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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    oregon
    Posts
    2,870

    Living in Central Oregon

    Might be moving to the Bend/Redmond/Prineville area in the near future. I've always thought of it as overpopulated and a little bit too much like southern california than Oregon. Traffic, sprawl and everyone with a bike or kayak on their car has always turned me off a little bit. On the other hand, it seems like there is plenty to do to get away from the urban madness. Plenty.

    I think I'm biased because I used to drive through Bend 15 years ago long before the bypass went in. Seemed like a cool little town then, still seems like a cool bigger town now.

    What are rents like for a 1 bedroom apt or small house? What is the market like for sub 150,000 dollar houses right now?

    Where is a good place to live in Bend/Redmond/Prineville? I'm not loaded, so I'm not moving into a McMansion on the westside probably.
    "These are crazy times Mr Hatter, crazy times. Crazy like Buddha! Muwahaha!"

  2. #2
    BSS Guest
    Funny. I'm looking at a nice little fixer-upper in LaPine and a few others right this second.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Sweden/b'ham
    Posts
    1,105
    i think Bend had a huge real estate bubble go thermonuclear on them, so you might be able to score in that department. I also think unemployment is off the deep end. I assume you are moving there for a job, but if not you might want to get your ducks in a row.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    be here now
    Posts
    5,369
    Char, PM me and I can give you the lowdown
    Let me lock in the system at Warp 2
    Push it on into systematic overdrive
    You know what to do

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Portland
    Posts
    798
    Bend and Central Oregon overall is really cool and beautiful. Ya it's been a little bit Californicated, but comparing "traffic" in Bend to Southern California is ridiculous. Town, or small city..whatever, seems to have a pretty cool mountain vibe. There are a number of world class athletes living there. Ya it's grown a lot, but it's still pretty small compared to any real city. If I had a good job I'd move there in a second. You're extremely close to fantastic outdoor recreation, including great mountain biking right from town, and decent resort skiing that gets lots of snow. If you had a snowmobile for access, I think the backcountry options would be pretty incredible and way under the radar around there.

    I guess it depends where you're coming from for comparison. If you live in a city where it takes an hour drive to decent skiing or mountain biking, Bend would be an awesome change. I suppose if you're coming from Jackson or Revelstoke or something, maybe the "traffic" and "sprawl" would get to you.

    Prineville is a long ways from the mountains. I wouldn't move out there if you like to ski or bike. Redmond seems pretty pointless for the same reasons and that it's ugly and looks pretty damn boring from the stoplights on 97. LaPine is in a lot better location than those two.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Looking down
    Posts
    50,491
    "During the late spring and summer from May to August, pain eased slightly for some of the nation's most stressed areas. Deschutes County, home to Bend, Ore., had been among the 40 most stressed counties in May. But in August, it saw its unemployment dip and its foreclosure rate hold steady.

    Much of that relief came from seasonal jobs in landscaping and manufacturing of wood products. And it was limited mainly to blue-collar seasonal workers -- not the engineers, planners, architects or designers who lost their jobs when Bend's once-thriving housing market cooled off.

    ''We didn't add enough full-time jobs for us to turn that corner,'' said Carolyn Eagan, a regional economist for the state of Oregon. ''That's what we need right now.''"

    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009...mployed&st=cse


    And, I read an article about six months ago about how Bend is basically full of California refugees who thought they were escaping hell for paradise, which, I guess they were for a while, but are now out of work with no hope of anything substantial and owned by a new MacMansion way underwater.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    OREYGUN!
    Posts
    14,565
    Central Oregon is dead and real estate is cheap cheap cheap--> i was blown away my buddy just scored a 3 bed 2 bath house in the mill district for 145k. im looking at a few rentals myself.

  8. #8
    BSS Guest

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    OREYGUN!
    Posts
    14,565
    http://www.closerealty.com/storage/5...OD07_14_09.pdf

    wow, that be a lot of foreclosures.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    bend there live here
    Posts
    719

    40% off some of the best quality of life in the Country

    Real Estate speculation bubble in Bend Oregon
    "Do you have any idea what the street value of this mountain is" -Charles DeMar
    Never argue with an idiot..They always drag you down to their level and beat you with experience

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Bend, OR
    Posts
    109
    Bend is great. Traffic? You've got to be kidding? Not like any actual 'city'. It's nowhere near as bad as salem or eugene, and obviously not like portland.

