Young family maybe moving to Bend, need info before deciding, Please! (Portland: for rent, condos)

[blue412]

My DH has a job interview very soon in Bend. I really would like to go with him to check out the area. We are coming from the Northeast so it will be a big change for us. We have two young children, a 5 year old and 3 month old. I can find sitters for the 5 year old but the baby will have to come along. We will be coming back from Florida just 2 days before if I choose to head out to Bend. I am really not sure if Bend is the right place for us. Taking a baby on 2 plane rides back to back by myself is not something I really want to do, especially if Bend is not our ideal place.
The basics: I have visited Portland and Eugene. Lived in Denver.

Weather For some reason I had this misconception that Bend is not so cold in the winter and pretty dry and had a very long growing season. But since I have been reading online as much as I can on Bend, I am thinking winters are long and dreary with lots of snow? I was hoping for some updated data. Winter here for me in the Northeast has been very little snow and abnormally high temps and about the same last year. Basically we could do without the months of below freezing temps. (Speaking of the years prior to the abnormal temps from the two previous).

Will I be able to garden? I would like to have a vegetable garden but again from what I was reading summer is not long enough and it frosts alot?

Housing I live in a small city about the same population as Bend. There is mostly older homes in the city and some newer condos that pop up in any space available. Surrounding us are suburban areas with both older and newer subdivisions and farms. Just as a side note, my idea of a new subdivision is 90's to present. I really like that my house was built in 1950's and I live surrounded by houses from 1910-1960s.
I seem to only see houses on the Bend craigslist in newer subdivisions, a scattering of condos downtown and a sprinkle of homes from the 70s.

Are there older neighborhoods with older homes in Bend or close to it? Do they even have them for rent or buy?
I would love to live in an area with sidewalks, parks, shops and an elementary school near by. Does such a place exist that isn't in a gated community or new subdivision?

Sorry for babbling on but these questions are keeping me up at night!

[Bendite]

Originally Posted by blue412

My DH has a job interview very soon in Bend. I really would like to go with him to check out the area. We are coming from the Northeast so it will be a big change for us. We have two young children, a 5 year old and 3 month old. I can find sitters for the 5 year old but the baby will have to come along. We will be coming back from Florida just 2 days before if I choose to head out to Bend. I am really not sure if Bend is the right place for us. Taking a baby on 2 plane rides back to back by myself is not something I really want to do, especially if Bend is not our ideal place.
The basics: I have visited Portland and Eugene. Lived in Denver.

Closest weather comparison is Denver. The worst season in my opinion is spring which can be blustery, cold, rainy and sometimes snowy (like today it is windy and there are snow flurries and it is quite chilly). Summers and falls are gorgeous -lots of sun and usually little moisture, cools down at night because it is high desert. Fall lasts well into early November. Winters are warmer than Denver and the snow not usually as heavy. Though the mountains get lots, we in Bend really don't. Main difference with Denver winterwise is that it snows here in the morning and often will rain in the afternoons. Many days it is sunny even though cold. We are just getting out of a La Nina trend (3 years worth) so it should be drier for the next couple of years

Weather For some reason I had this misconception that Bend is not so cold in the winter and pretty dry and had a very long growing season. But since I have been reading online as much as I can on Bend, I am thinking winters are long and dreary with lots of snow? I was hoping for some updated data. Winter here for me in the Northeast has been very little snow and abnormally high temps and about the same last year. Basically we could do without the months of below freezing temps. (Speaking of the years prior to the abnormal temps from the two previous).

Will I be able to garden? I would like to have a vegetable garden but again from what I was reading summer is not long enough and it frosts alot?

People garden here though the growing season can be short. Plant with protection the early weeks and you should be successful except with plants that take several months to develop Many garden here quite successfully.

Housing I live in a small city about the same population as Bend. There is mostly older homes in the city and some newer condos that pop up in any space available. Surrounding us are suburban areas with both older and newer subdivisions and farms. Just as a side note, my idea of a new subdivision is 90's to present. I really like that my house was built in 1950's and I live surrounded by houses from 1910-1960s.
I seem to only see houses on the Bend craigslist in newer subdivisions, a scattering of condos downtown and a sprinkle of homes from the 70s.

Are there older neighborhoods with older homes in Bend or close to it? Do they even have them for rent or buy?
I would love to live in an area with sidewalks, parks, shops and an elementary school near by. Does such a place exist that isn't in a gated community or new subdivision?

