Emerald Coast Estates Brookings Oregon (Eugene, Salem: for sale, 2009, leases)

[Kristin Leonard]

Hello,

I am considering moving to Brookings, Oregon. I have looked at homes in the Emerald Coast Estates and Brookhaven. Both are over 55+ commmunities which I am hoping to move to. Does anyone have any information on living in either of these senior communities?

Thanks!

[Summertime]

Homes for sale Brookings Oregon, Oregon Coast Retirement


This page gives some info with an email
and phone contact.

Last Memorial Day weekend, we spent
3 days there for the Azalea Festival.

Spent a whole day with a salesperson
for Emerald Coast and looked at some
re-sales then.

Also, had some figures estimated for
purchasing a new home and the
cost of living there.

One fee, think it was maintenance
for the yards, was a bit high.

At that time a clubhouse and pool
were in the process of being
built.

It is a quiet park, clean, and easy access
to the highway.

Our Salem condo has to sell, though,
before we can consider a move there,
but if you can do it,

I'd say to 'go for it.'

We plan a trip there in Sept.
to see if the feel for the town
and park, is the same as it was then.



They are happy to talk to you about the
park and I suggest a call to them.

[Kristin Leonard]

Hi Summertime,

Thank you for your response to my posting. I agree with you about the high monthly fees at Emerald Coast Estates in Brookings. The fees range from $450-$550 per month. The homeowner leases the land and does not own the land nor the footprint beneath the home. That seems higher than other over 55+ communities especially not owning the land. Curry County also charges a personal property tax on the home around $1,200 per year. It seems expensive to live there.

If you go back to ECE and you would like to share any information you have I would enjoy reading it.

Did you know about Brookhaven? It's another over 55+ community in Brookings.

[Summertime]

Hi, Kristin, sorry I almost forgot I had posted here...lol

If Brookhaven is the one that is sort of wide open and
overlooks the ocean, to an extent, and has no club
house or any sort of recreation, but the owners
all seem content, then we did go to look at it, and
one house was for sale, only.. that house was in desperate
need of upkeep and a fixer upper, from what we could see.

It was on the right side when you enter..and it has been
over a year now.. we were there May 2007.

If all goes according to plans, and our cats cooperate
with their health, we will try to make it there
a week or so after Labor Day .. for about 3 days stay.

I also want to see Brookings in the wintertime.

Years and years ago, before Oregon was a point of interest,
I lived in SC and investigated Brookings... at that time
the info I rec'd was that 88 inches of rain falls in the
winter there.

That kind of shook me up.

Now I am in Oregon, and have been for 2 decades, and
if it isn't raining, I wonder what is wrong with the day...lol.

So far, it's been a sunny month, and that is welcomed.

What is astonishing to me, but I shouldn't be surprised,
is that in the last year I have considered a move
to Brookings and suddenly find it is a place of interest.

That happens to me a lot!

Yes, the fees at EC are tremendously high and it is
prohibitive to me.. simply cannot live on retirement
income with those types of outgoing deductions.

I looked at the home prices now, at the web site,
and they are lots higher than this time last year.

[Kristin Leonard]

Hi Summertime,

I read that Brookings "only" got 70 inches of rain this last year. A bit less than 88". Brookhaven is located right in the heart of Brookings on the east side of 101. It's between Ransom and Hassett Streets. There are about 25 homes clustered there, all over 55+ age restricted. The homes are very nice...but in looking at an aerial map of the community I noticed that all *three* schools-elementary, middle school and the high school are all across the street and down a couple of blocks. Yikes. That would have to be noisy with all the busses, parents, etc. getting 1,800 kids back and forth to school every day. The homes that are for sale are all over $200,000. They have 4 plex, duplex and stand-alone homes. It's a coincidence, but I was in Brookings last summer in July 2007.
Kristin

[Summertime]

Hi, Kristin,

being a retired California school teacher, I want to be
in a different environment.

Brookhaven may not be the place we went through,
but then, I was not driving and may not recall which
side of the highway that I was on.

It seems as if the park we went to was a little bit south
of ECoast Estates, and it was on the right, being over
the ocean. Saw a woman walking a dog, spoke to her,
and she loved living there. It was almost surreal as there
was no activity aside from her and her dog, and sunshine
and blue skies, and wind from the ocean. Gosh, I had forgotten
all that till now. I have no idea what the name of that park
was.