    I bought a house just south of old mill in august of 07. Not such a great time. Actually, things were already started down at that point, so i got a better deal than people who bought a year before me. But you could sure do a WHOLE bunch better right now. I put the 20% down on my house, and i don't think i'm quite underwater, but that 20% is gone. *poof* It'll come back if i can wait long enough, the question is how long.

    If you're thinking about moving here, just make sure you have your job lined up first.

    As far as the area though, i absolutely love it and am super excited that I'm able to live here. I just hope i can stay, my job is not producing very well this last year. Winter will not be pretty.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    EWA
    Posts
    22,002
    When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something. To do something." Rep. John Lewis


    Kindness is a bridge between all people

    Dunkin’ Donuts Worker Dances With Customer Who Has Autism

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    50 miles E of Paradise
    Posts
    15,540
    Bend was one of the top five fastest growing 10 years ago. And we all know how that turned out...
    And OP may be moving to New England now...

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    3,806
    Lehigh Acres, Florida is a "city"..?








  15. #15
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Bend, OR
    Posts
    109
    Quote Originally Posted by TroySmith80 View Post
    Bend is great. Traffic? You've got to be kidding? Not like any actual 'city'. It's nowhere near as bad as salem or eugene, and obviously not like portland.

    If you're thinking about moving here, just make sure you have your job lined up first.

    As far as the area though, i absolutely love it and am super excited that I'm able to live here. I just hope i can stay, my job is not producing very well this last year. Winter will not be pretty.
    Wow, that was then (2009) this is now. Traffic is substantially more frustrating now than it was then. The housing prices are really frustrating too. The median home value in Bend is $438,800! And still climbing. And yes, still bring your job. The outdoor recreation areas are feeling pretty crowded these days, cars stacked along the highway near trail heads / rec-areas because the parking lots are overflowing. Cool areas are getting shut down or restricted due to overuse and abuse.

    Sadly, I can't recommend the area as enthusiastically as i did 10 years ago. I actually live in Sisters right now (much much smaller town about 20 miles from bend) and prefer it in a lot of ways, though it is missing many of the benefits of Bend.

    Last fall i took a roadtrip with my wife and kid around the southwest, looking for less expensive places to live that still have great climate and recreation opportunities. Southern Colorado, Northern AZ, New Mexico. There are some cool places, but most of them are going to be difficult to find affordable housing and decent job prospects. Also, many of them made me feel nervous about their future (or even current!) water supply.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    PDX
    Posts
    4,734
    Man, reading OP inquiring about sub 150k houses in Bend was a trip.

    Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using TGR Forums mobile app

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    EWA
    Posts
    22,002
    Back in the late 80s I used to spend two weeks in Bend showing at the Michelob Classic (held at the J-Bar-J Ranch).

    There was nothing in that town back then. When the horse show came to town we booked up all the hotels and kept the restaurants busy (what few there were). It was a great show that we always looked forward to but I remember lamenting the lack of dining choices and things to do when we weren't riding.
    When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something. To do something." Rep. John Lewis


    Kindness is a bridge between all people

    Dunkin’ Donuts Worker Dances With Customer Who Has Autism

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    50 miles E of Paradise
    Posts
    15,540
    When I was in college @ OSU, all of my roommates last two years were from Bend. Town was about 12000. After college I interviewed for a job at The Old Mill - when it was a sawmill complex, not a retail hell.

    And Sisters sucks. More drama per capital than anyplace outside WA DC. Place is overrun with PAVErs - People Against Virtually Everything - roundabouts, food carts, dispensaries, paved paths on USFS land just off the highway, airplanes taking off and landing at the airport.

    Left turns are impossible during daylight hours between May 15 and Sept 30. The Spandex Mafia rides three abreast when they leave the bike shop for their weekly ride.

    Mountain cats and bear run wild in town. Deer are so mean they stomp down Rottweilers. Coyotes have a steady diet of cats and yapper dogs.

    Don’t move there.

  19. #19
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    Sep 2009
    Posts
    781
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    Last edited by Groomer Gambler; 12-13-2019 at 08:10 AM.

  20. #20
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    Sep 2009
    Posts
    781
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    Last edited by Groomer Gambler; 12-13-2019 at 08:10 AM.

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