Coastal arts communities in Oregon? (Portland, Medford: real estate, vacation home, live)

[coastal58]

After the past winter on the East coast in the NYC area, I've decided that enough is enough and am considering a move to Oregon. Being an artist, I'd like to find a coastal community that 1) supports the arts and has galleries and community arts center(s); 2) draws weekenders and vacationers from Portland/Seattle and other metropolitan areas; 3) has weather that includes a fair amount of sunshine; 4) has real estate values that are still reasonable.

Is this too much to expect? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Silverfall]

Yes, you are expecting too much. The Oregon coast isn't sunny. Brookings has more sunshine and more warm days than the northern coast, but it doesn't have the galleries that Cannon Beach has.

Cannon Beach is probably the closest to what you want.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

All the coastal towns in Oregon are jammed full of artists. The highway is lined with cute little shops selling hand blown glass, wood carvings, hand made myrtle wood bowls, and any art or craft you could possibly think of. Chain saw art, pottery, hand polished and mounted fossils, elaborate kites, you name it. I am in a town with a whopping population just a couple of people over 300 and I can just about walk to a dozen stores featuring any of the above.

The scenery is beautiful, there are no jobs, and the weather tends to be cool foggy and quite windy.

There are far too many tourists clogging up the roads and endless festivals going on to bring in the tourists: art festvals, sea food festivals, kite festivals, celtic festivals, wine festivals, flower festvals, holiday festvals, sand castle festvals, you name it, we got it somewhere on the coast.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Adding that the coast doesn't have the sunny weather you want but real estate is pretty darn reasonable if you compare it to other coastal property any where else in the world. You can get a view of the ocean for under $300,000. (Not ocean frontage, but a nice view)

[KaaBoom]

Just a thought, but it's been sunny or partly sunny here every day for the last month, except maybe two or three days. I understand this is not a typical weather pattern, but under the current conditions the Oregon Coast is almost as sunny as California.

You can never count on it being sunny, but it's not like there is no sun here. Even if it is not sunny, at least it's not cold like other parts of the country.

And yeah, pretty much the entire coast is jammed with art galleries. You could probably take your pick of almost any town. Real estate prices shouldn't be a problem either.

[Elk Wallow]

Yea, right. (prices)

[coastal58]

Thanks for all the feedback... your comments have given me a lot to consider.

[crazyme4878]

My understanding is that in general, prices will be higher in the north, generally (very generally) getting cheaper as you go south. But there is more tourism in the north (hence the higher prices--close enough to the Portland metro for vacation homes). I don't know what the art community is like around Gold Beach and Brookings, but I'm guessing that you will want to look from Florence northward.

[patches403]

Would suggest you make a visit to the Oregon Coast before relocating. Windy, cool to cold most of the year including summer and excepting this year far more cloudy than sunny and in normal years lots and lots of rainy days. Summer days the highs rarely get above 70. The only people on the beach in swimsuits are little kids who don't seem to feel the cold, everybody else is in a jacket. It's a rare day when you can go on the beach without a jacket for very long.

Housing prices are pretty reasonable and there's a lot of artists around. You will want to be Florence northward, nowhere near as much tourist traffic sound of Florence. Keep in mind that the housing prices on the Coast are reasonable because there's few jobs, the weather is miserable much of the time and you have to drive 60 miles over a mountain range to get back to the major cities in the Willamette Valley. The Oregon Coast is a beautiful place but there's a reason so few live there full-time.

[texasdiver]

Yes..visit for a week in late November before you commit.

Also look at all the art galleries and decide if your personal style fits the dominant Pacific Northwest beach art gallery vibe of rustic pottery, landscapes, and so forth that most of the tourists are looking for. People don't shop galleries along the coast for avante garde art, it is baby boomers looking to decorate their coastal cottage with just the right precious shabby chic look.

Patches is right. Look from Florence northward. South of Florence US-101 veers well inland until you get all the way to Bandon which is a cute little retiree town famous for a cheese factory that was closed years ago (although there is a new artisan one now). Beyond Bandon it is even more desolate until you get to Brookings which is almost to the California border. But that part of the coast is a lot further from anyplace and the drive inland to the nearest city (Medford) is much further than the drive inland to the Willamette Valley on the north and central coast.