Rogue River Area (Bend, Ashland: for sale, rentals, credit card)

[bdcanefly]

Been reading for a couple of hours on this site, just wanted to get the lowdown on this area.
From what I have read, most people are not happy in Oregon.
Yes, we are from California(I even call it "the land of idiots").
My wife was born here but I was born/raised in the mid-west, (a place with values).
Not that you cannot find it other places, just seems like values are not here at all.
Enough of that.

My wife was offered a job teaching and I do not know the area. We both want to move out of here. For the same reasons all ready posted by many here on this and other sites.
I do alot of fly fishing and hunting, I was building homes, both tract and custom. Now I work for a large underground company.
I should be able to find work there in some field.

The other question I had is to those who have moved to Oregon.
Is it worth it?
My wife and I would give up about $200.000.00 a year, for maybe $80-$90.000.00 a year.
Can you make it on this amount? Are house prices crazy as the rest of the nation?
Can I even afford to live there with this income?
We have no credit card bills, We do have 2 car and a R.V. payment.They come to about $1,500 a month.
We hav 3 children that still live with us.We do not have any expensive habits, go out only once or twice a week for dinner.My wife has a few hobbies as do I. We spend about $500.00 a month on them.
We want small ranch style with horses. I have had a horse farm before.
I am also a certified auto tech. So I thought about opening an autoshop.
I have most of the tools and equipment needed( I did this in the construction slow times).
Right now we are putting money away for the lean construction times that are coming. We do not own our own house as we sold years ago, and payed off every thing with the profit.
We did not buy or build again as it was getting to crazy and out of our reach.
We was not making as much then as we do now.
So we are not the weathy Californians that you hear about.Yes,we make good money but the rent and other cost living here is crazy, so we can only save so much each month.
Plus what is the weather like. Can we have a garden most of the summer?How often is it cloudy 20%? 50%? 80%? of the time.
What about shopping in the area, medical & fly fishing?

So what do you think?

[freedom]

We moved from O.C. with no job prospects,and little funds, about 14 yrs ago.
We wouldn't move back to So. CA.
Construction and land investing has been a blessing to us, but it took alot of hard work. Like any new area it takes time to get connected and in to the flow of the community. As long as you have honest business ethics, you should flourish.
Rogue River is beautiful, there are many good spots in and around the area.
It is a great time to buy. You would be able to have a couple acres and a nice home with 90k per yr. There is construction and underground work for people that work hard, there is always opportunities even with the slowdown.

There is a glut of properties for sale, search the local MLS through one of the So. Oregon websites and you will get a good flavor of the types of homes and land available.

Moving here was one of the best things I have done for my family and our quality of life. My wife has been able to be a homemaker, homeschooler, and run the accounting for our business, which was not an option in So. CA., at least not for us.

best wishes to you and your family,

freedom

[bdcanefly]

Thanks for the positive info Freedom.

I would think there is underground work every where there has been growth as once the housing boom came, now the whole system needs to be upgraded.I was building for houses and streets for tract home builders and some private builders. I got tired of telling subs how to due their jobs, and most did not speak english. So it did not work out very well.
As for O.C.
I work in N.B. and live in H.B. during the week and head home to Palm Desert for the weekends. This is why we can only save so much.(two rentals) But the bright side is that they pay for the car and all my gas, both for work and personal.
I only have been doing this for 6 mnths, we keep putting cash way for when the time is right.
It is not the life I desire but the short term cash should really help us out.
My wife has been contracted untill June 10,2007 and we will see how we are looking at that time.
Is there any snow sking nearby?

Any others?


BDC

[freedom]

My pleasure.

We made a pit stop for 5 yrs in Palm Desert before coming north. Use to live in the Silver spur mobilehome park off of Hwy. 74

There is snow skiing, Mt. Ashland 1 hr., Mt. Shasta 2 hrs. and about 4 hrs away Mt. Bachelor in Bend.