about 49,000 people north of Sacramento, built in the early 1950s for workers at McClellan Air Force Base, with some of the most affordable single-family homes in the area.
North Highlands is an unincorporated community in Sacramento County, about 8.8 square miles in ZIP code 95660. Watt Avenue, Elkhorn Boulevard and Walerga Road are its main streets, and the former McClellan Air Force Base, now McClellan Park, is next door.
Caltrans’ history of California tract housing notes that more than 3,000 houses went up in North Highlands in the early 1950s as McClellan Air Force Base grew during the Korean War. The base had opened in 1936 as the Sacramento Air Depot and was renamed McClellan Field in 1939, and at its peak it employed up to 26,000 people.
The base’s closure was announced in 1995 and it shut down in 2001, a blow the neighborhood felt for years. The base has since been redeveloped as McClellan Park, a business park whose growth has brought jobs back next door.
Most homes are single-story tract houses from the early 1950s, often around 1,200 to 1,300 square feet, on curving streets with long blocks and no alleys.
Redfin’s median sale price for the 95660 ZIP code was $393,000 for the three months ending August 2026, down 3.1% from a year earlier, with homes taking about 24 days to sell.
North Highlands is in the Twin Rivers Unified School District, formed in 2008 through a merger of local districts. Highlands High School (6601 Guthrie Way) is the neighborhood’s high school. Check the assigned schools for a specific address with Twin Rivers Unified.
Interstate 80 and Watt Avenue connect North Highlands to the rest of the region. SacRT’s Blue Line light rail stops at the Watt/I-80 and Roseville Road stations, so downtown is reachable without a car.
The North Highlands Recreation and Park District runs 13 parks, including Larchmont Park, Memorial Park with its disc golf course, Karl Rosario, Strizek and Ruth Inman parks. Watt Avenue is home to several international grocers, including Emmanuel Food & Produce and Moscow Euro Market.
The park district hosts Celebrate North Highlands each September and a Halloween Extravaganza each October at the Kay F. Dahill Community Center.
Facts checked October 2026. Sources: Wikipedia · Caltrans, Tract Housing in California 1945–1973 · McClellan Park history · Redfin, 95660 · North Highlands Recreation and Park District · SacRT stations · Highlands High School
Lou’s Drive-In has been serving burgers on Watt Avenue since 1958, and its own sign-off still says so: “Serving North Highlands since 1958.” It is a classic drive-in with no drive-thru, known for affordable burgers and drive-in fare.
In 2023 Lou’s nearly closed after a dispute over its lease, with a final day set for October 28. Instead, the owners bought the building and kept it open, a reversal local TV news covered. Lou’s has since added a second location in Roseville, but the original is still open on Watt Avenue.
The North Highlands Recreation and Park District is run from 6040 Watt Avenue, home of the Kay F. Dahill Community Center, and the district is the neighborhood’s main organizer of community life. It manages 13 parks and the Baker-Rivas Aquatic Complex, which offers free family swim in summer.
The community center has a stage and a full kitchen and is available to rent, and it hosts events like the October Halloween Extravaganza, along with seasonal dances and workshops. Each September the district also puts on Celebrate North Highlands, a community festival at nearby Freedom Park.
Highlands High School, home of the Scots, is North Highlands’ public high school. It is part of Twin Rivers Unified School District and serves about 800 students in grades 9 through 12.
Twin Rivers Unified publishes its programs and attendance boundaries.
North Highlands is an unincorporated community in Sacramento County, not part of the city of Sacramento. Its ZIP code is 95660.
More than 3,000 homes were built there in the early 1950s to house workers at the growing McClellan Air Force Base.
McClellan’s closure was announced in 1995 and the base closed in 2001. It is now McClellan Park, a business park.
Redfin’s median sale price for ZIP code 95660 was $393,000 for the three months ending August 2026.
Twin Rivers Unified. Highlands High School on Guthrie Way is the neighborhood high school.
Yes. SacRT’s Blue Line stops at the Watt/I-80 and Roseville Road stations.
Arden-ArcadeNever far from anything: shopping, dining, recreation. Starter homes all the way up to grand estates.
CarmichaelSuburban, close to nature. Room for an RV or a boat, and mid-century modern pockets.
Rancho CordovaA hike in the morning, lunch at KP International Market, and a drive-in movie at night.
Tell me what you’re looking for. I’ll tell you what it’s really like to live in North Highlands, and which streets I’d look at first.
“The best part of this job is helping people on a human level.”Joseph Olson