Living in Prosser (Kennewick, Richland, Walla Walla: sales, apartment, rental)

[NCMover1017]

I need honest opinions about living in Prosser. My husband and I are seriously considering making the move, but I need to hear from those who really know what life is like in Prosser; the good, the bad and the ugly. We would be moving with our three children (two in elementary and one toddler). The thought is to purchase land and start a small hobby farm. My husband would be working in Umatilla, but is willing to make the commute. I grew up in a small town in New England, so the idea of living in a small, rural town does not scare me. Any thoughts, opinions would be greatly appreciated.

[pnwguy2]

M3 Mitch, another poster on here, I think lives in or near Prosser, so I'm sure we will hear from him.

Prosser is a small town, about 30 miles from the Tri-Cities major mall (as a point of reference). While small, it is growing with the wine industry and is attracting many who prefer a more rural setting.

Prosser to Umatilla isn't a terrible commute, it might even be easier and faster to go up into the Horse Heaven Hills via SR221 and SR14. However, this route could be icy in the winter.

Prosser is in Benton County, same as Richland and Kennewick. Climate is similar, hot summers, cool, somewhat cloudy winters, usually not much snow.

Mitch...pick it up from here!

[M3 Mitch]

Yeah, I live about 5 miles west of Prosser, not in the city proper.

While Prosser is a decent little town, I would not set myself up to commute from there to Umatilla, particularly in winter. If you work in Oregon, you are stuck with the income tax from Oregon. The hot setup is to live and work in Washington, then shop in Oregon, BTW.

I would suggest you "cross shop" the Umatilla area, it's not that different from the Prosser area physically.

You should post up your reasons for considering Prosser over Umatilla, and then the collective can talk about how real or not these ideas are.

Good luck in any case!

[NCMover1017]

Thanks for the insight, Mitch. To be honest, we were lead to initially look at the Tri-cities area because I believe many of my husband's coworkers live there. We liked the area, specifically Richland and parts of Kennewick because of the strong school system. When looking at available properties, we soon realized that to live in that area we would most likely end up living in a subdivision with a smaller lot (similar to how we have lived for years now). Since we don't intend to move to the area until next Summer/Fall, we quickly started looking into the possibility of building. (I was an architect prior to becoming a full time mom.) Our search soon turned to available property near Tri-cities, and that brought Prosser to our attention. Now that I have warmed to the idea of living a more rural lifestyle, I certainly will investigate the areas around Umatilla. A quick search today actually pulled up a property in Echo. Does anyone have any thoughts or knowledge of Echo? Hermiston also looks like a possibility. Thoughts?

[M3 Mitch]

I would suggest that you can get more house for your money, usually, buying what's already built, but, of course that does not get you a house built to your own desires. Having experience as an architect, you probably could draw up exactly what you want and get it built, and would know what you are doing, which is rare when people want a custom house built.

You may find the builders are not interested in building anything but quite large houses.

But I think living in Richland and working in Umatilla would be "worst of both worlds" - you would pay Oregon's income tax, and unless you shopped exclusively in Oregon, you would pay Washington's sales tax. That and the commute would be ugly in winter, although the main bulk of traffic, such as it is, in Richland/Kennewick is going north in the morning, south in the evening, so you would be in the "empty" lanes.

I visit Hermiston occasionally, it's a neat little town, but I have not looked for a country house around there. Probably makes sense to post up in the Oregon forums to ask about that.

Under duress I would admit that my impression is the schools in Richland are a bit better than Hermiston, but not having kids myself I don't pay much attention, and would suggest that the Hermiston schools are robustly good enough.

[StealthRabbit]

Echo, OR is a pretty good choice (for the region) Build / live in the state you work, hopefully you can get employment in WA (Then I would choose Walla Walla or Waitsburg. ) Walla Walla Sustainable Living Center is a great place to network with locals who have a 'designer-bent'. Sustainable Living Center (They used to host the BEST building and design events + tours!!)

