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My 2 grown sons and 3 grandsons (ages 14, 7 & 3) are planning to move to Oregon but we are unsure of which city. We've narrowed it down to Klamath Falls, Medford/Ashland or Grants Pass. Our priorities are affordable housing and school districts. We are self-employed so employment is not the issue. We are from California and are looking for a quiet simple lifestyle. We've heard there's a terrible drug problem in Klamath Falls and are concerned about that. But we also realize that there's problems (drug or crime) in any city so we don't want to be scared off just because we heard from someone that it's a Meth city. Can anyone speak to this? Also, what are the best schools in Klamath Falls? How about neighborhoods?
We know Medford is a bit bigger of a city which I know has it's drawbacks since we are seeking a quieter life. How are the schools in Medford? Which areas are best to live in for Medford/Ashland area?
Lastly, we are looking at Grants Pass. We see that housing is more expensive but maybe it is worth it. What are the schools like in Grants Pass? We also want to consider living outside of town but have no idea which area would be best.
Any feedback you can give on any or all of these 3 cities is greatly appreciated. We are just hoping to find a decent neighborhood with a good school district to live.
Most small/rural cities in Oregon (and California, for that matter) have a drug and drug-related crime problem. It tends to be property crime related, rather than violent crime related. The areas you list are no exception. You need to pick your neighborhoods (likely based on schools) carefully.
Generally schools are better within city limits (not 100% the case). Boundary exemptions can be difficult to get. The rental market tends to be tight, particularly in good school districts.
Klamath Falls will be the cheapest city to find housing. Of the three areas you list, the schools there have the lowest ratings. The up side of Klamath Falls is that it is close to a lot of beautiful natural spots (although that is true of any city in Southern Oregon) and is one of the sunniest cities in Oregon. Because it is high desert, the climate is dry, the area is brown most of the year and winters are cold. Spring and Fall are very short shoulder seasons to the two main seasons, winter and summer. The area has a very strong agricultural base (alfalfa and potatoes, ranching).
Grants Pass and Medford have similar climates with 4 full seasons. The area is green and heavily-treed year-round, with the exception of a short period before the fall rains start. Winter is cool, rainy and overcast, summers are very hot and dry, spring and fall are full seasons. There is an agricultural base here, too, but it is smaller plots - timber, produce, wineries, orchards.
Grants Pass is larger than Klamath Falls, relatively self-contained as far as services, offers quite a bit more in the way of city amenities than Klamath Falls does. Grants Pass is in Josephine County and the area outside the city of Grants Pass has severe funding issues, as far as sheriff and jails and has times when there are no sheriff's officer available or on patrol in the county.
Medford is about twice as large as Grants Pass, the hub of the area. Medford has the area's airport, which has flights to Portland, Seattle, Denver, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles. (Klamath Falls has an airport with a large National Guard base, but lost the only commercial carrier last year, so at this time there is no public air service - there is an Amtrak station in Klamath).
I would probably choose Grants Pass as top choice because of proximity to rivers and Applegate wine area. It's also a bit cooler which I prefer. I would then choose Medford and finally Klamath Falls. I feel Klamath Falls is too far out for me. I feel Medford Ashland and Grants Pass are closer to each other and I-5 which is nice.
Can I jump on this thread since I have similar questions? I live in San Diego currently and have 3 children between the ages of 3 and 10. My husband was scouted by a recruiter for a job in Medford in the medical field. I have honestly never heard of Medford before and am a little bit scared to move someplace where I might not fit in or find similarly minded friends. So far, the main appeal for us is the very low cost of living compared to where we live now. Can someone be honest with me about what Medford is really like and what the people are like there? Are they friendly and outgoing, or do they keep to themselves mostly? Are people mostly liberal, conservative, or an even mix? Are most people college educated? What types of restaurants and shopping are available? Are the schools OK?
Can I jump on this thread since I have similar questions? I live in San Diego currently and have 3 children between the ages of 3 and 10. My husband was scouted by a recruiter for a job in Medford in the medical field. I have honestly never heard of Medford before and am a little bit scared to move someplace where I might not fit in or find similarly minded friends. So far, the main appeal for us is the very low cost of living compared to where we live now. Can someone be honest with me about what Medford is really like and what the people are like there? Are they friendly and outgoing, or do they keep to themselves mostly? Are people mostly liberal, conservative, or an even mix? Are most people college educated? What types of restaurants and shopping are available? Are the schools OK?
There is a ton of facts and figure info right here on City-Data. //www.city-data.com/city/Medford-Oregon.html Not many forum members in Medford but the one or two regular contributors there are will be very helpful.
Working in Medford you could also look at living in Ashland which some think of as a "little California town."
Can I jump on this thread since I have similar questions? I live in San Diego currently and have 3 children between the ages of 3 and 10. My husband was scouted by a recruiter for a job in Medford in the medical field. I have honestly never heard of Medford before and am a little bit scared to move someplace where I might not fit in or find similarly minded friends. So far, the main appeal for us is the very low cost of living compared to where we live now. Can someone be honest with me about what Medford is really like and what the people are like there? Are they friendly and outgoing, or do they keep to themselves mostly? Are people mostly liberal, conservative, or an even mix? Are most people college educated? What types of restaurants and shopping are available? Are the schools OK?
The areas within cities tend liberal, the suburbs and rural areas tend more conservative, much like California and the rest of the country. There is a libertarian bent to both conservative and liberal politics here.
The most liberal city would be Ashland, with a lot of what I'd call New Age and "crunchy" (used to be called "granola") shopping and services - this mixes with a very upscale retiree and tourist population. Ashland has some very good schools and hands-down the best grocery stores (note: I did not say the cheapest grocery stores). The most conservative areas would be rural areas outside the cities.
