Good place to live in oregon for young families (Portland: real estate, low crime)

[adharvey]

Hi, My husband and I are looking to relocate to Oregon within the next two years, we are wanting to find a suburb that is thriving and growing, has affordable housing, and where there are lots of young families. I hope some of you can help me out with some town suggestions. Thanks!

[Silverfall]

How do you define affordable and what sized city are you looking for?

[adharvey]

Probably a city no smaller then 20,000 people. And with housing I would not want to pay more then 215,000 for a three bedroom medium sized home.

[davefr]

Do you need to work or are you independant? That will make a huge difference.

[Silverfall]

That doesn't leave too many cities. I'm thinking Salem-Keizer might be the only one that meets that criteria. We are growing, not sure I'd call us thriving, and we are revitalizing here, but have a ways to go.

I pulled Corvallis and there are two homes listed that are 3 bedrooms, medium sized and less than $215. Not sure where Eugene real estate prices are. I'm not sure you could get anything in the Portland area either.

[adharvey]

Originally Posted by davefr

Do you need to work or are you independant? That will make a huge difference.

we are self employed so that is not a factor.

[adharvey]

Originally Posted by Silverfall

That doesn't leave too many cities. I'm thinking Salem-Keizer might be the only one that meets that criteria. We are growing, not sure I'd call us thriving, and we are revitalizing here, but have a ways to go.

I pulled Corvallis and there are two homes listed that are 3 bedrooms, medium sized and less than $215. Not sure where Eugene real estate prices are. I'm not sure you could get anything in the Portland area either.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have looked a little in Salem-Keizer area. We are visiting in June. I think I will have a better idea of what we want when we get there.

[davefr]

Originally Posted by adharvey

we are self employed so that is not a factor.

Sherwood comes pretty close to that criteria. It's been growing and seems to have a lot of younger families. Property prices are lower since it's on the outer fringe of the commuting area.

Commuting would be pure hell, but for someone that's self employed you have a nice community with good shopping but you're also within a 60 minute radius of Portland.

Forest Grove might also be a good choice for many of the same reasons.

Other cities that come to mind would be Roseburg, Klamath Falls, Grants Pass/Medford but I wouldn't classify them as thriving with young families. In fact nothing in Oregon is thriving!!

You should consider other states too. Louisville, Colorado comes pretty close to your description.

[siikanen]

Oregon may be a good place to live, but it is changing. High unemployment and low wages are the average for southern oregon. Because of the economic problems School are cutting back on what they do offer and that is sorry at best. The whole state has changed so much that I question what will be the result.

This is a beatiful area, with lots of wilderness and places to see. However the economic situatios is dismal at best. The statistics I could tell you would make things look bad. Having been born and raised here and seeing what is happing with this country, things are worse than the government would have you believe.

[Gotwine?]

We have been looking at two states to move to, one was Oregon, the other was Ohio. For jobs as in my freind being a copier tech for Ricoh and me, a video editor that can work at any video editing job, would one recommend over the other? Also, low crime, living in the country and lots of recreation are important to us. Weather does not matter! We do love four seasons, though. And snow!