Real driver of home prices in Oregon?

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by CosmoPoppy

I live in Northern CA. (Chico) where prices are relatively lower then most of California and people are coming here to retire like Oregon. - CA. is having financial problems from their Roads, Dams, Bridges, too many immigrants (Refugees are getting their College Fees paid by Government (like at SF State College) Dmv fees expensive, too many people and there is long waits in ER Rooms, Food and basic need costs high, etc. It ain't what is was when I came to San Diego from Indiana in 1967!! We are moving to Oregon in the next year.
Basically California people are taking much $$$ from the sale of their homes in LA, San Jose, San Diego and the Bay area and running prices up in Oregon. I was told by a Real Estate person a year ago that the market was so Hot in NW Salem to Portland California people were buying homes on the internet, otherwise if they took the time to come to Oregon it would be sold.

Why? It sounds like you're just going to be running into more of the same.

[tiggerbella]

We made the move to Oregon from Georgia and per your observation, were very concerned about existing home prices in general compared to what we were accustomed to. We retired to Oregon, renting an apartment in Eugene with the intention of spending a year searching for a place to call home. We are very familiar with the PNW and did not limit our search to Oregon. We have been visiting various places since we were in college in the late 70's. After 5 months looking around Eugene, up and down the Willamette Valley and considering WA (no income tax) we finally settled on Eugene. Portland is a mess traffic wise, and places like Beaverton just didn't feel right. The house we bought was built 10 yrs ago, is custom, brick and stucco front/hardi 3 sides and is 3000 sf and we paid mid 400's, not far above where we moved from. It's a great house in a great neighborhood. Roof is concrete tile. Moss on the tile is a controllable issue, and contrary to previous posts the brick is perfect and maintenance free. Although Eugene has the homeless problem, high property taxes, state inc. tax high, rainy winters, the pluses outweigh the minuses. Great wineries, breweries, skiing, hiking, fishing, close to coast, casinos, walking, great food choices, close to Tr. Joes and Costco, restaurants. Everything is within a 10-15 minute drive needs-wise. Good luck on your quest. There truly are many good places if you look hard enough.

[redguard57]

One of the Oregon state economists was on OPB talking about this issue maybe a month ago. I think it was a city club of Portland event.

He said "you get what you pay for" to some extent. Right now it's possible to buy a mansion in Detroit for 30,000. Do you want to go there?

We pay a price to live in a beautiful state.

I'm from Texas. Where I grew up it's flat floodplains as far as the eye can see. You can drive for hours and still be in it before a landscape change. If you wanted to hike, there were two wildlife refuges and a national seashore preserve within a 60-90 minute drive of my childhood home. That was it. In between were enormous privately owned ranches. No hiking trails in those.

But yeah, you can get a nice house for half as much as here. You'll need it to spend time in because there's not as much to do outdoors, plus it's oppressively hot in the summers.

How many beautiful, publicly accessible areas are within an hour's drive of any of us in any particular town in Oregon? A lot more I bet.

And then the dirty secret is that the parts of Texas you WANT to live? Pretty much all of Austin, the nice parts of Houston, DFW or San Antonio? Yeah, they're not cheap. Oh there's cheap property alright. In borderline neighborhoods/school districts, or long drives out.

[Surging Chaos]

Originally Posted by redguard57

I'm going to agree that it's the California equity refugees. The question is what drives their prices? Oregon as a whole is still cheaper than most of Califonia and Washington.

The housing and tech bubbles reinflated.

The Fed has pumped so much money into buying mortgage-backed securities that it's caused homes to skyrocket in value again. This has resulted in Californians using their homes as piggy banks (again...) and extracting all the equity to buy a home up north.