Moving to Bend..buy or rent? (Redmond: for sale, apartments, rental)

[delta07]

Originally Posted by Mkiaod

Wow! Thanks everyone for all the great info! Where is homestead? We prefer older established neighborhoods with large lots. An older home is fine as my husband is a handy man. How do you know which areas of deschutes river woods are good? Is it becoming a better area in general or are there areas to definitely avoid? I've read posts about crime being higher on the east side but haven't heard much about DRW.

Originally Posted by Mkiaod

Also..we can go up to 300,000 just hoping for a miracle with less are there older neighborhoods in good areas you can direct me to. We are open to any of the schools..we will have kids in elementary, jr high and high school.

Older homes with larger lots in your budget will mostly likely mean finding a home on the east side of town or a bit further out of town. Your definition of a larger lot will also help. I live in an older home, in a well established neighborhood, with homes built in the 60s and 70s. I am on the east side of town. Honestly, the higher crime rumors you are hearing are mostly hyperbole. We've been here for almost 6 years and have never had an issue with crime.

I have friends in Deschutes River Woods, and again, crime there really isn't an issue. Much of the crime you hear about in Oregon involves parties that know each other. I would have no issue living anywhere in Bend.

Where are you coming from? Most people that think parts of Bend are full of crime really have never been, or lived, in places where crime is truly an issue.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Originally Posted by Mkiaod

...........Where is homestead? .......... How do you know which areas of deschutes river woods are good? Is it becoming a better area in general .........

To get to Homestead, you go south on brookswood, pass Elk Meadow school and then turn on
poplar st. Poplar is in Homestead and all the gem stone streets north of Poplar and behind Elk meadow school. The houses are all custom built, not tract houses.

After you turn onto Poplar, if you go into the area south of Poplar, those are houses on large lots, same sort of custom built homes, but the streets don't have curbs and sidewalks and the houses are a tiny bit less expensive.

DRW is really easy to tell which are the better areas. They tend to be on the paved roads, the houses will look a lot better and the yards will be neat. There is an area with irrigation water at the end of Baker and on Shoshone rd. That makes a lot of difference in the quality of the neighborhood, more lawns, less dust.

In DRW,there are some very expensive houses on the river. Houses near the highway and on the railroad tracks are cheaper, lots are smaller, lots of rentals, so sometimes not as nice.

There are a few roads in DRW that are unpaved and not maintained. I've seen potholes you could bury a VW in. I don't recommend those streets.

There are a lot of nice properties on the east side, but in that price range, mostly tract housing or else traffic issues. You might want to look in Foxborough, though. sometimes there are some cute Craftsman style homes in there that should be running about $250.000.

There are a couple of smallish poverty looking areas full of rentals on the east side, and I wouldn't buy in those. You can tell just by looking at them that they aren't nice areas. Other than that, the only thing wrong with the east side is that it is tract housing, unless you can spend some money to get into the nice properties on the east side. There are some really nice properties on the east side but they aren't cheap.

[delta07]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

To get to Homestead, you go south on brookswood, pass Elk Meadow school and then turn on
poplar st. Poplar is in Homestead and all the gem stone streets north of Poplar and behind Elk meadow school. The houses are all custom built, not tract houses.

After you turn onto Poplar, if you go into the area south of Poplar, those are houses on large lots, same sort of custom built homes, but the streets don't have curbs and sidewalks and the houses are a tiny bit less expensive.

DRW is really easy to tell which are the better areas. They tend to be on the paved roads, the houses will look a lot better and the yards will be neat. There is an area with irrigation water at the end of Baker and on Shoshone rd. That makes a lot of difference in the quality of the neighborhood, more lawns, less dust.

In DRW,there are some very expensive houses on the river. Houses near the highway and on the railroad tracks are cheaper, lots are smaller, lots of rentals, so sometimes not as nice.

There are a few roads in DRW that are unpaved and not maintained. I've seen potholes you could bury a VW in. I don't recommend those streets.

There are a lot of nice properties on the east side, but in that price range, mostly tract housing or else traffic issues. You might want to look in Foxborough, though. sometimes there are some cute Craftsman style homes in there that should be running about $250.000.

There are a couple of smallish poverty looking areas full of rentals on the east side, and I wouldn't buy in those. You can tell just by looking at them that they aren't nice areas. Other than that, the only thing wrong with the east side is that it is tract housing, unless you can spend some money to get into the nice properties on the east side. There are some really nice properties on the east side but they aren't cheap.

Great info! I never knew about the area of Homestead, although now I realize we actually looked at a home there when we were looking to buy 5 years ago. However, it seems like Homestead might be out of the OP's price range currently. I saw one home at 299,900 and the other couple were in the $350-475K range.

Unfortunately, in the OP's price range $250-300K, tract homes are the most likely home in their budget (or modulars). I didn't see anything that said they didn't want a tract home, just a large lot. My home is definitely a tract home from the 70s, but homes were built much better than the stuff they are building today. So, just something to consider. I am in the Orchard District neighborhood.

[mrwibble]

Originally Posted by delta07

Unfortunately, in the OP's price range $250-300K, tract homes are the most likely home in their budget

Looking on Zillow for 3+ bed houses with minimum lot size of 0.5 acres, and no manufactured homes, brought up 36 results. They are out there, but the number of them is dwindling.

I see those new Horton houses near 3rd / Reed Market are going at $230K now. Ouch.

[redguard57]

Meth use is pretty bad in Central Oregon. There's also some vandalism and petty crime, like car break-ins, in certain neighborhoods. A lot of that kind of crime seems to center around that area off of 3rd where those dingy motels are. A few months ago, the fence nearby my complex was tagged. We also seem to have an increasing homeless & vagrancy problem.

More aggressive crime like aggravated assault or murders are quite rare, however.

[redguard57]

300K will get you something adequate.

425 will get you something quite nice, but 300K is more than enough.

[NWbyNW]

If you plan on living in Bend for a long time, it is almost always better to BUY a home and earn equity. Renting is tossing money away into something that you can't earn money on when trying to sell it. When you rent, you can't sell.

[Mkiaod]

Thanks so much for all of your thoughts and ideas. Very helpful! We are excited to make a trip again next month to look around some more. This info will all be very helpful!

[Mkiaod]

What can you tell me about the neighborhood off tumalo rd...I think it's called starwood? might be further out than we want but it seems like houses are affordable there and on at least 1/3 acrea. Seems like the houses I've seen are no longer on the market. Just curious if it's an option you'd recommend. I think it's still bend schools.

[skypros]

6 moths ago I asked my Realtor about a home in Starwood, And would of put an offer in on it...... But there was a semi-high HOA fees there (if memory serves me... It was about $280 per 3 months) and for that $ you really didn't get much (other than have a heavy handed HOA).

All that being said, I would go check it out.... I think it is a nice area (South of Tumalo Rd around Gift Rd). The area to the north is Whispering Pines... and my realtor told me to STAY AWAY from that area it is known as Meth Mountain, Billy Goat Hill