Thinking of relocating to Corvallis/Albany area and would love some info. (Portland: real estate)

[Madeline55]

My husband and I are thinking of relocating to the Corvallis/Albany area and would love some REAL info. from those already in the area. Is it a nice place to raise a family?, do you mind the rainy winters?, is it low in crime and high in education? Nearest airport? My husband is in construction, how's the job market? What draws us is the "more reasonable" housing (we're coming from SoCal), the outdoor activities (we love nature), the beautiful surroundings and smaller town atmosphere. We've been hardpressed to find usable info. We've found a lot on Portland but not this area. I'd love to hear from any of you natives. We have a 16 month old and want to find a place that we'd all love to stay for a long time. Do you have suggestions for other areas as well? The reason we're leaning toward Corvallis/Albany is easy access to Salem/Eugene and even Portland. Thanks.

Madeline

[Steve97415]

If you ask people in Salem, Portland or Eugene where in Oregon they would live if they could live anywhere they most often say Corvallis. I'm surprised you haven't been able to find out much about Corvallis because it has often been rated as the #1 or #2 small city in America.
While there is a smaller town atmosphere, you won't have a lot of need to go to bigger cities. Corvallis is a very acculturated place: between Hewlett-Packard and the university, there is a very high proportion of people with Masters degrees and PhDs. They want interesting things to do and a family-friendly city. They have it. Crime is extremely low.
Like many smaller livable cities, finding employment can be the most difficult part. Many of the university professors have well-educated spouses who came along with the move who are looking for employment. Educators are stacked like cordwood in Corvallis. Any teaching opening in any of the schools generates hundreds of applications. Corvallis has a city charter that only allows for land to be annexed to the city if voted on by the citizens. Most residents want to keep growth slow and so don't usually approve annexation requests. That makes the construction business extremely competitive. I know a number of builders there who just couldn't get established.
Albany is okay, but nothing like Corvallis. It's on the I-5 corridor and is a rather generic Willamette Valley freeway town. I know of families where both mom and dad work in Albany, but live in Corvallis just so their kids can go to Corvallis schools. Albany is also in Linn County so the local government is not as good. I lived in Corvallis and rural Benton County for 13 years and had real misgivings about leaving. I miss it (except for the winters).

[Valentine8]

mod cut. The best thing to do is go to the local newspaper site there and you can learn a lot. As far as Hewlett Packard. My husband just retired early from there. They have had their 3rd downsizing in the last 4 years. They are sending all the work overseas. New houses are being built in Corvallis but not like Albany. North Albany, which is in Benton county like Corvallis, is booming. New shopping & homes. Albany in Linn county is also growing with new businesses and homes. People are coming to Albany to buy and commute to Salem or Eugene because homes cost less. Housing prices have skyrocketed the last year. Had several years of decline. I agree with the other post in the winters. Cloudy and gloomy all winter long.

[jensen]

How did it go? Did you end up moving? I moved here from SF, CA & I love it! An excellent place to live. Jenny

[Aloha~Nui]

I want to second that. I have a couple friends who live in Corvallis currently, and despite traveling to beautiful Hawaii, they're always glad to go home to Corvallis. They love it there. Corvallis has a couple nice co-ops. I honestly wasn't enamored with the town in general; I thought it was just okay. I had trouble finding work when I was there in late 05 (in fact, I found NO work).

[Silverfall]

Construction is tough unless he does infrastructure (roads, etc). If he is doing residential, then he needs to have another line of work.

[EZA]

First off, I live in Albany and it much more than a free way town. It has a historic downtown and has a couple of great schools. I would not move here if you are in the construction trade. The industry has taken a big nose dive. I work in Corvallis and live in Albany. Rent and Housing are very expensive in Corvallis, Albany, unless you live in N. Albany, housing is avg compared to the rest of Oregon. The Job market is driven in Corvallis by HP, Good Sam Hospital, and Oregon State. Albany the job market is a lot of service industry and farming, with a lot of people working in Corvallis. One of the great things about Oregon is that Nature is not very far away. From Albany/Corvallis the beaches are around 1.5 hours away, the high desert is 1.5 hours away, and sking is just up the pass which is about 1 hour away. While it does rain, but not as much as Seattle, the weather is plesant, althought we have a nasty ice/snow storm hitting us right now. Eugene is 45 minutes away and Portland is around 1.5 to 2 hours away.

[DavePautsch]

I've been an Albany resident for just over 7 years. I moved here from Hawaii with my family when I got a job at OSU. We chose Albany because it was so much more affordable than Corvallis and, while I love Corvallis, my family has been very happy here.

I agree with EZA that Albany is so much more than a Freeway town. There is an historic carousel in the process of being built. Handcarved animals and a very well reknowned mechanism. It is really going to complement the downtown. As far as the job market in construction, there are a handful of local builders and a few larger regional ones. Because of the current market conditions here, building has slowed but by no means stopped. There are also a number of small contractors who are doing quite well with remodels in this market as some folks are choosing to do that rather than to sell.

As far as the weather and getting to nature - you just have to take it in that the winter is going to be rainy - but we are about an hour and a half from the mountains and about the same distance to the coast. Most of the people I know are either fishermen, gardners, skiers, snow-boarders, dune riders, or something...lots of outdoor lifestyle here and great access to everything that the Pacific Northwest has to offer.

If you have specific questions about the local housing market - just ask. This forum will bounce right in and give you lots of input. There are a number of real estate professionals here too - so you can get some pretty good data.

Best of luck, I hope you find what you're looking for.

DavePautsch