Thinking about moving to McMinnville?

[lizwidi]

McMinnville is a GREAT place to live. I think it is a wonderful place to raise children also. We have 3 kids, ages from 1-9, and the schools are fantastic. Religious pressures here aren't going to be any more than any other place, we do have a lot of churches, but people don't push things on you either. Commuting isn't as bad as most make it out to be. If your husband is a realtor he could find work right here in town. The problems with the bigger cities closer to Portland is you get more "colorful" people and drugs. McMinnville isn't as close, we have no gang problem, no graffiti problems, crime is really minimal here. If there is crime it is mostly just bored kids. Utility bills here are cheaper because they are on McMinnville Water & Light which is way cheaper then PGE (Portland General Electric) which the other cities use.. ex. Sherwood. McMinnville is also a historical town and more of a close nit community. We have older homes as well as new homes being built. It is a wonderful place to buy a home because home prices are relatively low compared to closer to Portland. Most people who live here don't commute to work to Portland, if you commute here it is usually to Salem which is the capital, and it only takes about 30 mins. But McMinnville has lots jobs and career opportunities here. I grew up in Albany until i was around 12 and I have lived here ever since. While i am partial to Albany and Corvallis because of my youth, i find that McMinnville is a far better place to raise children. It is quieter, more peaceful, less of the drama and drug. To me it seems like Albany and Corvallis has more of a meth problem. Actually the Oregonian did an article on meth a couple years ago and Lane county had one of the worse problems, aside from the Portland area. My husband and I were looking to open a business a year or so back and we looked into Sherwood. The thing with Sherwood to me is that it seems like such a.. drive thru town, I always worried that soon it would be one of those "connected" towns before long. McMinnville is a little further away but we are considered to be in "wine country" so it really helps with the house values starting to rocket. Hope this helps. And i hope you decide to move here because it truely is one of a kind! Close enough to everything but far enough from everything Oh and someone wrote that 99w runs on the edge of town.. no. Highway 99 is the main street in McMinnville, and it is a major hwy, we also have hwy 18 which is a key hwy to the coast and 99 to Portland and down south to Cali.

[miccallen]

You can expect your daughters to get a more "liberal" education than in Utah. I grew up in Oregon and went to school at BYU. This will make them more well-rounded and help them to have a better love and respect for the environment. So, I would consider it a plus. As long as you instill a good foundation at home they'll be immune to drugs, etc. There are less mormons in Oregon than in Utah, but you won't find too many "jack-mormons" that you have in Utah. There are more mormons in Oregon than in many other places (like Michigan and Alabama where I have also lived.) Some of the larger areas (Hillsboro) have seminary buildings on the school campuses. I'm assuming you are mormon, sorry if I made that assumption incorrectly.

[kimhamblin]

Hi,
Wow, lots of information here for you! Here's my two sense and some links:
Schools: I've heard good things about Mac (slang for McMinnville) schools compared to others in the area. Welcome to McMinnville School District | Achieving Excellence In Education You can read about specific schools and when you're looking for a home, you can look in that school district.
Utities: Mac has a locally controlled utility company, McMinnville Water and Light, McMinnville Water and Light It's interesting to click on rates section and see comparable rates with other cities in the area.
Religion: McMinnville is a fairly conservative town, but that's not altogether bad. Many religions are represented in this area- Mormon, Jehovah, Scientologists + all the regular ones. People here are generally tolerant of many different kinds of people. I'm not super religious and haven't had any bad incidents.
Culture: This was my biggest concern when I chose to move into the area from Portland. I am relieved to tell you that I have found a good scene here. For the size of the city, it has a lot to offer. Some activists in the community are working towards seeing Yamhill County become the hub of arts in Oregon. The Arts Alliance of Yamhill County has some new energy and is at the heart of this push. My art happens to be featured this month!
Drugs: Some of the towns around here do have drug problems- primarily meth- I hear it's getting better. Here's a link to the county sheriff's depart: Yamhill County Sheriff Department Home You can get to Mac's police in the links area. I hear Salem has a bad problem right now.
Traffic: It sucks in the summer going throug Dundee to Portland. You learn ways around it and how to avoid it. It usually takes about 50 mins from Mac to Portland.
Real Estate: I happen to be a Realtor working in McMinnville at Bella Casa Real Estate Group. It's a hard time for real estate everywhere right now, but people still buy and sell houses, it just makes people work harder. I think this market will weed out some tired and poor realtors and ultimately be good for the industry. And, of course, from City data about the averages in McMinnville: http://city-data.com/city/McMinnville-Oregon.html

Hope this helps!
Kim

[kimhamblin]

Looks like I'm too new for links- hope they are useful anyway!

[ryan.!2!]

i am a 18 year old latin kid from mac, i moved to idaho and am mutch happer here,mac has a gang problem and an even bigger meth problem even if some of you may choose to ignor it.
its true there are alot of mexican gangs that came from California, most of my friends were mexican and were in gangs, i rember going to middleschool and hereing about kids getting stabed and jumped and it gets worse in highschool, i did'nt learn about the hispanic gangs on tv or the radio, i lernd it in school and from friends, i had homeboys that were in ms13, sur13, white fence, nort 14, 18th street, latin kings, mexican mafia and thats only what i can think of right now, all well known gangs for Violence and drugs and there in little mac. And the gangs are Supplying the meth, both of my parents were meth heads but thay cleand up and got me the hell out of there befor i became anothere vato on the streets, some of you may Disagree with what i put but i only wroght what i lived through.[/font][/SIZE]
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