House in the rural areas of eastern Oregon (Portland, Bend: rent to own, buying)

[Rob Roberts]

Retired mature couple looking for a quiet country home to rent or rent to own. Dependable income from social security and military pension. Reasonable price accepted. Good landlord and a small amount of land a good match.

[PNW-type-gal]

"Eastern Oregon" covers a lot of territory, as does "rural" - how far do you want to be from a very basic grocery store? From one with a reasonable selection? From a rural health center or a larger hospital? What kind of land do you want? Sage scrub or enough land to grow something on or have livestock (the latter two are tougher because of water rights, which are already apportioned and limited)?

What kind of summer/winter temps are you looking for? What elevation? Pine forest, sage scrub, grassland?

What is "reasonable"? $100,000 or $500,000? Remember that "reasonable" is in context - what is reasonable for acreage around Sisters and what is reasonable for acreage around Burns are two very different things. You can find a price that is reasonable for the area you are looking at but it far above your budget (or vv).

[Metlakatla]

Pretty much all of Eastern Oregon is reasonable. You might like the John Day area.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

If you are "mature", I suggest being near a good hospital. Bend hospital has a branch office in Prineville that is new and good.

It's not Eastern Oregon. It is Central Oregon, but just outside of town you can buy a 2 acre parcel for what passes as reasonable cost in Oregon. If you are willing to go off grid, you can get something cheap south of Prineville, the only big issue being water ( there isn't any)

That gives you access to good medical care plus easy access to all the fun tourist activities of Bend,many of which are free.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

If you are "mature", I suggest being near a good hospital. Bend hospital has a branch office in Prineville that is new and good.

It's not Eastern Oregon. It is Central Oregon, but just outside of town you can buy a 2 acre parcel for what passes as reasonable cost in Oregon. If you are willing to go off grid, you can get something cheap south of Prineville, the only big issue being water ( there isn't any)

That gives you access to good medical care plus easy access to all the fun tourist activities of Bend,many of which are free.

That's a few inches of pumice over an impenetrable basalt flow. Most of the area around Prineville is recreational land only. Haul your water in and your sewage out. If you buy close to an RV dump station it might be OK. Check with county planning before buying bare land. The cost is reasonable because you can't do anything with it.

[Johnny Z]

IMHO anything East of the Cascades is Eastern Oregon. A popular area for retirement is Bend if you have the $$$, other wise you better look farther East.

[jjpop]

Originally Posted by Johnny Z

IMHO anything East of the Cascades is Eastern Oregon. A popular area for retirement is Bend if you have the $$$, other wise you better look farther East.

There are a lot of eastern Oregonians who would disagree with your HO.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by Johnny Z

IMHO anything East of the Cascades is Eastern Oregon. A popular area for retirement is Bend if you have the $$$, other wise you better look farther East.

Anything west of I-5 is Western Oregon.

[wolfdog]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

Anything west of I-5 is Western Oregon.

[Kiki9090]

Are you interested in northeast or southeast? I live in the northeast, and if you like it frigid in the winter with snow that may or may not melt for a few months and hot in the summer, come on over. It's getting more expensive in some places, not by comparison to Portland, but because most jobs are minimum wage, and you can't buy a $200k house on that, but still pretty reasonable in others. Joseph and Enterprise will be a bit more, Lostine, Wallowa, and Elgin a bit less. The main issue is it's in a valley, so you have to drive to get to box stores and sometimes in the winter you're locked in (they close the highway regularly). But the mountains are beautiful. More tourists are coming through Joseph and on to the lake, but it's not too bad. If you can deal with the weather (fall and spring are very nice) and entertain yourself, it's a great place to live.

If you want it a little bit bigger, La Grande, Baker City, and John Day are fine. The Wallowa Valley has more trees and mountains, but if you don't care about that, the three listed above would do. Not sure what you want the land for, eg animals or just to be peaceful on your own plot.