Opinions on these areas/neighborhoods? (Eugene, Springfield: rental homes, credit report, daycares)

[SWriverstone]

Hi All:

My wife and I are at 36,000' as I type this, on our way to Eugene to look for a place for our family to live (us and two kids, ages 2 and 4). I've been pouring through rental listings for houses and have been plotting them all on a custom Google map, which I've also drawn the boundaries of the various neighborhoods on. I have some questions for you locals about a few specific areas where I've found nice-looking houses.

VENETA: I think I read in a few other places here that Veneta has "gone downhill" and isn't what it used to be. (I might have even read that it's gotten "bad," whatever that means. Looking at rental homes and Google Street View, I'm finding some REALLY NICE new homes in Veneta---a lot of home for the buck. And the neighborhoods look really nice---clean, well-maintained yards, etc. Is Veneta really an undesirable place to live? (And what's the real-world commute like from there to the UO campus in Eugene?)

BARGER/N. TERRY ST: I read somewhere that this area---outside the Beltline---is much better than inside the Beltline, and I've found a few nice-looking homes for rent there (Cosmoledo St. and Cobblestone Lane). How's this area? (And again, is the commute to the UO campus pretty straightforward? Doable on a bicycle?)

SANTA CLARA: Another neighborhood that seems to get mixed reviews; what do you think? Are homes nicer the closer to River Rd. they are? I've found 3 nice-looking homes on Scenic Drive, Argon Ave, and Santa Clara Ave. How's the commute down River Rd? (Is it a traffic nightmare? Or not bad?)

CHURCHILL: Specifically the area around W. 18th Ave, Churchill Sports Park and Willow Corner City Park---that a reasonably nice area?

SPRINGFIELD/THURSTON AREA: I've found several really nice-looking homes in nice neighborhoods out here (also just south of 126, below Thurston). How's the commute to UO from here?

While I've read that the South Hills are one of the nicer areas in town...they seem to be a desert as far as rental houses go---after scanning hundreds of listings, almost none are in the South Hills (unless I'm just looking in the wrong places?) I found one nice-looking place near Hult City Park on Mahalo Drive...and one on W. 28th Ave, but that's it. Not finding much else at all in that area.

And finally...

JUNCTION CITY and CRESWELL: I know these are commutes, but are they reasonably traffic-free commutes (again, to the UO campus)? I've found a few nice-looking rental houses in Junction City, fewer in Creswell (but haven't looked there much).

Thanks for any advice---we're going to be driving all over the place tomorrow and through the weekend. We know many PM companies won't show homes on the weekend (which just seems stupid to me, since that's when people can actually look at homes!), so our main goal for this trip is to scout neighborhoods and look at the outsides of as many homes as possible (and see if we can get inside any of them).

Scott

EDITED TO ADD: I'm finding that when checking out houses and their surroundings in Google Street View, I'm finding that many (if not most) are pretty nice-looking neighborhoods---yards well-kept, no trash/litter, no cars sitting on cinder blocks in the yard, no broken windows, etc. I've also found a couple streets that look pretty shabby (again, on Google Street View). I guess what I'm wondering is...if a neighborhood looks nice and well-kept, could it still be a haven for drug dealers, robbers, homicidal maniacs, etc? Or if the area looks pretty nice, can I assume it's pretty nice? (In most places, the undesirable parts of town actually *look* undesirable---they're pretty obviously scummy-looking, with run-down houses, tall grass in yards, etc.)

[bler144]

"How bad is traffic" is largely a question of relative badness. It's certainly not on par with commuting into the valley from L.A. but I wouldn't be excited to drive from Santa Clara->UO daily, though I have friends who do just that.

If you were biking in there's a pretty significant difference between being adjacent to River Road and Cosmoledo St because the former lets you jump on the river path, and you can avoid some of the heavier trafficked roads.

The big challenge at the UO is parking. Biking gets you around that (except those days you need a car for a mid-day medical appt, etc), but Churchill is the only one of those areas I'd want to bike from, personally. 18th isn't too bad to bike on, and you can opt for the Amazon Creek path if you prefer (both have pros cons imo).

Coming on River Road, or 11th, or 99/126 those are all going to be congested drives when school is in session, and then you'll almost certainly be competing for parking. It's just a question of how bad it is compared to what you're used to.