Bend has a logging town history and old here is more 1910s & 20s than really really old. There are some beautiful older areas of town. You should look around Hollinshead Park in NE Bend (north of Penn Street). Also, an area south of downtown both east and west of the Deschutes River around Galveston and Tumalo Aves. There are a number of parks along the river but some of those homes are very expensive. Also north of Newport on the NW side of Bend around Hillside Park (area has sidewalks, schools, shops). Caution: some older small cottages are protected and cannot be changed or enlarged without permission, so always check.

Sorry for babbling on but these questions are keeping me up at night!

Go to some realtor sites not craigslist to see some older neighborhoods

[blue412]

Thanks Bendite, I really appreciate the time you took to respond to my post.

[whirnot]

We are looking to move to Bend in three years, so have been watching the weather quite a bit, The winter weather appears to be about the same as Denver except less snow. The spring comes later.
As far as gardeneing you will need either a green house or hoop houses, the growing season appears to be on par with Colorado mountain towns.

The late summer seems to be really nice, with a lot less heat, but lots of sun.
That is our comparison based on the last 2 years.

[davemess10]

Originally Posted by whirnot

We are looking to move to Bend in three years, so have been watching the weather quite a bit, The winter weather appears to be about the same as Denver except less snow.

similar but with more cloud cover.

[blue412]

I'm curious as to why Redmond housing is so much more affordable?

[Dry Side]

Smaller population, fewer jobs, less desirable scenery.

[delta07]

Originally Posted by blue412

My DH has a job interview very soon in Bend. I really would like to go with him to check out the area. We are coming from the Northeast so it will be a big change for us. We have two young children, a 5 year old and 3 month old. I can find sitters for the 5 year old but the baby will have to come along. We will be coming back from Florida just 2 days before if I choose to head out to Bend. I am really not sure if Bend is the right place for us. Taking a baby on 2 plane rides back to back by myself is not something I really want to do, especially if Bend is not our ideal place.
The basics: I have visited Portland and Eugene. Lived in Denver.

Weather For some reason I had this misconception that Bend is not so cold in the winter and pretty dry and had a very long growing season. But since I have been reading online as much as I can on Bend, I am thinking winters are long and dreary with lots of snow? I was hoping for some updated data. Winter here for me in the Northeast has been very little snow and abnormally high temps and about the same last year. Basically we could do without the months of below freezing temps. (Speaking of the years prior to the abnormal temps from the two previous).

Will I be able to garden? I would like to have a vegetable garden but again from what I was reading summer is not long enough and it frosts alot?

Housing I live in a small city about the same population as Bend. There is mostly older homes in the city and some newer condos that pop up in any space available. Surrounding us are suburban areas with both older and newer subdivisions and farms. Just as a side note, my idea of a new subdivision is 90's to present. I really like that my house was built in 1950's and I live surrounded by houses from 1910-1960s.
I seem to only see houses on the Bend craigslist in newer subdivisions, a scattering of condos downtown and a sprinkle of homes from the 70s.

Are there older neighborhoods with older homes in Bend or close to it? Do they even have them for rent or buy?
I would love to live in an area with sidewalks, parks, shops and an elementary school near by. Does such a place exist that isn't in a gated community or new subdivision?

Sorry for babbling on but these questions are keeping me up at night!

I'm not sure where you are in the northeast, so that may determine how you can fair the winters here in Bend. It's definitely not at all as you had pictured, but it seems you've figured that out. The winter's in Bend remind me of the winter's I spent living in Fairplay, CO without as much sun (if you're familiar with it at all). It's definitely a mountain climate, even though I didn't really recognize that before I moved here. This winter has actually been rather sunny compared with the last 3 I've experienced. Spring is probably the hardest month, IMO, as it's still pretty cool and winter like compared with many other parts of the country. So far, March and April have been pretty overcast, cloudy, rainy and snowy.

In terms of gardening, it's a real challenge! Again, it's like living up in the mountains of Colorado, where you wouldn't really think about gardening. I have had an extensive garden in the past, but they required hoop houses to protect the plants, even on an occasional July or August night. This year I've decided to not spend so much time attempting to garden, as I've never managed to have a really great return on all my efforts. I will plant cool weather crops, but probably won't do much in the way of tomatoes, peppers, and all the plants that require longer than a two month growing season. I also live in one of Bend's many microclimates that's "conducive" to gardening, and I use that loosely! I took a gardening class last winter from an OSU Master Gardener, and she stated Bend truly has only 9 frost free days. Couple that with our low summer night time temps, and she said that you have to add 14 days to your days to maturation for all your crops. So, planting in mid-June, because usually that's when it stops freezing most nights, I wasn't getting tomatoes until August unless I covered them every night. It's a ton of work!

Bend has all sorts of neighborhoods that meet your needs. I happen to live in an older neighborhood with mature vegetation and homes that were built in the 60s and 70s. I really like it.