Move to Salem OR?

July 5, 2006 9:20 AM

Considering moving to Salem Oregon. Do you live there? Have you lived there before? How can I learn more about the area before we visit? There is

My husband and I are 30-ish. We might move and rent for a year or two, and then buy a house. We can swing a $250k mortgage. If we could live below our means that would be ideal. I don’t mind living in a suburb as long as everyone minds their own business (no associations). I would love a large yard and a tall fence; I am willing to sacrifice ‘culture’ for privacy and low crime. We want to have a kid, in 2-3 years. I want a fireplace, a dining room/area, a ‘master suite’, a basement. I like museums, books, dogs, bikes, roses. We are foodies, home bodies, but like to have friends over for dinner. We live in So Cal and housing prices here are prohibitive. Four years ago we moved here from Brooklyn. Before that we lived in the Midwest. I do like sun but also appreciate a light rain and a cloudy day. We don’t need night clubs or sport teams or amusement parks. We need the internet, home depot, a good grocery store. At least one of us would have to find a job, before we could move, but we are both reasonably intelligent and employable. I am a records department supervisor for a medical company. I like to organize stuff, I have management experience. My husband is the IT guy, currently building the infrastructure from the ground up at an office. I would like to hear your opinions, but would also value links to relevant info. I don’t want to drive more than a half hour to get to work, the subway or bus is cool too. Will it be likely that we can find more happiness in Salem? Which parts of Salem are sketchy, which are boring and suburban? Please tell me about your experiences. Sorry for the long post; I wanted to give as much info about me as I thought was relevant.

posted by saragoodman3 to home & garden (12 comments total)

I grew up in Salem, went to HS there, and now live (after time in Seattle, NYC, Boston, and the Bay Area) up the road in Portland.

I say this without prejudice, but every part of Salem is boring. Salem is the state capitol, and as such is largely a government town - sleepy, not much going on, and thus not a lot of growth. It's hot in the summer (it's on a valley floor) and not too bad in the winter - "light rain and cloudy" may be a bit optimistic, as it's pretty damp, but nothing a good beer or three can't help.

As for transit: Subway, in Salem, is purely a sandwich shop. There's buses, and there's cars, and bikes.

We need the internet, home depot, a good grocery store.

If this is well and truly all you'll need, Salem's probably fine. But then, if that's really all you'll need, Omaha is probably fine, too. Portland's a 45 min drive, so you've got access to culture if you want it, but Salem's pretty culturally slow.

There aren't a lot of museums in Salem that need to be seen more than once; there's good biking to be had around the area, as it's pretty rural once you leave the city itself.

The one tip I would give before you up stakes and move is that whichever of you needs to find a job do so (or get good leads) before you get up here - Oregon's a very slow employment market these days, there are definitely jobs to be had but it'll take a few months to get one.

My email's in my profile if you want more details...
posted by pdb at 10:42 AM on July 5, 2006

So I've been in Oregon for three years now, having spent the first 30 years of my life in California and I'd say Salem is a poor choice of cities. It's affordable, but very large, lacks character, and is basically a textbook definition of boring sprawl town.

I'd say getting closer to Portland would up your chances for jobs even though property values would also go up.
posted by mathowie at 11:03 AM on July 5, 2006

Well, take this for what it's worth, which may be very little: I lived in Salem for four years (1987-1991) when I attended Willamette University, and I found Salem to be a complete shithole. Of course, I was a penniless student, and lived near campus (in a neighborhood known, charmingly, as "Felony Flats"), so that was a long time ago, and I'm obviously not you.

Most of the professors all lived in the outlying 'burbs/neighbor cities, like McMinnville or whatnot, because really, that city is just eccch. Unless you're a big fan of 1. lawyers, 2. government suits, 3. derelicts/bounced-out mental patients.
posted by Skot at 11:18 AM on July 5, 2006

I lived in Salem for four years (1987-1991) when I attended Willamette University, and I found Salem to be a complete shithole.