The entrance was a bit hidden, and sort of a windy lane.

Makes me want to jump in the car and go the 6-7 hours to
look it over again.

If it weren't so far from Salem, I would be there more often
than once every 18 months. It is a LONG drive and the
route was through Grants Pass, west to highway 101.

We stayed in a Best Western on the northern end of town
next to a pretty good restaurant.

It is a definite trip for this early Autumn, if cats will
allow us to leave.

lol

[Kristin Leonard]

Hi Summertime,

So you are a retired school teacher! So am I. What a coincidence. I am new to this forum and website. Do you know of any way we can write to each other but not post it in public? I could give you my email address if I knew how to not post it in this public forum. I added you as a contact/friend here, but I don't exactly know how that all works. You are welcome to email me if we can figure out how to do that. It would be fun to talk about teaching and your experiences, but that would be a different topic here than Oregon.

Anyway, regarding Brookings...Yes, there is another over 55+ community south of Emerald Coast Estates. It is on Camellia Road on the ocean side heading south toward Crescent City. Maybe that's the one you drove through. They are all manufactured homes, many with a peek of the ocean. It seemed to be a more established community than ECE. Brookhaven, ECE and the one on Camellia are the only 3 over 55+ communities that I know of, so far. I have pictures of that neighborhood I could email to you, if you like.

An easier way to Brookings from Salem is to take HWY 38 from HWY 5 just south of Eugene. It's the cutoff to the coast through Drain. You have to drive on 101 south along the coast which can be a little slower through the towns, but the scenery is beautiful and you won't have to go through Grants Pass, all the way down, around and back up to Brookings. Just an idea.

Did you retire from CA or OR?

Kristin

[Summertime]

Yes, that could be the very one.

Just sent you a PM and my email address.

Nice meeting you, Kristin.

[Chrysaliswriter]

Summertime, I live up the road - in Gladstone, Oregon. My husband and I are still on a journey around Oregon trying to find more sun shine, smaller population, and still stay in the state where alot of my family is from and still resides. We've lived in 5 other states and we don't want to make any big moves at our ages. We are in our early 60's now and retirement for hubby is still a ways off. We have booked a vacation through our resort plan the end of July 2009 in Newport, OR. But, we want to take some time and drive down to Brookings. You seem to have visited there a good bit, from other posts I've read. Are you still looking at Brookings? Have you found any other community that compares? What about Gold Beach? Do you or anyone else on this forum know if Gold Beach has similar weather to Brookings? North coast communities are not for the faint hearted and we want the warmer climate that we seem to see exists in the southern coastal communities. Thanks for your responses!

[Summertime]

My goodness, I just happened to come online today
and see that I haven't been here since Sept. 25.

Since I have been snowed in for 3 days now, I
thought it would be interesting to read others'
impressions of WINTER in Oregon.

We never made it to Brookings this Sept. as hoped.
Too many things were going on ,,, the saddest being
that my cat, Destiny, was in kidney/liver failure and had to be
constantly given water in a syringe, so we could not
leave her in " boarding school." She went to Heaven
on November 14.

Personally, I prefer the coast to inland; along the coast,
I have found Brookings to be my favorite as it is like a
village without the chaos of city/traffic/congestion/
and DEVELOPMENT.

Emerald Coast Estates was a perfect retirement spot
but their costs are exorbitant... that ought to be
changed as most of us are not millionaires.

Maybe they will get a clue if people don't buy in
and they are left with vacant spots/homes.

Gold Beach seems quaint but have never explored the
town and area..

Chrysalis, we know little about the OR regions .. only
what the Weather Channel shows us in terms of climate.
That helps us to know where we DO NOT want to ever
live... for instance, Eastern Oregon .. snow/remote/cold/

Medford... hot in the summer months...all in all, southern
coastal is more to my preference, but.. ... I find that when
I like something, want to move there, developers come in
and destroy the land, within a couple of months of my
actually living there.. this has happened to me at least
4 times in the past. I am a jinx on peace and tranquility
and low population growth.

So, I am inclined, these days, to stay out of gorgeous places
so that my karma doesn't ruin it. I am not kidding!!!

I moved to Salem, a quiet little capital of Oregon in Oct. 1987
and by Oct. 1988 ... the influx had begun. Salem is never
going to be the same.