Hood River County (Portland, Eugene, St. Helens: house prices, school, property taxes)

[earthmama2organic1z]

Ok, a little about myself first. I am 25, married, with two beautiful daughters, 15mo, and 3 yrs old, work from home professional by day, hippie mama on nights and weekends. I currently live in Chandler, AZ. I have decided to move, thought it would be CO until I realized where their water problems and oil drilling is headed, and so the only other place I could see myself living was Oregon. I originally was looking at Eugene, but come to find out, the pollution there is worse than the Phoenix area! Don't believe me? go to Scorecard Home.

SO...I have been researching other areas and I think I am interested in Hood River County...it is very clean! Also I hear it gets more sun that other places near Portland.

Here is my concern. It looks like it is VERY windy there year round! Not sure if I could deal with that, so I am wondering if there are other decent towns in Hood River COUNTY, that are less windy, lots of trees, etc.. I also liked Hood River, because it looks like it has great gardening opportunities!

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated! Thanks!

Oh, how "active" is Mt. Hood?

[Tesaje]

Maybe The Dalles, further down the road and sunnier than Hood River? Mt Hood is classified as an active volcano as are most of the Cascades' volcanoes but it is more likely that Mt St. Helens will blow again or even Mt Rainer before Hood will go.

[PNWhike]

The median price for a home in Hood River County is aoround $375,000. Hood River is super windy near the river. It's not so bad the further away you get from the river. There is Mosier and Rowena both just east of Hood River. Mt. Hood is theoretically extinct but still possibly active. Probably not in our lifetime. Good luck.

[dachmom]

Rowena is very small, and you would have to drive to The Dalles or Hood River for groceries, etc. Mosier is a small town, it has a post office, school, a mini mart, and a restuarant. That's about it for businesses in Mosier. I'm not sure if you want to live in that small of a town. The Dalles is sunnier(not quite as much rain) but it's still windy. Also, I have heard Wasco County has high property taxes. House prices in The Dalles are getting close to prices in Hood River. As far as Mt. Hood being "active" it's always a possibility that it will erupt, however the last few years the scientists have been speculating that Mt. Rainier (Washington State) will be the next one to erupt, but there's no guarantee which one will be next and when.

[earthmama2organic1z]

Thanks for the replies so far. I did look at the RMLS listing for Hood River County, and there is not much listed for under $350K. The Dalles looks like it is about 1 hour from Portland, but looks like it would be right in the area where they expect would be affected if Hood did blow. Hood River would be too, but not as badly...all speculatory though.

[StealthRabbit]

HR county does not include "The Dalles", Mosier or Rowena, they are all in Wasco County, much higher taxes, but sometimes more affordable housing.
Pretty limited land in HR county due to high holding of National Forest.
affordable Choices - Cascade Locks, windy and rainy
Odell - probably best choice, orchard processing, some new industry, limited space / housing, small migrant population
Parkdale, colder, bit trendy (limited homes available, and some are 'seasonal'), little work, but 20 min to HR, orchards

Article in paper today about land lock in The Dalles
OregonLive.com: Everything Oregon

you might consider other close-by options.
White Salmon, BZ Corners, and Troutlake, WA