Relocating to S. Oregon (Portland, Medford: real estate, rentals, crime)

[aaronfamily5]

My husband, 3 small children and myself are considering moving to the Southern Oregon area. We are looking at the Ashland/Medford area, but are open to other areas also.

My husband is a general contractor so we would need to move somewhere where he can find a good job. The weather is not a huge factor as we are from Northern California, and deal with cold winters and hot summers, less rain would be nice. More important are schools, crime and activities. We enjoy hiking, camping, boating, and the arts.

We will be renting at first so any info. on rentals available would also be extremely helpful.

Any advice on a good fit for our family?
Thanks!!

[Clear2land]

One nice thing about the Rogue River area is that it is all within easy driving distance to work and play. Grants pass is just a short scenic drive to Medford and Ashland. Medford has easy access to Ashland and Grants Pass. As a General Contraction, your husband just might find it easy to work within a fairly confined geographic area. You are already acclimated to the weather. The classified section of local newspapers should give you some idea of rents in all three areas. You can always call the school board to find out which school has the highest test scores. Before I would relocate, I would talk to some other General Contractors in the area to see how they have been affected by the slowdown in real estate. New construction is slowing but remodeling may still be booming.

I can send you picture of Grants Pass and Ashland. I only have pictures taken at Medford's airport.

Hope this helps.

Dan

[live4kidz]

We are, too, in a bit of a quandry. Planning a 'tour', driving down from the Portland, OR area to Roseburg, then wanting to see areas around Medford. We know that Ashland is out of our price range. We're also wondering about Klamath Falls, which has a climate we really think we'd like. We prefer the drier, sunnier regions. In our search on-line, we've become a bit puzzled. Prineville, in the Bend - Central Oregon area - is said to be dry and more desert-like, with a fair amount of rain and scant snow, from what we can tell from our research. It shows, strangely enough, higher humidity and less sunshine, on average for each month, than the areas around Medford, Oregon - which are west of the Cascades and supposedly more humid and not as sunny. If anyone can clear up the confusion for me, it would be very much appreciated. We want to get to the driest area we can, within Oregon, but in the southern region of the state. Knowing that we will be working retirees, we do need a decent sized city in which to find employment and do not wish to travel too far to get good medical services, find restaurants, movie theaters, and other areas of interest. I grew up in Portland - My husband is from Iowa - we met in Arizona - and have lived in 5 states. It makes coming to a final decision quite difficult as we like things about each place we've ever lived!! We do want to stay in Oregon, which would mean less cost for the relocation, we'd be approximately 150-230 miles from 3 of our adult children who live in the Portland area, depending on where we decide to 'land'. Anyone researched these areas? What about Shady Cove? And White City? Just looking on-line, don't know much about any of those areas either. Medford is said to get inversions and fog quite a bit in the winter. I do miserably with my arthritis in the fog that we have here in the Portland area. We want to avoid that. Are there areas east of Medford that get one up into higher elevations and above the fog?

I'd really appreciate responses from any of you out there! Fire away. We are planning a road trip in May for a week in late May to visit as many places as we can. I'm also going to check with senior centers in as many of these areas as I can to see if I can get some more info. I look forward to your replies, sitting here in foggy Gladstone for 2 days now!

[Waterlily]

Bend and the towns close to it have a high elevation which will effect the weather. You'd get more snow and cold then in south western Oregon. You may want to look in Grants Pass or Roseburg when you travel south.