I was trying to be more neutral in my original post, but since the gloves are off, I agree with Skot. I always said that Salem would be a good place to be a little kid and to retire, but between the ages of about 6 and about 70 there's just no reason to live there.

Seriously, Salem makes the San Fernando Valley look like the East Village, culturally speaking. There's nothing there. Move closer to Portland, and you'll be much better off...
posted by pdb at 11:22 AM on July 5, 2006

Actually, now that I think of it, a good analog for Salem would be Fresno.
posted by pdb at 11:23 AM on July 5, 2006

I have to agree with mathowie and pdb. If you're going for small-town life, you'd probably enjoy Corvallis (where I'm at) or Eugene more than Salem--they both seem to have a bit more character. And if you're not after small-town life, Portland is probably a better bet, because there are more choices available.

And you'll probably have to give up being a foodie no matter where you move in Oregon. I moved from Sonoma County, CA to Oregon, and the food just isn't the same. As the wine industry takes off here that'll probably change, but that's several years off. Trips to Seattle or San Francisco are required to support a fine dining habit.

I think the weather is better in Oregon than in the Midwest (I grew up in Nebraska), but it'll be a shock coming from SoCal. We have about three months of solid sun, and about nine months of rain. But pick up Atlas of Oregon and take a look at the numbers. Some places in Oregon get less rain than others. We used that book quite a bit in deciding where to live. It has much more than weather stats, and is an excellent study in infographics, if you're into that.
posted by pb at 11:27 AM on July 5, 2006

I live just outside of Salem on our family farm. I don't work in Salem because computer jobs are nill, I commute about 50-55 mins to work (60 miles) to the Portland area for my tech job.

Most of what people say here is true. I have not heard 'felony flats' for years.... Salem is undergoing a major renewal process now. It is still not the best part of town.

There is a bunch of nothing to do in town. Once you have seem what there is, you will go to Portland for entertainment. Housing is typically well priced, but the schools are not the best.

The South end of Salem is the best and probably safest area to live, NE salem is probably the worst, especially along Portland Road. Portland Road is part of that renewal project, so that is changing. Traffic on Lancaster Ave and South Commercial is to be avoided if you can during late afternoon commute times.

You should be able to find a house like what you are looking for, basements though are not very common. Cable and DSL Internet are both available as is wireless broadband (1.5mb up and down) via microwave.

There is a Home Depot and a Lowes in Salem and one more of each in neighboring Keizer (North of Salem).

Oregon is the land of no sales tax, no self serve gasoline and cheap auto registration fees ($35 per year if I remember correctly) and two do nothing politcal parties who would rather change shool zone laws than work on any pressing money issues.

Anything else? My email is in my profile.
posted by Leenie at 12:28 PM on July 5, 2006

I was born and grew up in Salem and only moved away five years ago for school and agree with all that has been said.

There is zero to do and very few jobs, most are with the state. I would look further south or north. Of course if you do find a job here I suppose its a suitable city if you don't ask much of it and don't leave your house like a majority of the residents. I think TV viewership is really high here.
posted by asterisk at 12:34 PM on July 5, 2006

I live in Corvallis, & up until a few weeks ago my sister lived in Salem (off of south Commercial - you can imagine how much fun visits were). No one goes to Salem unless they have to. It has zero, zero, zero character, most of its 'nice' parks are highly sketchy, and it seems to have ended up with a fairly serious meth problem.

Corvallis doesn't have a Home Depot (we purposely keep them out) but we have a handful of independent/midsize hardware stores. Crime is very low here. I feel safe walking alone almost anywhere but a few neighborhoods at night. There's DSL/Cable broadband, no wireless yet. No significant museums either, but a good deal of intellectual-ish culture (Oregon State U. is here). Its a very, very bikable city/town.