As far as cost of living, what you will find is that housing is less expensive than San Diego, but most other costs sort of balance out. Oregon has no sales tax, but you will likely pay about 9% in income tax (slightly less, as the taxes go up in marginal brackets). The property tax is around $11 per assessed thousand and there are limits on how much the assessment can go up year on year.
Medford is a mostly blue-collar town - once that meant people worked in the mills and wood products plants, now it means that an awful lot of people work service jobs. It also used to mean that higher education was not particularly valued for getting a living-wage job, so the percentage of people with college degrees is somewhat lower than other cities in Oregon. Medford does not have a 4 year college (Southern Oregon University, a small public liberal arts school, is in Ashland).
People are "west coast friendly," meaning that people will chat. Becoming part of someone's intimate social circle is a little harder, but generally that happens through kids, school and work rather than just meeting someone randomly.
The valley has some crime problems, mostly due to drugs and alcohol. As I5 goes through the valley, it is part of the drug corridor that goes up and down the west coast. Most crime is more property crime related than violent crime related - things like drive-by shooting, while they can happen, tend to be rare. In choosing a house, there are definitely parts of the valley and the city that you'd want to avoid, but any realtor can help with that.
Schools are also mixed, you'd have to pick an area with an eye on the school quality. Schools tend to be better in the cities.
Shopping and entertainment will be much reduced, compared to where you are now. The entire Rogue Valley population is around 200,000, you are coming from an area of around 3.1 million. That is quite a difference, size-wise and shopping and entertainment is where you will really see the difference. There is only one freeway in the entire area. There are none of the wide 6-8 lane boulevards with planted medians. Those just don't exist here.
People that fit in the best tend to be nature lovers - willing to take off to the mountains, the rivers or the coast (we don't actually have beaches the way you likely think of them). Someone who is very urban in preference might not like the area.
Eliminate K-Falls from the list. There is very little to recommend it except low cost of living. K-Falls has the cheapest real estate in Oregon and there's a reason why.
Grants Pass and Medford both have their pluses and minuses; my preference would be Grants Pass for the lower crime rate.
Ashland is the nicest town in the area but it's pricey for a town its size.
Can I jump on this thread since I have similar questions? I live in San Diego currently and have 3 children between the ages of 3 and 10. My husband was scouted by a recruiter for a job in Medford in the medical field. I have honestly never heard of Medford before and am a little bit scared to move someplace where I might not fit in or find similarly minded friends. So far, the main appeal for us is the very low cost of living compared to where we live now. Can someone be honest with me about what Medford is really like and what the people are like there? Are they friendly and outgoing, or do they keep to themselves mostly? Are people mostly liberal, conservative, or an even mix? Are most people college educated? What types of restaurants and shopping are available? Are the schools OK?
I've lived in Southern Oregon my entire life. I have lived in Medford for most of my life (Klamath Falls for the very early years). True, we have a lower cost of living, but you must consider that our living wage is quite a bit lower as well. As a previous poster mentioned, Medford is a blue collar community. Not sure what "similarly minded" is for you, but Ashland is considered liberal around here, Medford more on the conservative side with a decent base of liberal minded folk, Grants Pass a bit more conservative, with Klamath Falls being the most conservative of them all.
We are pretty friendly. I like the West Coast friendly description. I would take advantage of looking at a few of our Facebook community type pages to get a better feel for some of the valley. Jackson County Police Scanner Page is one, and another one would be West Medford Residents. The "better" side of town overall to live on is East Medford. I've lived on both sides, currently on the Southwest side and enjoy it very much.
I don't think it is a dream place to raise kids/live, but then again, I've not experienced big city life. Perhaps the drug use/fake gang/depression/mental health problems we have here are small in comparison to what larger cities face. We do struggle with drug problems in this valley, but I will say..we have a pretty good Police Department in the City of Medford.
You will find the best restaurants and more spendy shopping in Ashland. Shopping is ok in Medford. Not amazing, but it slowly gets better with time. If you need better shopping(Nordstrom's, etc), Eugene is only about 3 hours away. We have Macy's, Kohls, JCPenny, Gap, Old Navy, Justice, Gymboree, TJMaxx, and some upper retail establishments as well (Urban Minx). We also have Trader Joe's, Natural Grocers, Costco, some smaller local food co-ops and a great Farmer's Market in the area.
Schools. In Medford, I would recommend the following elementary-middle school-high school path. Hoover-Hedrick-South Medford High School. The Hoover school district can have some nice homes. Not the nicest in the area, but pretty nice. The other top elementary schools would be Abraham Lincoln, Lone Pine, Griffin Creek and Jacksonville. One thing I will mention is we have a large homeschool base in this valley, which is growing each year. We have a charter school(LOGOS) that caters specifically to homeschooling families for K-12. They even offer a course in high school where the student can graduate high school with a two year degree from our local community college (Rogue Community College).
About Jacksonville....this is where I would love to live and would highly recommend you check out. It is a quaint, small, charming town about 5 miles outside of Medford. It is BEAUTIFUL. It is much more expensive to live there. They have great dinning options in the small town. It is a very small, close knit community. Jacksonville Elementary is an excellent option in this area for elementary schools.
If you love wine, you will enjoy living in our area. We have numerous vineyards and wineries in the area. We have become quite notable in the wine industry.
So, hopefully some of that may have helped a bit. I love Oregon. It's not always perfect, but the beauty can't be beat around here.
We live in the mountains but have bought our vittles & other goods in Grants Pass, for over 28 year.....
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I would take advantage of looking at a few of our Facebook community type pages to get a better feel for some of the valley. Jackson County Police Scanner Page is one, and another one would be West Medford Residents. The "better" side of town overall to live on is East Medford. I've lived on both sides, currently on the Southwest side and enjoy it very much. 
