Hood River Area (for sale, houses, to buy)

[hawksnest]

Considering moving to the Hood River area. Would like to hear from people who live there on the pros/cons regarding housing/RE costs & availability, quality of life, people, how "busy" does it get during the summer season, cost of living, weather, etc. Thanks for your insight!

[Waterlily]

I don't live there but I used to live near there. It's become kind of expensive to buy a home there. You can look up houses for sale at REALTOR.com.
They get tourists in summer; Some of them go for the wind surfing.
Winter tourists stay there to go skiing up on Mt.Hood but it did not seem to be crowded during winter.
It is a small town life. Lots of sporting types and some with money.

[hawksnest]

Thanks for input, Waterlily...

Are there others out there with additional info / perspective??

[Clear2land]

You might try using the Search feature above to see what others have had to say about Hood River. It is a very pretty area on the Columbia River but can get very windy there. Wind surfing is very popular there.

Dan

[valmu]

Hi,

I got an internship in a company of Hood River. I am european, so I don't know anything about this place. Could you please advice me what kind of activities can I do there? I use to do a lot of sport. I see it is a small place, are there young people? I mean, I am 27, I wouldn't like to go to one place where I can't meet people of my age. Which budget do I need to live there?

Thanks for your help

[dachmom]

Hood River is a small town and it gets VERY busy in the summer with boardheads (windsurfers). The problem is the congestion downtown due to the traffic coming from the river (windsurfers) and all the locals trying to get around town. As far as sports, obviously there is windsurfing, you can also go biking, hiking, and pretty much any other summer activity you want. In the winter skiing/snowboarding at Mt. Hood is not far away. I wouldn't swim in the Columbia River though, it's still COLD, even in the summer. Plus, it's too crowded with boardheads. It's a great place to get fresh summer fruit(apples, cherries, pears, etc.) right off the tree.

Almu- most of the windsurfers are younger (20's-30's) and are pretty laid back, easy to talk to.

It does get hot in the summer (usually have a week in July that is 100+ temperatures), but it is also usually windy.

Cost of living depends on where you are working. Most of the jobs in Hood River are in the tourism/agriculture industries who notoriously don't pay high wages, however housing is pretty expensive(I guess that's a relative term, an example is anything under $150,000 is a fixer-upper). The locals who bought their house 10+ years ago are lucky because now they probably could not afford to buy it. I'm not sure why the prices are increasing, one guess is people re-locating from other areas where houses are much more expensive.

Overall quality of life, I would consider good. The only things I don't like about Hood River are: 1. The steep uphill streets of downtown. 2. The congestion in the summer (due to windsurfers); 3. The WIND!
If you live up on the heights, things are more level, you are further away from the river(and downtown congestion) and you have a great view of Mt. Hood.
They have a farmer's market downtown in the summer which has fresh fruits and vegetables,so that's a nice feature.

I would say, if you can, come out and visit Hood River first. Spend a few days in June/July to see the congestion for yourself. I think they are doing the 'gorge games' again this year. You might look that up on the internet and try to come then, it will probably be the most congested then.

BTW: It does get cold in the winter, sometimes it snows and freezes, so you have black ice to contend with. It doesn't stick around all winter though, usually a week or two, then it melts.