Ranch style living in Oregon

Recently we posted that we are a family living in Arizona wanting to move to Oregon. Medford was our target for having a small ranch with horses and other few animals. Are there any places near Salem in which to have this? In Salem is this possible; like the outskirts of Salem?.. that would be ideal. We like the sounds of Salem and perhaps job-wise it might be a little bit better. Our ideal location would be no more than 15 minutes away from the major town. Between Eugene and Salem what would you Oregonians recommend? We look for low crime, good public schools, good Universities and good jobs. Weather wise does it rain everyday? During a typical year what are the rainy months? Does it rain all day or parts of the day? Thanks

Ranch style living in Oregon

Well I can%26#39;t answer some of these, but Mcminnville isn%26#39;t far from Salem but there is lots of ag land there. There definately is ag land in West Salem also.. my grandparents live where it starts.

Low crime- Oregon is pretty low all over except parts of Portland.

Universities .. you will be my Monmouth, and U of O (Eugene) and OSU (Corvallis.. I attended there it has high attendance for engineering)... I think Monmouth is more a teacher%26#39;s college but not sure. Also the Community Colleges in Oregon I think are at the top IMO.

Jobs, would definately need to be near a major city for high paying ones, otherwise change your lifestyle, most of Oregon is more laid back, but also the pay is less.

Weather wise.... of course it doesn%26#39;t rain everyday ;). the farther south and the farther east you get the less rain.

there are high deserts in Bend (this area would be great for jobs.. it is growing fast).. and deserts in Eastern Oregon, both see little precipitation. Not much south either, but these areas do see a bit of snow.

No snow hardly in NW Oregon.. West of the Cascades, more rain, but much greener.. coming from Arizona you will have never seen anything so green and beautiful.. yet also so muddy :)... here animals like horses can get rainrot.. so can people I tend to think LOL.

But it is by the beach, and the climate is mild, rarely freezing temps, and rarely above 85 degrees in the summer.

Each part of Oregon is definately unique, we have a mt range, deserts, high deserts, rainforests, and beaches :).

Rain in the Salem area, is mostly in the winter months, I would say November - March (sometimes in March we have another cold spell before spring really comes, other years it tapers off in February and is hot on spring break)... sometimes some of this is freezing, and a bit of snow, but not much and it clears quickly.

Salem gets alot less rainfall than Portland. Or Seaside. Salem can get into the 100%26#39;s but doesn%26#39;t stay that high for long.

Ranch style living in Oregon

Salem a bit less of an ';in place'; to move I think than Medford, so may be less expensive.

Eugene home to UofO fairly liberal school. Corvallis home to OSU a bit more conservative place, and so are Salem and Monmouth.

Portland area much more diverse

Take a serious look at Corvallis. Beautiful, friendly, quiet, University town.

You will pay a premium to live in Corvallis and the school populations are going down - not sure why but Corvallis is filled with highly educated people as there is a university and HP as major employers. Albany is a good choice but is more blue collar. The schools are great here (that%26#39;s my pride showing, sorry) but are bursting at the seam because more and more young families are moving here. I have in-laws living in the easternmost part of Salem and they have about 5 acres and have had horses, sheep chickens, mules, etc. Salem is just surrounded by ag land. You%26#39;ll find that most of the Willamette Valley is small towns surrounded by lots of ag land. Salem has a lot of state employment. There are prisons, mental health hospitals (see ';One Flew Over the Cookoo%26#39;s Nest) and lots of half-way houses. There are decent schools in Salem but there are some problems with gangs. Oregon has a serious meth problem but I%26#39;m sure most states will be catching up soon. Just means you need to make wise choices in terms of keeping valuables out of your car and out of site. OSU is a great state university and there are several good private U%26#39;s as well. It seems like every year is different in terms of precipitation. Right now we are going to have a 2 week stretch of dry weather after a week of snow and ice. Average high temp in winter is somewhere around 45 deg. Summers are dry and warm. Spring is pretty rainy. I would say that most Oregonians north of Eugene turn on the heat in there homes about the middle of October.

Medford gets more of the warm weather in summer. I lived there for about a year and felt that it had a California feel to it. It also felt very isolated. Salem probably has a more diverse job market where you can still live in a smallish town. Salem is more affordable than Medford.