What is Medford like?

[PNW-type-gal]

The weather described here is not correct for Medford - Medford gets around 20" of rain a year, most all of it in the winter (NWS Medford yearly summary and you can see other yearly average on CD's Medford pages). Also check with Trout Unlimited's Oregon branch for correct info on wild trout (I live very near a world-famous trout and steelhead fly-fishing destination river, so I find that particularly amusing).

Pick up a national newspaper and look at unemployment and state and local funding issues anywhere and you'll see that we're in a thing called "recession" making life pretty miserable most places right about now.

I particularly like the "millions of cars" thing - the population of Medford is 75,000, and the entire county is less than 200,000. The Portland metro area (large metro population about 2.5 million) has traffic, yes: the rest of the state, not so much.

[Fiddlehead]

[quote=ladybuggk;11163632]

How is the weather different in Talent than in Medford and Ashland?

quote]

Talent is between the two in elevation, so probably intermediate in just about all the climate features.

One climate factor that is not easy to catch from outside is the winter inversion. This frequently hits the valley, especially Grants Pass and Medford from late Nov. to Jan., when the rainy season is in full swing and the sun is so low it cannot mix out the atmosphere. In between storms we can get dense fog enveloping the valley for days on end, and it can be bone-chillingly cold. I have lived in many places, and few feel so cold as our valley in a freezing winter fog. In any case, due to its higher elevation, Ashland gets about 1/2 as many foggy days as Medford. Talent is pretty close to the fog line (about 1700' elevation), though slightly under it, and would probably have fewer fog days than Medford. The upper Wagner Creek Valley is probably very similar to Ashland, due to its higher elevation. The fog is a much more important factors than the little skiff of snow we get around here, in my opinion. In any case, Talent would fit your lifestyle preferences quite well, I think. My feeling is that real estate is still a bit inflated, but coming down.

This comes out of left field, but have you considered Pennsylvania? I am a scientist, and I just applied for an academic job at University of Pittsburgh. I have been amazed at how many PA teaching jobs there have been of late, and how beautiful and affordable the area is. It seems that all the western states budgets are currently reeling from the real estate debacle, and I believe that teaching jobs are hard to find throughout the West...Apparently PA had no bubble, and has not been affected nearly as bad, same with Missouri, Wisconsin,etc.

[mdvaden]

Originally Posted by ladybuggk

Mdvaden, yes, employment is necessary. We are teachers. We are putting our feelers out at all the places that would suit us so that we can hope for employment in ONE of them and then go from there. No rush, when it happens it happens. So at this point in the game, we're just looking for multiple places that would suit us. Looking into the grass valley area of california right now as well. Also yreka. Would welcome any thoughts on those places as well if you know anything about them....

There are plent of schools.

Our home was in the center of the image I posted. Crossing throught the library, our son went to Ruch school there - it's in the Medford School District, which extends into that part of Applegate Valley.

He was surprised, because his 8th grade teacher, just happened to have moved down from Beaverton, the city we had just moved from then in 2005. Our son said it was the best year he ever had in all his years of school.

Medford schools in the central are are pretty reasonable. Central Point is okay. Eagle Point seems nice.

White City does not seem to get a lot of pats on the back for some reason. And I don't mean the teachers or schools, but the area in general.