I would be very cautious about building new. As MM mentioned there is a lot of available existing stuff for your money.

What I tend to do...(shh) ... buy a trashed mobile home on view acreage, (Water / power / septic / road / outbuildings, all included... and ezr to get a permit.)

First I build a shop with apartment to live in while building and with RV hookups (very quick place to stay!! Great for future guest home / office / caretaker home / rental / shop / kid's playroom...) _ excellent for storing all your treasures while preparing to build a house (Freecycle, contractor mis-orders / Habitat reStore / rebuilding center..)

The MH can be 'taken care of' in about 4 hrs (rent an excavator and dumpster)

The farm life was great for our kids (Eggs, u-pick, veggies, 4-H, livestock, fix-it projects...)

We homeschooled while living in the PNW, (and internationally) There are HUGE homeschool support groups. (ours was 300+) We hired retired professors to teach week long intense programs at great PNW camps / science sites. when HS age... get to WA... FREE FT College INSTEAD of burning daylight in HS... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_Start. RS is a GREAT opportunity for thousands since 1991. Including all mine and most their peers. (since they were expected to (and did) pay 100% for college). I even had a BOSS who had completed RS in the 1990's, she was GREAT (From Dayton, WA)

As an architect.. you may appreciate (or not) that I taught my kids CAD in jr high, and they designed their own homes (Chalets) while we lived in Spain and Switzerland. When we returned to USA (Grade 9) they built these homes from scratch. (In the US Federally restrictive Columbia River Gorge (tough to get permits / approval / inspections)). It was great training and family engagement (we all helped each other) during troublesome 'adolescent' yrs , as well as provided them with $70k earnings (each) for College. AND the big bonus... kept them IN COLLEGE as they were not keen on running a shovel / hammer / bulldozer the rest of their lives. Was a very good thing in many ways... I recently saw one FS on Zillow, very cute / special with lots of stone, wood, built-ins and GREAT views! Reminded me of the 'good years'... family time. enjoy it... It is very short!

[pnwguy2]

I would not make a decision based on taxes, though Mitch makes a good point that if you work in Oregon and live in Washington you still pay the Oregon income tax. The bonus, however, is you could do most of your shopping in Oregon without having to drive there and save with the lack of a sales tax. You would be better served by what town feels best.

I have never been a huge fan of Hermiston, it seems like an overgrown rural city IMO. There is a Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Safeway, but that is about it unless I am missing something. There are no freeways, except for I-82 which skirts just to west of the town, and almost everything is centered on Hwy 395, a real bottleneck.

However, Hermiston is still larger than Prosser, but from what I can tell, you are not looking for "bigness" in your location.

[M3 Mitch]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

I would not make a decision based on taxes, though Mitch makes a good point that if you work in Oregon and live in Washington you still pay the Oregon income tax. The bonus, however, is you could do most of your shopping in Oregon without having to drive there and save with the lack of a sales tax. You would be better served by what town feels best.

I have never been a huge fan of Hermiston, it seems like an overgrown rural city IMO. There is a Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Safeway, but that is about it unless I am missing something. There are no freeways, except for I-82 which skirts just to west of the town, and almost everything is centered on Hwy 395, a real bottleneck.

However, Hermiston is still larger than Prosser, but from what I can tell, you are not looking for "bigness" in your location.

What I am trying to say is, IMHO, the slightly better schools in Richland or Kennewick are not worth the commute, which will sometimes get ugly in winter, and, that if you work in Oregon and are thus stuck paying that state's income tax, to me it makes more sense to live there and use their services, rather than say live in Richland, where I *think* you would have higher property taxes.

That and the area around Tri and Prosser you will have fewer rural properties to choose from, compared to Hermiston and Umatilla areas. Them being off the Interstate should help reduce the crowding and "growth" so you might get a better deal there.

I do agree that you don't need to choose "whatever is cheaper", but instead look at what kind of "fit" each area is for you. But I can't see setting up a long commute without much benefit.