Oregon Shores - Agency Lake Lots - Good or Bad Place (Medford: crime, felony)

[familyholdings]

I've got 2 lots in Oregon Shores II. Need to sell them. Does anyone know the area well enough or know of some good realtors? Not sure what the going rate is over there anymore to move these quickly...

[PNW-type-gal]

Property is moving extremely slow here - that I know of, in the entire Agency Lake area (Oregon Shores I and II and several of the other small "subdivisions"), the only sales in the last 9 months have been foreclosures - and some of the foreclosures even failed to sell. Most of the ones that do sell have the good views of the lake and the mountains beyond. A lot in Oregon Shores that we looked at in 2007, which was priced at $95,000 for an acre then, went last year for about $20,000 on foreclosure.

There are basically 3 realtors out here - Crater Lake Real Estate, Coldwell Banker and Fisher Nicholson.

[haggardhouseelf]

Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal

And it's 117 miles to a Whole Foods smoothie, as Bend has the only Whole Foods and Trader Joe's in all of Southern, Central or Eastern Oregon (the Portland area has many of both stores and one of the best Farmer's Markets in the country).

*Ahem* Eugene has TJ's. Thank you.

But we scared away Whole Foods. *sob*sob*

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by haggardhouseelf

*Ahem* Eugene has TJ's. Thank you.

But we scared away Whole Foods. *sob*sob*

Eugene isn't in Southern, Central (usually defined as the Bend-Redmond-Prinville area) or Eastern Oregon, either. Medford is supposed to have TJ's coming sometime Real Soon Now (not sure the shopping center it's supposed to be in has even broken ground yet)

ETA: Apparently the shopping center IS under construction and they hope to open TJs in June of 2012.

[haggardhouseelf]

Are the mosquito's very bad at Oregon Shores in warmer months?

[haggardhouseelf]

Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal

Eugene isn't in Southern, Central (usually defined as the Bend-Redmond-Prinville area) or Eastern Oregon, either. Medford is supposed to have TJ's coming sometime Real Soon Now (not sure the shopping center it's supposed to be in has even broken ground yet)

ETA: Apparently the shopping center IS under construction and they hope to open TJs in June of 2012.

Sorry. My bad. What would Eugene be then? Do people just include all of the Willamette Valley when they say "Portland area"?

[PNW-type-gal]

Well, it depends on who "people" are. I tend to clump things by climate, so, yeah, "Willamette Valley" is a subgroup to me, from Portland to Eugene.

Eastern, Central and Southern Oregon can be a little confusing - usually, but not always, Eastern Oregon is anywhere to the east of the Cascade Mountains with Central Oregon being a smaller, specific area of Terrrebone to LaPine, Sisters to Prineville.

Southern Oregon is sometimes the area east of the Coast Range, west of the Cascades, from Grants Pass to the California border. Sometimes Southern Oregon includes over the Cascades to Klamath Falls, sometimes not.

Mosquitoes - my neighbor across the valley planted lushly (which, really is not such a great idea in the high desert anyway) on a couple of acres, and between the grass and the heavy foliage plantings, he has some astonishing mosquitoes. I didn't plant grass and we get some mosquitoes around sunset in summer, but nothing like the south or springtime in the Cascades. My husband doesn't even notice them, but since I get big welts from bites, I'm ever-vigilant.

We also get midges during a 1-2 month span in the summer. These come in waves and in about 3 sizes. Fortunately they have no mouth and no stinger, so they are just annoying in the way they swarm. Again, they only come out at sunset and evening and they are attracted to white and yellow light. They are particularly bad right on the water (lake and river) and near the irrigation canals or flooded fields.

[haggardhouseelf]

Thank PNW... I really appreciate how honest your posts are, btw!

I asked about mosquito's because whenever we've spent time during the summer in the Cascades or eastern or southern Oregon the bugs - mainly mosquito's in the evenings - have bothered us pretty bad. We haven't had any problems in Eugene so far with bugs.

The Oregon Shores lots seem like such a great deal, I think they are really worth checking out, but for people like me who left a state because of the bugs (and other reasons) it would be a shame to invest in property only to find yourself bitten up and annoyed by a problem you thought you'd left behind. I bet it's gorgeous in the winter though. Your photo with all the snow is beautiful. Would be a good spot for a winter escape when you want to get away from civilization for a bit. Either that or surround your home and yard in mosquito netting!

I was reading that there are quite heavy winds in the area as well that come off the lake?

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by haggardhouseelf

I was reading that there are quite heavy winds in the area as well that come off the lake?

It's not actually all that windy here - one of my neighbors put in a wind turbine on a 50' tower and it doesn't meet the required 8 mph average. In the 7 years we've had a weather station up, our peak wind gust is 39 mph.

As far mosquitoes - sitting out summer evenings I definitely need mosquito repellent. The spouse doesn't, but he rarely notices them anyway.

This year we had an annoying plague of ground yellowjackets as well - people who have lived in the area for 30 years said they'd never seen as many. Supposedly it was because in 2010/11 we had a dry and warm fall and winter (kind of like this year so far) and then a long, cool, wet spring but not many freezes. I'm hoping that doesn't happen this year

[haggardhouseelf]

Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal

This year we had an annoying plague of ground yellowjackets as well - people who have lived in the area for 30 years said they'd never seen as many. Supposedly it was because in 2010/11 we had a dry and warm fall and winter (kind of like this year so far) and then a long, cool, wet spring but not many freezes. I'm hoping that doesn't happen this year

I think we might have experienced that in Eugene as well last summer. It wasn't too bad but now that you mention it I do remember seeing quite a few more yellow jackets than I remember seeing in years past. We've only been in Oregon/Eugene for a total of about 7/8 years though, so in many ways we still feel a bit new to the state. There's so much here to learn about and experience, it's pretty awesome.