Places in Oregon?

[amelia]

I'll be taking a road trip in that direction soon, and could use some ideas for potential homestead sites to visit. Would love to be surrounded by mountains; a partly-treed, partly meadowed landscape would be nice. Reasonable proximity to a town center. Four seasons, friendly down-to-earth people, good values, cohesive community. Any ideas?

[SkizzlePig]

I would recommend Douglas county or, maybe, Josephine county. I know Douglas is friendly to farming types. Roseburg (in Douglas county) is very cohesive. Good, old fashioned family values. Stay outta my business and I'll stay outta yours.

It's Southern Oregon ... Zone 8, I believe.

Good luck!

[thedonkeyman]

South West of Grants Pass.....on the Applegate River.
Well worth a road trip. Stop at the small stores up the valley and talk to the locals. Check out Jefferson, and old western town.
Get a Saddle Donkey and ride the country, the folks will come to you.
thedonkeyman happy trails........>>>>

[cougkid]

I recently moved from Portland "across the river" to Clark County in Washington State. I'm close to Portland, about 2.5 hours from Seattle, and no income tax (9% in Oregon).

[wyld thang]

haha but oregon has no sales tax ;0)

there's lots of great places in oregon, maybe if you narrowed down what you're looking for in a "town center" that would help--like do you want access to the big city(portland), or more like basic services and night life/"culture" (ashland/medford, bend).

jefferson is cool! Dont' forget the wallowa mountains or blue mountains either.

good luck!

[roughingit]

We're full! Try Washington

[mayfair]

Washington's pretty full, but come on over- there's always room for homesteaders. The east side is less crowded.

[Cara]

I was thinking along the same lines as roughinit....but held my tongue

Seriously, south western Oregon from Cottage Grove south is just what you're asking for. Property is pricey...be prepared.

[DocM]

KFalls area still has some reasonably priced property.

[Lizza]

Try Wallowa, it is on my list to visit. We were suppose to go last fall but it fell through, hopefully will be visiting this spring. I've got lots of links if you want. It really isn't close to any "big" cities though like Portland and really much closer to Idaho. How close to a bigger city do you want to be?

[DocM]

I live within 50 minutes of dt Portland. There is no reasonably priced property around here. On the other hand, I plan to sell my homestead next year for about $500K, heh heh, lots of californians moving into this area, with cash. Wallowas are nice, but when I was there looking at property, very spendy, from Asotin area to baker, any area with good water and trees was huge premium. North of spokane is nice too.

[CindyOR]

All I can say is stay away from Lane County. It is the county I live in and it is the yuppiest county of them all except up in the Portland area, where there are a few more "less than friendly to farming" counties.

If you want solitude, southern Oregon is the place to be. Beautiful wild country, semi-reasonable prices still. However, the pay off is smaller medical facilities, smaller airport=higher ticket pricing, smaller cities. On a good note, you have all the recreation the Rogue River can throw at you and outstanding natural settings.

Anything from Lane County north and you will pay a premium on your property. Prices here have become unreasonable. There is 10 acres up on the mountain across from me with a very old single wide trailer on it - $147,000 - and it is 20 miles east of Springfield. That price would be considered very low. The property is all forestry on a mountain, clay & rock soils.

Roseburg, in Douglas County, is a growing area. They seem to be still in to farming also.

In Lane County, when they have the home & garden show it is more for those remodeling their $400,000 home - granite countertops, little storage building things, builders etc, but nothing on farm equipment, barn, animal stuff or anything like that. The county north of us is Linn County, which is still very agricultural, so we go to the Linn County home & garden show instead and it is so different from Lane Counties.

If you want rural and pretty reasonable land prices southern Oregon is the place to go for the most part.

Cindy M

[Crystal H]

What are you looking for? I thought we only had 3 seasons here. We have had some sun, showers, and flooding but this year SNOW for over a week. It's just about all gone now. I have a friend selling her Dairy. The House "next door" is also for sale. a Manufactured home on 2.5 acres with shope and smoke house and +/- 200 feet of riverfront. For 289.000 It's only 5 miles to town. Tillamook is gorgeous is you like the rain... and smellin our dairy air.

[Lizza]

Amen to that!! A fellow Lane County resident. I would never buy in this county again, nothing but headaches, and the politics are ridiculous and I'm a pretty liberal person!

