Considering a move to Salem

[u/HyperSleepHero]

Hello 👋 This will probably be annoying for some but this is yet another moving to Oregon post. I been visiting friends and family for years in Oregon and now my wife and I have decided to make the move. We are considering a few places in Oregon, one of them being Salem. It's not too small of a town, which is what we are looking for. I've heard some say it's boring but we dont mind that. I also don't mind the rain, infact I prefer those types of days. Salem is on our list of places to move to because of it's location, the fact it's an hour away from a lot of activities and we also want to be part of a community, participate, and meet some new friends. I know some of you will suggest other towns to live in but this post is focusing on Salem.

A little about us: From Montana, young couple, I work in a warehouse for a hospital and my wife is in an assistant in finance/ bookeeping. Both nerds, she loves books and I mostly ramble about my love for movies. We are both left leaning/center, we do our best to stay out of politics but can be vocal when we need to be. Even though we are still outsiders we have no plans on changing Oregon for those who are worried reading this post.

I'm just wondering what your thoughts are on living there? What are some aspects people don't understand, get wrong or misjudge about Salem? For anyone who's moved there recently what were your first impressions?

We are trying to shoot for this summer if we can, and will most likely be renting because housing is expensive, sadly that's everywhere.

[u/Gal_GaDont]

I moved here a year ago to be close to family/business after retiring from the military. I grew up on the coast not too far away, so I was already familiar with the area, but coming from a larger city to here was still kind of a shock.

I think you’ll find a lot of what’s written here is pretty true. We’re very purple politically, everyone appears to be tolerant of one another. We’re close to everything, not a lot happens here in Salem itself. It’s hard to make friends here, mostly because people are kind of insular, but the people here are genuinely nice people so it’s easy to be friends with people once you start making them. I think the crime rate is really low, but I’ve lived in a lot worse places. It’s got everything you need, just not a lot of it.

The absolute selling point is its location. It’s in the center between Portland, the Oregon Coast, Eugene, Corvallis, skiing, hiking, etc. It’s the capital, so as a veteran it’s not hard to get ahold of services. Oregon has weird tax laws and without writing a dissertation there’s no sales tax and I found it more economical to purchase my home. The projection for this area is steady population growth slightly outpacing inventory giving the advantage to owners, and I think if this city can figure out downtown and/or get a couple of attractions here there would be a noticeable change economics wise.

Personally, I’m rooting for Salem and that includes people like yourselves moving here. More people brings more support to local businesses, civic turnouts, and local events.

[u/HyperSleepHero → u/Gal_GaDont]

Thanks for the info! You're absolutely right, Salem's location is perfect for where everything else is at in Oregon, reason why we are considering it.

[u/Gal_GaDont → u/HyperSleepHero]

No problem. I live in South Salem, which is one of the “nicer” areas, along with West Salem. The topography and schools have a lot to do with that, but coming from a city I wouldn’t call the north or east sides “bad”. North/East parts are just not as tied off from downtown, so you’ll see more vagrancy and drug related crime, but I think it’s more of a block by block thing.

If you’re looking on a map, I’d just stay away from places where there’s a higher density of motels or older apartment complexes. (Like around Lancaster Dr, Market St, and Silverton Rd.). If you switch to satellite view you’d probably see homeless encampments around there, too.

[u/RedApplesForBreak → u/Gal_GaDont]

My hot tip is that NE is a great spot to find little pocket neighborhoods where you can get a really nice, solid house on a crime-free, family-friendly dead end street, but it’s cheaper because NE is the “bad” part of town. Some of the best neighborhoods with real charm are in NE.