Moving to Polk County, Oregon (Salem, Dallas: sale, apartments, new home)

[bhdaniels]

My husband and I are retiring in 14 months. We are moving from Lewiston, Idaho to be near our daughter and family who live in Salem, Oregon. We want to be in a smaller community 10-20 miles from Salem. We have been looking at Dallas, but recently Monmouth has interested me. What are the pros and cons of both? My husband likes the small town feel.

[Steve Pickering]

Smaller but most of the same services. University town. Directly on Hwy 99 and bisected by it.

[Larry Caldwell]

Take a look at Independence. It's closer to Salem via River Road, which is a delightful drive.

[Steve Pickering]

Don't forget River road is closed part of many years just outside Independence. If a very large Latino population is not what you are looking for, Independence would not be a good choice. But otherwise it is the more prosperous of the two joined at the hip cities. I expect it will become one, once the government realizes the duplication of tax paid services is foolish. Lots of new homes. Not so many in Monmouth. A new school too. And tons of new apartments, although Monmouth just got several also. Independence is only closer by a few feet depending on where you live. And most of Monmouth is right down 99 to 22 and high speed into Salem. Highway 51 out of either city can get backed up.

[Silverfall]

I think Monmouth-Independence has that small town feel. Dallas does too but it has grown a lot more. Growth was a bit tighter in the other two cities. MI is closer to Salem but both have easy access to Salem. River Rd does get closed sometimes for flooding but you would still have access to Salem via 22.

Western Oregon University is in Monmouth but it isn't a huge school. It has about 6,000 students or so. So it won't feel like the cities with the really large universities. Monmouth was a dry city until 2003 when they repealed the prohibition on the sale of alcohol in city limits.

99 Does bisect the city and it is an ugly strip, but Salem has Lancaster Dr so we are even on that front. ;-)

[Steve Pickering]

The tract homes started before the bust are back on the agenda for completion and expansion in Independence. I expect 14,000 people by 2020 or sooner.