The prices here are also very expensive (about a half hour from downtown Eugene). Across the street from me is 80 acres for 1.2 million (with home and barns). It's been for sale for about a year though, we'll see if it sells. I think they sold their manufactured home and 40 acres for around 400K but not sure, they had the whole thing listed for 1.6 and then sold off the 40 acres.

Originally Posted by CindyOR

All I can say is stay away from Lane County.Cindy M

[Wags]

We moved up to Linn County from Josephine County two years ago. Prices anywhere close to Grants Pass are out of sight thanks to a massive amount of californicators moving in! But property taxes were a about half what we are paying up here.

The Roseburg area isn't too bad, but you really have to get out of the I-5 corridor and away from the Bend area in central to find reasonable prices. Sweet Home still has some reasonable properties and it is a nice clean little town - pop about 8,500. No jobs to speak of - but its only 15 miles from the new Lowes distributioin center in Lebanon that is set to open this fall. So there will be decent paying jobs in the area and prices will start to go up pretty soon.

Check out this link for an idea on real estate prices and whats available: http://www.realtor.com

[Outlaw9]

I used to work at a dude ranch in Adams Oregon Near Pendleton. There was a Indian reservation there I believe it was the Umatilla. Anyways it was in the mountains I believe they where called the blue mountains. One side was wooded then the other side would be grassy very beautiful place. I hope to make it back one day.

[betty modin]

I say, take a drive up the I 5 corridor. Stop at any 'urban' area you like and take a look at a real estate magazine...that's a good start. Unlike others here, I have enjoyed my three plus years in Lane County-but I'm from California...so what would I know about lovely land, great trees, wonderful mountains, good water, tolerable weather, and great neighbors? I live in the Cascades about an hour or so from Eugene and I'm so glad I found this place. It is pricey to some, but land costs what people who want to live there will pay for it. I am happy with my little two acreas in the mountains and don't feel that taxes or prices are too high. It's what I was looking for, and I buy good services with my property taxes. The area south is too isolated for me, north too crowded, and east of the Cascade range has pretty extreme weather for my taste. The coast is very rugged and I really have a problem with the high winds and low temperatures. However, the area around Coos Bay is very nice and I spent several days there looking at property before I came here. I have a good friend from high school days who found exactly what she was looking for in the area around Portland. They absolutely love their place and are able to work from home so commuting in the traffic isn't a problem. Hope you find what you seek...it took me several years of searching and I hadn't planned on leaving California, but here I am! I guess what I'm trying to say is that your dream won't necessarily match someone else's dream, so go looking for your dream with an open heart and mind. If everyone's dream was the same, the world would be a very boring place. betty

[joaniebalonie]

i grew up in portland; worked downtown early 70's. moved east, to gresham when it was 10,000 population. bought an old farmhouse in the (then) sticks. went farther out to estacada when that became too busy. when i lived there people always said it's sooo beautiful and green. yea, the beach was close but there were very few times that it wasn't raining (and i had access to a house whenever i wanted so it wasn't a hit and miss thing). lotsa ferns, moss, fish (i lived on a river), but talk about cold and dismal. although i've heard in the last few years summer temps that i'd never seen in my years in that state. had a summer place in the wallowas too; beautiful but it is/was a small tourist type town. wonderful for that. portland and surrounding areas have grown so much, west linn, clackamas, eugene, k falls, grant pants (ha, that's what we used to call it). and we actually had bumper stickers that said californians go home because we wanted to keep it, well, smaller. anyway, i like definate seasons; hot hot cold cold. my contacts there don't say that it's hugely different. i still have relatives just over the line into washington. i myself wouldn't move back but to each his own. i think climate and the type of land that you want to buy are paramount. the towns will change but if you've got your own space, that's what counts.

[SilverVista]

Who said something up there about three seasons??? I thought we had two --- summer and mud.

We're 20 miles east of Salem and 50 miles south of Portland -- virtually nothing that we could want (except relatives) is more than a 45 minute to hour drive, and the essentials are within minutes. Prices have skyrocketed in the last 15 years though. Our neighbor has 5 landlocked acres and a 70-year old house with a wood foundation. He paid $68,000 cash 15 years ago, turned down $350,000 last summer. Don't even want to know what my 32 view acres is worth, I intend to stay here till I'm carried off!

[LMonty]

Move to Arkansas! The Ozarks have all that youre looking for and are affordable.