2026 Top Cities by Best Appreciation in El Dorado County

Keywords: Highway 50 Corridor, Sierra Foothills, Planned Community

Cameron Park sits in the Sierra foothills on Highway 50 in El Dorado County, about thirty miles east of Sacramento, with the road to Lake Tahoe continuing up the grade. El Dorado Hills is the next town toward the valley and Shingle Springs the next one up the grade. Developer Larry Cameron laid the ... See Full Page

Keywords: Highway 50 Foothills, Gold Country Gateway, Miwok Heritage

Shingle Springs is where Highway 50 first starts to feel like Gold Country, with the valley's grass giving way to oaks right around the exits. Placerville is less than 15 miles farther up the road, so this is the natural first stop on the foothill drive toward Tahoe. The name describes the first bu ... See Full Page

El Dorado Hills neighborhoods ranked by appreciation

Keywords: Highway 49, State Recreation Area, Gold Country

Auburn Lake Trails sits in the gold country foothills of El Dorado County, on a stretch of Highway 49 that runs between Auburn to the north and Placerville to the south. Much of the canyon country around it belongs to Auburn State Recreation Area, which follows the North and Middle Forks of the Amer ... See Full Page

Keywords: Missouri Flat Road, Gold Country History, Highway 49 Foothills

Highway 49 and Missouri Flat Road are the two roads that locate Diamond Springs, a foothill community just south of Placerville that stretches over a good deal of country for a town its size. It began as a mining camp in 1848 and took its name from the clear springs there, and State Parks lists it a ... See Full Page

Keywords: Hangtown History, Highway 50 Gateway, Foothill Wine Country

Placerville sits at the crossing of US 50 and State Route 49, about 1,800 feet up in the Sierra foothills, on the long road between Sacramento and South Lake Tahoe. In Gold Rush days it went by Hangtown, and the nickname survives on shop signs and menus all over town. The city is small, which is why ... See Full Page

Keywords: Apple Hill Orchards, Camino Hotel, Highway 50 Corridor

Camino sits on US 50 about halfway between the Sacramento Valley and South Lake Tahoe, right where the foothills turn into mountains. The name means path in Spanish, and logging built the settlement, with a lumber company running a cable tramway and a railway down to Placerville. That past explains ... See Full Page

Keywords: Grizzly Flats Rebuild, Pioneer Fire District, Sierra Gold Camp

Grizzly Flats is a mountain community southeast of Camino, high enough, at nearly 4,000 feet, for cool summers and winter snow. It began as a gold camp in the 1850s, and the name comes from a grizzly bear that wandered into a mining camp looking for food. Fire struck early too, in 1866 and again in ... See Full Page

Keywords: El Dorado Mountains, Sierra Timber Town, Pony Express History

Pollock Pines holds the high ground along Highway 50 in El Dorado County, beyond Placerville and well on the way up toward Lake Tahoe. Timber is what the town grew from, and the name belongs to a sawmill operator who ended up subdividing land. Houseberry divides it into two neighborhoods. Pollock P ... See Full Page

Keywords: Georgetown Divide, Mother Lode Town, Gold Rush Main

Georgetown is a Gold Country town on the pine ridge locals call the Divide, in the northern part of El Dorado County. Miners founded it in 1849 as a camp nicknamed Growlersburg, after the way heavy gold nuggets supposedly rumbled in their pans, and a fire in 1852 pushed the settlement from its canyo ... See Full Page

South Lake Tahoe neighborhoods ranked by appreciation

Tahoma neighborhoods ranked by appreciation