looking into relocating to Roseburg (Green, Winston: realty, housing, rent)

[snb3]

Originally Posted by Clear2land

Obviously, you saw my pictures. We were mostly interested in newer homes. There are a lot of older established streets with nice homes in Roseburg. How well your home is kept has something to do with price. Home in the $250,000 range and up are bigger nicer and newer than those in the $150,000 range. Personally, I would not buy a $150,000 home that is only worth $60,000 in my estimation if that. My aunt lives in a nicer area on a good street of well kept homes. Here, let me help you out a bit more. Call Brenda Major at Century 21 in Roseburg toll free at 1-800-982-3497. I stopped in to talk to her and she was most helpful. Tell her what you are looking for and she can email you listings in the area that could be of interest to you.

Dan

Don't tell me the photos of homes you sent me are $250k!!!. Those homes in the photos appear to run about $350k-$450k in my estimation.

[Steve97415]

Originally Posted by snb3

Hey Dan,
I've been looking @ some homes available based on the link you sent me a while back. In most of Oregon, it appears your choices are either a new home built in a new subdivision or an older Craftsman era-type home with a chain link fence and/or dirt roads in need of repair. I don't seem to find many homes available that are of relative middle age (ie 60s to 80s) in a well kept & established neighborhood which are common were I grew up (Orange Co, LA valley areas). Additionally, older homes in good cond seems to be on an acreage. Is this somewhat accurate or am I missing something?

thanks again.

I would encourage you to re-evaluate your vintage preferences. A Craftman in need of repair -- if the foundation is sound -- is a better platform for renovation than most houses built during the 60's to 80's housing boom. Such homes were typically erected in what was effectively a mass-production effort of building homes quickly and cheaply. Only those built after 1984 or so are likely to be constructed with an eye toward energy efficiency. They may be every bit as much in need of renovation, even if in good repair, as the older homes. These are broad generalizations and each house needs to be evaluated on its own merits, but I would look for homes built either before '55 or after '84. There were a lot of artless ranch-style homes built in between.
The fact that Craftsman houses are available in Roseburg should be counted as another factor in the city's favor. I wouldn't so easily pass up the opportunity to latch on to one. Those homes would go for > 400k if located in Portland. I suppose generational preferences may enter in as well. Those born before WWII probably don't share in the current rage over Craftman-style homes. I know that to my FIL, for example, they are just "old houses...like the one I grew up in".

[snb3]

I'm not knocking older homes at all. My current Craftsman style home was built in 1908. When we were going thru construction during an add-on, I saw the differences in material and construction style of the older home. Needless to say, in many ways, older is better. Just looking @ the quality of the wood, the older, slow-growth timber is many times stronger and doesn't splinter nearly as easily. My builder used as much of the old wood as possible. I actually prefer plaster walls over drywalls. The only thing that I definitly like in new homes is the solid foundations.
Its just I'd rather not live through another renovation in progress. Its pretty stressfull to live in a house thats being worked on. With plans a for a baby in the near future, I know thats not gonna happen.
Now, a completely renovated older home in a well maintained neighborhood, I'm there. I love the details older homes have built in along with the usual large yards and porches.

[jvorn]

I read that Roseberg has the lowest wind of any city. Does anyone know if that means air pollution? I see rt 5 runs through it so I'm wondering.

thanks Joan

[Clear2land]

JVORN, the short answer to your question is no. The city is not large enough to create pollution. Smoke from a forest fire could hang in the area but that is rare. Because mountains surround Roseburg, fog tends to take awhile to lift. Other than that, the skies are blue in Roseburg.

Dan

[gonbck2cali]

After reading all these posts regarding the city of Roseburg OR, I would like to add just a little. We moved to the Roseburg area and purchased a business as well a little over 8 months ago. This is what we have experienced here. The people in this State hate "outsiders" especially if you are from California. (God forbid we bring a little money to the community or raise our neighbor’s property values). There is no way to survive financially here. The general public has little disposable income, if any. We thought the California educational system was bad until we moved to Oregon. I have never heard the English language slaughtered so badly as I have in the last 8 months. The dining is atrocious; the portions are disgustingly huge and usually deep-fried (which may explain the obesity problem in Oregon). "Pride of Ownership" does not exist here. You will undoubtedly find at least one blue tarp roof per block as well as not just one broken down car, but usually 3-5 in the front yard. People seem to not be aware of the fact that there is a dump here......and it's FREE. But hey, if yer a beer bellied jesus fearin right wing war hero that shoots any animal that moves, you're IN!

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by tacomagreentea

What is this town like? Is it a good place to raise a young family?

I don't live in Roseburg, but I work there. The town has its high points and low points, but I meet plenty of people who live in Roseburg because they are raising a family.