Edit - You asked a lot, so I'm still processing. But my gut reaction of all those options is that Churchill would definitely be my first choice of those. It's a pretty nice area, and of those it's going to have the best options for bike or bus without need to transfer at VRC or the downtown station (if you take the 78 bus - the 36 goes downtown).

[SWriverstone]

Thanks bler—I appreciate the info—and feel free to post more as you process it. :-) My initial impression (which granted isn't based on much) is that Eugene is a pretty expensive city to live in, period. Which seems to be in sharp contrast to all the comments about crime, homelessness, drugs, etc. Clearly the less-desirable elements haven't had any impact on rental rates and more. (As another example, I took a quick look at the cost of full-time daycare. Maybe I looked at the most Gucci daycares in town, but I was seeing costs of $1100/month---which literally blew me out of my chair and onto the floor! In Richmond, Virginia, you can send your kid to one of the most elite/best private Episcopal schools for that amount of money. ($600-700/month is more inline with "reality" elsewhere in the nation.)

[bler144]

From the data that I've seen, OR has the highest average childcare costs of any state. As I understand, some of that has to do with the cost of getting licensed. You could look for unlicensed care, certainly, though for understandable reasons you won't see that widely advertised.

Just as you can find unlicensed contractors if you ask around.

From the number you're quoting though, it sounds like you have an infant. It comes down from there as they move to toddler, etc. Preschool age kids will be more in the range of $800/mo.

I believe the childcare offered by the UO is significantly cheaper and high quality (Moss Street) but their waitlist in the past was nigh eternal.

[cobaltking]

Originally Posted by SWriverstone

VENETA: I think I read in a few other places here that Veneta has "gone downhill" and isn't what it used to be ... I'm finding some REALLY NICE new homes in Veneta... (And what's the real-world commute like from there to the UO campus in Eugene?)

I don't think Veneta was ever good, honestly. It's a dumpy hick outpost, and the only good thing about it is that it's closer to the coast. The reason you're seeing nice houses there is this: If you're too poor to be rich in Eugene, you can be rich in Springfield, and if you're too poor to be rich in Springfield... you can be rich in Veneta.
Commuting to the UO would take a while, since campus is on the far east end of town. That, and parking is horrendous.

BARGER/N. TERRY ST: I read somewhere that this area---outside the Beltline---is much better than inside the Beltline

Ok, I think I know what you mean by inside/outside Beltline, and it's kinda true. However, outside of Whiteaker and Trainsong, that is the most 'ghetto' area of town.

SANTA CLARA: Another neighborhood that seems to get mixed reviews; what do you think?... How's the commute down River Rd? (Is it a traffic nightmare? Or not bad?)

I love Santa Clara, personally. However, the closer you get to where River Rd turns into Chambers, the worse it gets (that's where it gets into Trainsong/Whiteaker/4-corners territory... bleughhhh). Traffic is mainly really bad around Beltline.

CHURCHILL: Specifically the area around W. 18th Ave, Churchill Sports Park and Willow Corner City Park---that a reasonably nice area?

The southwest part of town is hit-and-miss. You can definitely find some nice pockets in there, though.

SPRINGFIELD/THURSTON AREA: I've found several really nice-looking homes in nice neighborhoods out here (also just south of 126, below Thurston). How's the commute to UO from here?

The commute from Springfield would be pretty annoying, but much less annoying if you take the EmX which goes right by campus.

While I've read that the South Hills are one of the nicer areas in town...they seem to be a desert as far as rental houses go---

That's pretty much where all the doctors, lawyers and UO professors live. Yes, it is one of the fanciest areas of town (the other being the area north of Crescent Ave on the other side of town). I'd suggest driving around the area and seeing if you can find a sign posted. I'm guessing that since those are nice houses, people don't want to advertise openly and attract rowdy college kids. But who knows.

JUNCTION CITY and CRESWELL: I know these are commutes, but are they reasonably traffic-free commutes (again, to the UO campus)? I've found a few nice-looking rental houses in Junction City, fewer in Creswell (but haven't looked there much).

Both would be bad traffic, but I'd guess that Creswell would be slightly better, since I-5 goes through it, and I-5 exits pretty close to campus. Both are lame hick towns, though... but I'd say better than Veneta.

[cobaltking]

Originally Posted by SWriverstone

Thanks bler—I appreciate the info—and feel free to post more as you process it. :-) My initial impression (which granted isn't based on much) is that Eugene is a pretty expensive city to live in, period.