Email me if you want more details.
posted by devilsbrigade at 12:36 PM on July 5, 2006

I was born in and lived on a farm just outside of Salem my entire life up until college. Other than brief visits to the parents, I haven't been back in four years, so my advice is a little out of date. That said:

If you're still thinking seriously about Salem after the prior posts in this thread, it sounds like you might prefer west Salem -- in particular, the area surrounding Orchard Heights and Brush College Roads, west of Wallace Road (the major thoroughfare). It's seen a lot of new, affluent housing developments over the last ten years. It has parks and decent schools -- including a brand new high school. Living there probably feels sterile, but it's a pretty location and there are lots of nice houses with big yards and good views. (I mention this area because I drove past it every day to go to work, and it always looked nice. Can't tell you too much about living in other parts of the city.)

Salem has government jobs, and it sounds like you two have desirable skills for them. Most of the state buildings are downtown, and that's a 10 minute drive from west Salem, barring traffic. Traffic is throttled across two one-way bridges, so it has the potential to be very bad if you work the wrong hours.

If you want an interesting place to live, I'd have to agree with everybody else -- try something closer to Portland. But if you can do without the culture, I don't think Salem's all that bad.
posted by liet at 12:39 PM on July 5, 2006

If you're still thinking seriously about Salem after the prior posts in this thread, it sounds like you might prefer west Salem -- in particular, the area surrounding Orchard Heights and Brush College Roads, west of Wallace Road (the major thoroughfare). It's seen a lot of new, affluent housing developments over the last ten years. It has parks and decent schools -- including a brand new high school. Living there probably feels sterile, but it's a pretty location and there are lots of nice houses with big yards and good views. (I mention this area because I drove past it every day to go to work, and it always looked nice. Can't tell you too much about living in other parts of the city.)


Agreed. Esp. the West Salem comment. Ten years ago I remember the realtor gushing about South Salem. It reminded me of the worst of every suburb I ever saw growing up. West Salem was all hills and farms and a few housing developments where you could buy animal feed and rabbits with your plumbing supplies and where I built a house.

Saragoodman, I moved here in 95 from the east coast. So so far i may be the only one that can actually give you a fair assessment of Salem's current conditions. There's an element of truth in every preceding comment. When I came here in 95 I had several thoughts. It is/was bleak and ugly, but so is all of Oregon except for parts of Portland, Bend, and Corvallis/Eugene to use broad strokes. I also felt/knew that it's only a matter of time before the fact that Salem is only 45 miles from one of the best cities in the world gets out. Property values, cultural development, parklands, are all steadily increasing here.

For me, I have an amazing career and life with family on a gorgeous piece of land. If my job sucked, if I was single, or if I had to live in one of the ubiquitous shitbox houses that is so common in the west (ranch/seventies style) I'd probably move. But I'd leave Oregon for good, or go to Portland. One of the things that Salem has in it's favor is it's proximity to an amazing city (oh, and the restaurants in Portland rival anything I've had back east or abroad), it's proximity to beaches, skiing, etc. but without the costs and traffic and property values of Portland. And it's unbelievably livable. We have hippies, vegans, conservatives, live and let live libertarians, the generic middle class, and every one in between.

But the biggest point is that as a city, I suspect things are only improving. There's no way things won't keep progressing as far as livability, because in the last ten years we've seen nothing but more and more people with money, affluence, influence, and cultural hunger choosing to live here, and with that has come the support for restaurants, parks, etc.

I'd recommend a visit. But keep an open mind.
posted by docpops at 1:12 PM on July 5, 2006

As far as Corvallis and Eugene, both are very nice cities but suffer from a lot of the same problems as Salem. Not particularly attractive (all of Oregon looks like it was built by the set designers for the Brady Bunch, unless you are lucky enough to find one of about ten beautiful victorians or craftsman styles in any given city), and if you want to do anything in Portland, you'll be driving two hours. I can leave my house, drive ten minutes to the parkway, and be in downtown portland in barely an hour with a breezy drive up I5 45 miles, when traffic is light.
posted by docpops at 1:18 PM on July 5, 2006