The town itself has a population of about 21,000. That's on a weekend. 8-5, Monday through Friday, the population of the town is about 60,000. Most people do what I do, living outside of town and commuting in for work.

In many cases, the commute is not all that long. One person mentioned growing up on Clover Avenue. Clover takes off from NE Stephens St. near Les Schwab. You would think Clover is in the city, but it is not. Clover has still not been annexed into the city, and probably never will be. The streets and utilities are substandard, and the residents have not maintained them. In the same general area at the city limits, Vine Street turns into a gravelled pothole that you need a pickup to negotiate. The homeowners would have to pay to build a standard street, and they don't have the money. The city can't afford to build a whole neighborhood full of streets, so there it has sat for the last 30 years, and will probably sit for the next 30 years. There are whole neighborhoods out there with no fire hydrants.

Originally Posted by tacomagreentea

Californians are driving
up the homes prices everywhere, but Roseburg still seems the homes are priced right. I'm sure the job growth is pretty sad there and isolated.

Roseburg had a tough time economically at the end of the 20th century. First there was the Carter recession, then Ronald Reagan tried to jump start the housing industry by offering free federal timber. This depressed the lumber market so far that only highly automated mills could survive. Oregon lost 12,000 timber jobs at the height of the Reagan era overcut, many of them in Roseburg. Then in 1991, Judge Dwyer issued his famous spotted owl decision, and shut down the federal forests that the big automated mills depended on. The mills that stayed open put the squeeze on the unions for lower wages.

So far in the 21st century, things have been a little better. The housing boom boosted lumber prices, so the mills stayed open, even if they had to import logs from Siberia and Canada. Cheap interest rates let developers start to build trophy retirement homes for Californians in the $500,000 to $1,000,000 price bracket. Douglas County Planning has approved a bunch of new Clover Avenues out in the county, half million dollar houses with substandard streets and utilities that will not be maintained.

The influx of retirement money has caused a small rennaisance in Roseburg, but it's just getting started. Most kids with anything on the ball still graduate from high school, go to college, and never come back. There are better job opportunities elsewhere. Only about 10% of the population of Douglas County has a college degree, compared with 26% statewide. The college educated crowd is mostly made up of medical professionals, attorneys, teachers and administrators.

The kids who have "Loser" tattooed on their forehead stick around and sink into desperate poverty. The days when you could go to work in a mill out of high school and retire from there 35 years later are long gone.

There are a lot of people operating small businesses to survive, but the businesses are so marginal that people are not saving for retirement. There's no shortage of Wal-Mart greeters in Roseburg.

The future of the Roseburg area is going to depend on expanding the retirement industry, and establishing a tourist industry. For an area with such incredible beauty, tourism is almost nonexistent. The only successful tourist industry in the county is the Indian casino at Canyonville, about 25 miles south of Roseburg.

Originally Posted by tacomagreentea

The cost of living in Oregon is higher anywhere in the nation. Dazed-n-confused........

I don't know who told you that, but it's not true. Not even close.

[seashelly]

Hey Roseburg People, now that I have your attention , without naming specific names because of moderator cuts, what types of stores/shops are in your Valley Shopping Mall? Anything good? Just curious.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by seashelly

Hey Roseburg People, now that I have your attention , without naming specific names because of moderator cuts, what types of stores/shops are in your Valley Shopping Mall? Anything good? Just curious.

Sorry, I'm on the other end of the consumer spectrum. Getting rid of stuff is my primary concern. In the last two years I have sold two pickup and trailer loads of stuff to second hand stores, donated twice that amount to charities, and filled six 25 cubic yard dumpsters. No kidding. Farms collect a lot of stuff. Some of it was left over from when I bought the place.

My whole family got so overwhelmed with "stuff" that we even quit exchanging Christmas presents 10 years ago.
"If I want it, I have already bought it. If I want it and can't afford it, you can't afford it either."

I did go to the Art Festival, which had some neat stuff. My wife and I bought a stained glass window and a bag of kettle corn. It happens every year in June.

There are two malls in Roseburg. The Garden Valley Mall has my optometrist and one of two liquor stores in town. The other one has a book store and a convenient Chinese take-out grill. I can't remember ever being in any of the other stores.

[Waterlily]

Roseburg and all of Oregon has had economic ups and downs through the years. I don't know why there is so little tourism there in Roseburg. Lots of places in Oregon get more tourists then they care for.

Perhaps the city leaders need to do more to promote Roseburg. Maybe they could have a festival and advertise some.

When I have been there I didn't see anything wrong with Roseburg as a city. I was mostly on the main streets and didn't look down residental streets. I'll need to go back again and look over the place.