Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Oregon > Eugene area
 [Register]
Eugene area Eugene - Springfield metro area
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 02-29-2016, 02:11 PM
 
11 posts, read 18,209 times
Reputation: 20

Advertisements

It seems that the I5 corridor is the key area in my price range. I don't mind an hour's commute as it's what I do right now, living in a small artistic town of 350 south of Santa Fe but I work in town three to four days a week. The pay off is that my home and land were paid off fast and I can spend time at home writing, take holidays, and work part time. A full time job just to pay to live in a city was never a goal of mine! Still I love the idea of a coastal area but I realize that I'd be driving up to three hours each work day to make that happen but the homes are cheaper and under $100k which is all I want to pay for a one or two bed home. It's cheaper than rent! And yes, Bend is out of my range completely.
Lots to think about and I appreciate all your responses. It helps, thanks.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 02-29-2016, 02:12 PM
 
11 posts, read 18,209 times
Reputation: 20
I forgot to mention that my hours wouldn't hit rush hour. Generally I get the day shift of 11-7pm which is perfect for me!
s
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-29-2016, 03:45 PM
 
4,059 posts, read 5,590,490 times
Reputation: 2892
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sleam View Post
I forgot to mention that my hours wouldn't hit rush hour. Generally I get the day shift of 11-7pm which is perfect for me!
s
The issue coming from the coastal range/west isn't traffic per se, it's the number of traffic lights particularly once you hit Greenhill. You could opt to take the beltline and then back down 105 to avoid the lights and get back up to highway speed, but you're adding 4-5 miles each way.

Otherwise you're crawling along through a couple dozen lights to connect with 105 directly.

Really the major traffic worry at that site would be home Duck games, and your 11am start time would put you square in the teeth of a few of those if you worked weekends.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-02-2016, 11:59 AM
 
1,054 posts, read 1,417,327 times
Reputation: 2442
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sleam View Post
It seems that the I5 corridor is the key area in my price range. I don't mind an hour's commute as it's what I do right now, living in a small artistic town of 350 south of Santa Fe but I work in town three to four days a week. The pay off is that my home and land were paid off fast and I can spend time at home writing, take holidays, and work part time. A full time job just to pay to live in a city was never a goal of mine! Still I love the idea of a coastal area but I realize that I'd be driving up to three hours each work day to make that happen but the homes are cheaper and under $100k which is all I want to pay for a one or two bed home. It's cheaper than rent! And yes, Bend is out of my range completely.
Lots to think about and I appreciate all your responses. It helps, thanks.
If your price range for a home is only $100k there's really not going to be anything available for you anywhere within an hour of Eugene that has acreage with a home already on it unless the home is close to falling down. Even bare land with no utilities or buildings in place usually costs over $100k. If you're seeing any kind of properties available under 100k that have a house on the property, they're probably major fixers or mobile homes in poor shape. Hopefully you're handy enough to do your own renovations.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-02-2016, 02:00 PM
 
248 posts, read 448,763 times
Reputation: 435
Also most of the smaller towns outside of the cities tend to be pretty conservative. You find most of the progressive people in Eugene and Portland. On the coast Manzanita is pretty artsy and progressive but very far from TJ's.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-04-2016, 10:42 AM
 
Location: WA
5,316 posts, read 7,604,151 times
Reputation: 8301
Honestly, what you are looking for is a pretty unique type of property and it will likely take you a long time to research and find the right place. Not something you can easily do long distance. It is one thing if you were looking for ordinary houses on zillow and could just pull up a listing and look at it. But you are looking for a fairly eclectic type of property that could take a long time to find.

Consequently, my recommendation would be to find some sort of cheap rental in the Eugene metro area. Maybe a shared apartment or house situation on craigslist or something. Get your feet under you and learn the lay of the land and settle into your job. Use your weekends and free time to really explore the area and eventually the right opportunity will come along.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-07-2016, 08:44 AM
 
Location: Coos Bay, Oregon
7,138 posts, read 10,975,063 times
Reputation: 7807
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sleam View Post
It seems that the I5 corridor is the key area in my price range. I don't mind an hour's commute as it's what I do right now, living in a small artistic town of 350 south of Santa Fe but I work in town three to four days a week. The pay off is that my home and land were paid off fast and I can spend time at home writing, take holidays, and work part time. A full time job just to pay to live in a city was never a goal of mine! Still I love the idea of a coastal area but I realize that I'd be driving up to three hours each work day to make that happen but the homes are cheaper and under $100k which is all I want to pay for a one or two bed home. It's cheaper than rent! And yes, Bend is out of my range completely.
Lots to think about and I appreciate all your responses. It helps, thanks.
Keep your commute to under 30 minutes. Driving in Oregon is more challenging then driving on a flat road in New Mexico. A 60 minute commute here can easily turn into a 90 minute trip on a two lane road when you get stuck behind a slow moving RV traveling 10 or 20 mph under the speed limit. Also road construction and car accidents can dramatically lengthen a trip.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-07-2016, 11:06 AM
 
958 posts, read 1,139,425 times
Reputation: 1795
Quote:
Originally Posted by KaaBoom View Post
Keep your commute to under 30 minutes. Driving in Oregon is more challenging then driving on a flat road in New Mexico. A 60 minute commute here can easily turn into a 90 minute trip on a two lane road when you get stuck behind a slow moving RV traveling 10 or 20 mph under the speed limit. Also road construction and car accidents can dramatically lengthen a trip.
1. Kaaboom is right. Commuting from the coast would suck and the sub 100 houses anywhere within an hour of eug are going to be dumps. You really need to up your budget or get a mortgage.
2. Sounds like you consider yourself progressive and want to be around other progessives? Then you should probably stay in eug. Maybe try cottage grove? But i doubt you will find a good place there under 100k.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-07-2016, 04:32 PM
 
26,510 posts, read 36,380,464 times
Reputation: 29587
Maybe look at some of the homes in Westfir. There are some small homes there, and only going into town 3-4 days per week at non-rush hour times wouldn't be so bad. I'd even do it myself, especially over renting a room in Eugene. I'm a writer too, and if you're like me, communal living would result in a loss of income -- roommate situations aren't conducive to working at home.
Your people are fairly well-represented in Westfir/Oakridge. I suppose the idea of what constitutes a "dump" is subjective, but you could find a property there for less than 100K that I wouldn't call a "dump." You wouldn't be able to have acreage, but I'm not seeing where that's part of your criteria anyway. Plenty of small homes in the area that were built to house mill workers back in the timber days, and it sounds like you've got the skills to fix something up anyway. I saw a couple of foreclosures up there that looked interesting recently. My brother just bought a small cottage-style home with good bones that needs a little cosmetic work but is otherwise perfectly livable. I'd rent first, though, and take time to explore the area before buying.

ETA I don't want to make it sound like the place is crawling with -100 homes for sale, just that for what you want, it's probably doable. I can't say that it'll stay the same for long; stuff seems to be going up all over the state.

Last edited by Metlakatla; 03-07-2016 at 05:40 PM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-09-2016, 06:51 PM
 
13 posts, read 15,335 times
Reputation: 31
I can't imagine you would actually save money commuting 1-2 hours every day just to get slightly cheaper housing. Mr. Money Mustache would tell you that is a terrible idea
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Oregon > Eugene area

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top