Astute observation! Eugene is incredibly overpriced for what it is.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

OP, I'm not from the Eugene area and I try to stay away from Eugene. To me, the traffic is bad and the road layout is confusing. For a medium size town, they have big city traffic.

My suggestion is to look in the area of where your job is going to be so that you don't end up commuting across town every day.

If you don't have to work, then I suggest a drive up the McKenzie Highway to look at the small towns along that way.

[SWriverstone]

Hi All:

We've been in Eugene for a couple days now and have driven all over town. Here's what we've seen/experienced so far:

Traffic: Coming from the Mid-Atlantic region of the east coast (Washington, D.C./Baltimore area) the traffic in Eugene is NOT bad. Not by a longshot! I think what's happened here is that people are so spoiled by LACK of traffic that if they get stopped by 1-2 red lights they call it bad traffic! LOL Granted, I know we haven't encountered the worst traffic since all the students aren't back yet (and yes, I know that makes a big difference in a college town). But I still don't think traffic is as bad as folks here think. (Just try living in Northern Virginia, where it can take you an hour to go one mile.)

The "Eugene 3BR/2BA Home": we've found lots of houses that are 3BR/2BA for rent (and a few 4BR houses), and from what we've seen, these bedrooms are TINY. As in 9'x9'. As in, if you put a full bed in one, that's it—no room for anything else! This typically equates to 1000-1200 sq.ft. We've also discovered that rental houses (of this size) are going for (roughly) $1/sq.ft.—or $1100 for 1100 sq.ft. This is unfortunate for us (a family of 4 with a lot of stuff), because we either need 1500-2,000 sq.ft. or a smaller house with a LOT of storage (e.g. a BIG 2-car garage).

Property Management Companies: As mentioned elsewhere many times, it is just poor business that PM companies refuse to work on weekends. Weekends are when people CAN look at houses---not during the week when they work. This is just idiotic. Clearly the PM companies just aren't that interested in renting their properties!

The "Block-to-Block" Thing: I heard that neighborhoods can change dramatically from one block to the next, and we've seen lot of that. For example one side of a street (like 18th) being pretty seedy and sketchy...where the other side of the street is really nice. There are some areas of course that are uniformly nice, but in the SW, NE, and N parts of town things change a lot in very small distances.

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On our first day of looking, we found an AWESOME home that we were actually ready to sign a lease for. (It was on W. 25th Avenue a short distance from Chambers, up in the hills.) We filled out the application, gave the owner credit reports, the whole 9 yards. She assured us the place was ours...then yanked it out from under us and gave it to one her existing tenants somewhere else. (I know, they were a known quantity.)

Then we looked at a home up in the South Hills that was probably the smallest, oldest, most worn-around-the-edges home in an otherwise really nice neighborhood on Mahalo Drive (near Fox Hall). We could have rented it, but (as I mentioned above) we decided in the end it was just too small (9'x9' bedrooms, nowhere near enough storage, etc.).

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So we're about to leave Eugene until I return at the end of the month to start my job at UO. We've found disappointingly few homes for rent in our price range, which is...
• up to $1600/mo
• 1500-2000 sq.ft.
• Within 3-4 miles tops of the UO campus (we don't want a long commute)
• preferably south of 18th

I honestly believe I've found just about every rental house listing on the web, period. I've looked through hundreds of listings on several websites (Craigslist, HotPads, Padmapper, and more).

Right now, we're reconsidering our strategy, and thinking we might just try to find something month-to-month, or make do with a cheaper, smaller home with a 6-month lease...then move to town, put some of our stuff in storage for several months, and see if we can find a long-term house in the spring/summer.

We're going to look at one more house this afternoon (Sunday) being rented by a private owner, that's located on Timberline up in the hills above Churchill high school. It's a possibility, and not too far (an easy commute down 18th).

But otherwise, looks like we'll just have to keep looking.

Scott

[Sherwoody]

This looks nice. Nice 2 story home with garage and yard in South Eugene

[SWriverstone]

Thanks Sherwoody! Yep---we actually met the owner and looked at this yesterday. Good location, but it was a tiny house with very little storage.

It's entirely possibly we're just looking for too much. But we're able to keep looking for at least another month. Don't know how many rental houses will open up in that time, but something might?

We're also considering buying a home (which is clearly how to get the house we want and need)...but even if we do that, it won't happen quickly...so we'll still need someplace to live in the meantime.

Scott