Lebanon, Sweet Home, commute? (Eugene, Springfield: rent, insurance, crime)

[oregoncoast bound]

My wife and I will be moving to Oregon soon. We are looking at housing in Sweet Home or Lebanon as it seems you can get more house and land for your money. My wife will commute to Eugene for her job. Can anyone give us input as to the town situations in Sweet Home or Lebanon: crime, friendliness, conservative or liberal feel,things to do, schools? Also, does anyone live there and commute to Eugene for work? How is the drive every day? Any info into these would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[hamellr]

It's a distance of 44 miles, which in Oregon terms is quite a commute. I believe any savings you find are going to be eaten up by gas prices and insurance.

I'd suggest looking closer to Eugene. Springfield, Colburg, Junction City, Thurston, Harrisburg would be better choices in my opinion.

Lebanon is a retirement community. It gets overflow population from Albany.

Sweet Home is a bit better, there is some new development in town, but I believe most of that is catered towards tourists going to Sisters.

Both are small town, towards the Conservative side but heavily influence by being near Corvallis and Eugene (both of which have big colleges.) Crime tends towards domestic violence and drug possession. Entertainment and recreation is TV and going to a bar. Did I mention the small town part?

There is some recreation nearby, but it's a man made lake. There is some gold mining up the river. Other then that I can't think of anything, not even local museums.

[Silverfall]

If you have kids I strongly encourage you to look at the schools. Eugene schools are significantly better than those two towns. Sweet Home is a hard hit town. It is an old logging town that was pretty much decimated in the 1980's logging downturn. Even during the boom unemployment was like 10-12% there. It's too far off the highway for folks to really commute from there so it is kind of an isolated town. It did have some improvement during the boom, but I think unemployment is around 15-16% there.

I would strongly encourage you not to buy a home in either of those cities but rent there first if that is what you are thinking. You need to decide if you want to live there, and I agree that I personally don't consider them very commutable cities to Eugene.

Other than cheap home prices, what are you looking for in a town to live in?

[oregoncoast bound]

Thanks for the replies, we are looking for a smaller town with reasonable housing. We have an 18 month old child so future schools are an issue. We are also looking into Harrisburg, Junction City and possibly Veneta. Any thoughts on those towns?

[skinem]

Harrisburg, JC and Veneta are definitely a much more realistic commute than your original towns. I have family in Harrisburg and Veneta...different personalities. Harrisburg was always more of a farming town, while Veneta used to be more of a logging oriented town that has become mostly a bedroom community for Eugene.
Check the schools out--if I remember correctly, Harrisburg is Central Linn district (or am I thinking about Halsey?) and Veneta is Elmira schools...

[SourGrape]

Just an FYI I moved to Sweet Home a year ago from California. I purchased a home before living here. I was hoping the small town feel would be a great life style change for my 2 kids. I would recommend that you move to a the Eugene/Springfield area, or any where else. I cannot wait to get out of here. The schools are over ran with drugs and bored teenagers with nothing to do but have sex and get pregnant. Dont forget to look at the price of taxes on your property .... mine are sky high and Oregon adds 3% every year.

[redrebel66]

Originally Posted by SourGrape

Just an FYI I moved to Sweet Home a year ago from California. I purchased a home before living here. I was hoping the small town feel would be a great life style change for my 2 kids. I would recommend that you move to a the Eugene/Springfield area, or any where else. I cannot wait to get out of here. The schools are over ran with drugs and bored teenagers with nothing to do but have sex and get pregnant. Dont forget to look at the price of taxes on your property .... mine are sky high and Oregon adds 3% every year.

Amen, you want to be anywhere else but either of these two towns. I feel bad for my son in the sh jr high. I wished I could give him more of an opportunity.

[AndyLoosbrock]

Originally Posted by Silverfall

If you have kids I strongly encourage you to look at the schools. Eugene schools are significantly better than those two towns. Sweet Home is a hard hit town. It is an old logging town that was pretty much decimated in the 1980's logging downturn. Even during the boom unemployment was like 10-12% there. It's too far off the highway for folks to really commute from there so it is kind of an isolated town. It did have some improvement during the boom, but I think unemployment is around 15-16% there.

I would strongly encourage you not to buy a home in either of those cities but rent there first if that is what you are thinking. You need to decide if you want to live there, and I agree that I personally don't consider them very commutable cities to Eugene.

Other than cheap home prices, what are you looking for in a town to live in?

My wife and I are looking at Lebanon, and one of our MAIN reasons is the local Christian pre-12.

[trixie09]

Originally Posted by AndyLoosbrock

My wife and I are looking at Lebanon, and one of our MAIN reasons is the local Christian pre-12.

As someone who moved to the PNW 8 years ago, and has family and friends around the region, AND spends a ton of time traveling the region and researching towns, I cannot stress enough that you should never go by what you read about a town or region without physically going there and spending several days.

It's so easy to get excited about a place, because all of the things seem to line up on paper (or the internet as it were,) for your needs. But we often miss the most important things, like how it feels and how it looks. As my husband says, you can make any place look wonderful on a website.

If you're moving from another State, you really have to spend a good long visit or two to get the vibe. Things do "make sense" sometimes, but are completely unlivable. Lots of towns have Christian schools, if you're into that... but beware the places that seem to have cheaper housing with lots of land, it usually = depressed.

Hopefully you have a non-summer trip planned soon to check out the towns you're considering. I say non-summer, because the PNW is breathtaking in the summer, and you need to see it without any leaves on the trees, and the gray skies to get a balanced picture. Oh, and definitely use the Google street map live feature to "drive" around the towns you're considering. It's a big help to see how it looks as you "drive" around.

[AndyLoosbrock]

Coming from southwest MN, we are not at all worried about the winter gloom. We average 50 inches of snow and bitter cold temps from November 1 - April 1. Not only that, it is grey 75% of the time. Plus it never warms, so we stare at the SAME snow piles for 4-5 months. So my wife and I are not worried about the gloomy winters.

What does scare me is, my kids obviously are not born yet, but I want to provide them every opportunity possible! Lebanon seems like a good central location. Good housing market. Pretty town. Lots going on, compared to my current town, of 125 citizens, no school and no grocery store.

We are visiting for a weekend soon. That is all the time I could get off work.

Thanks for replying to me! this is a very tough decision. But when you consider how small the town I live in is, the winters here, etc., I think anywhere will be better, at this point.