Small Town and Smooth Sailing (Bend, Redmond: houses, theater, live in)

[kidseven]

Hi All,

Curious if there are any small towns (less than 15,000) in Oregon (or anywhere PNW) that might offer the following combination of attributes:

1. Sunny (I guess that means Eastern, OR)
2. On or near a body of water good for sailing
3. Reasonable home prices (Less than $250k)
4. Slightly progressive community (health food, art, etc.)
5. Good historic downtown with restaurants, theater, etc.

We live in an awesome spot now (Port Townsend, WA) and love the people, the scenery, etc., but the grey days are really getting to us. According to one site we get about 154 days with sun. Home prices are also so high that we can't afford our dream scenario which would be a small home on a decent lot near some water. We can tele-commute so we're OK with being out of the way.

Any ideas?

In some ways it looks like the state of Maine has a lot of spots that meet out requirements, but we're not really looking to cross the country.

Thanks for your suggestions.

[HMinOR]

Have you looked at Prineville, OR?

It has two different large reservoirs that might meet your needs. It has a little over 10,000 people. You can easily get a house in town for less than 200K (and prices are dropping dramatically right now). The houses in that price range will be about 1300 Square Feet.

As far as Prineville itself being progressive, maybe not so much....there is a health food store and a couple of naturopaths. But, Bend is about 33 miles away and Redmond is about 23 miles away. Bend has lots to offer (health food stores, many many art activities, it's just a great place).

One thing I would also add....I also telecommute, and you will need to be somewhat careful in Prineville of the location and availability of high speed internet. I found a lot of the places a little way out didn't have high speed available except via direct TV or a similar service.

[kidseven]

HMinOR,

Haven't looked at Prinveville. Thanks very much for the detailed reply. I'll check it out for sure.

[karlsch]

You might look into Joseph, OR. Absolutely beautiful area:
Wallowa Lake, Oregon
Oregon State Parks and Recreation: Rates