Falls City (Salem, Dallas: mortgage, new house, neighborhood)

[FXRS]

Well I posted a while back, well a long while back that the wife is going to be offered a job in Salem at the hospital. Well I finally made it out there last week and did alot of looking around at homes. Area is just fantastic!!!

First off, the new subdivsions are like sardines in a can. The new houses have like NO room for storage. Seems as though everyone uses their garage and then have no place to park their car. lol I'm use to a basement.

We did find a home in Falls City. 9 miles or so east of Dallas. Nice house with some potential. The city is like really small which doesn't bother me much. I like the fact that the only roads after Falls City seem to be dirt mountain roads or logging roads. Be nice for the atv's. I had asked one of the residents about leaving the house with the atv's and running some of the streets to get to the dirt roads and they said that probably isn't going to be a problem, just be careful. I was pressed for time so I couldn't ask a lot of questions.

From what I understand the kids are only in school Mon-Thurs. Anyone know about that? Also I'm a little nervous because the kids have never really been in that kind of terrain before. All I need them to do is think they know everything and end up sliding down a cliff or into a river. There are like 3 that run through Falls City if I am remembering right.

If anyone might have any more info for me I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

[oregon]

Good luck in Falls City. Hopefully your experience living here will be a good one.

[FXRS]

hmmm........ You wouldn't want to expand anymore on your comment would you? Sounds as though you might have some expierence with life in Falls City.

[Igor]

I like the fact that the only roads after Falls City seem to be dirt mountain roads or logging roads. Be nice for the atv's. I had asked one of the residents about leaving the house with the atv's and running some of the streets to get to the dirt roads and they said that probably isn't going to be a problem, just be careful.

Yes, be very careful. If found on a roadway by the authorities it will cost several hundred dollars per machine. Also, the USFS recently changed their rules, ATV's are only allowed on roadways/area's that are marked for their use. Instead of the old way of allowed except where marked not to use.

This is the reason I went to a Dual-Sport motorcycle. With the off road vehicle sticker it can be used anywhere an atv can, and it is licensed so it can be used anywhere an automobile can drive.

[FXRS]

Thanks for the info. After you posted I started looking online to see who owns what land in the Falls City area, like to the west of the town. I'm not sure where to look for that. I did some googling at the Oregona State forestry site but was unable to find anything. Also tried to find some of the state laws and regulations for atv in the state.

Like here in Wi. if I wanted to run a logging road on state land I could do it as long as it wasn't gated or bermed off. I was trying to find some of that for Oregon but couldn't. Wondering if anyone had any info or a link for me.

[Igor]

FXRS

As a primer this may help
www.oohva.org/

[FXRS]

Thanks igor. I've already have that link in my bookmarks. I'll do some more searching around.

[FXRS]

Wow talk about a thread coming back from the dead. lol

On a happier note we will not be moving to Falls City. Instead we have an accepted offer on a house in Dallas. We have heard things about Falls City. Not to this extreme but bad enough.

Thanks for the heads up though.

[2beautifulgirls]

I have lived in Falls City for a year. We built our house here thinking it was a great place to raise a family. Well we sure were wrong. First my husbands dirt bike gets stolen out of our back yard while we are home. Luckily we found it all in one pieace. Then we had a goat and it rains in Oregon and someone that lives 2 blocks away came down and said that their 6 year old child was crying because the goat was getting rained on. As they walked through my new house with muddy ass boots. So my recommendation is if you want to move to Falls City be prepared for everyone to be in your business and everyone to know everything about you within months of moving here. If you like living in a town of 65% meth addicts then this is the town for you. But I don't recommend raising a family here.

[Larry Caldwell]

I'm sorry you have had such a bad experience in Falls City. What you are seeing is the tail end of the collapse of the lumber industry in Oregon. Rural towns like Falls City used to have mills that provided a family wage, and people could make a good life for themselves. The heyday of Falls City was 1945 through 1979. That life died with 18% mortgage rates. Then Ronald Reagan tried to jump start the housing industry by offering free federal timber to the mills. That depressed lumber prices so far that the older, non-automated mills could not survive. Oregon lost 12,000 timber jobs during the height of the Reagan overcut.

There used to be a Boise Cascade mill town named Valsetz not far from Falls City. Boise Cascade closed the mill, bulldozed the town and planted the town site with trees. There's nothing there any more. Falls City just rotted. There was no housing market, so home owners were stuck in a remote town with no job and no marketable skills, in the middle of a deep recession. Quite a few people lost their homes, and were forced into bankruptcy. Some people found work out of state and managed to survive. That left Falls City populated by people too poor to go broke and too lazy to get out of town. The percentage of welfare queens, drunks and druggies mushroomed. In just five years, the town went from a nice little rural community to the rural equivalent of an inner city slum. Your neighborhood tweakers are self-medicating for chronic depression. It doesn't work. They just end up crazy, with a bad attitude and lots of energy. They grew up watching Grandpa poach deer to put meat on the table and Dad dealing weed to make ends meet, so they don't see anything wrong with stealing a dirt bike out of your back yard.

As for everyone knowing your business, that comes from living in a small town. If you tell one person something, you are telling the whole town, and starting a dozen rumors to boot. If you don't want people to know your business, keep your mouth shut. I grew up in a small town. I refused to date any of the girls I went to school with, because by Monday morning everybody was replaying what we did Saturday night. You particularly want to keep your distance from neighbors. Be civil, but if you let them in your house and turn your back, they will be reading your mail.