I've lived in Oregon all my 48 years. Oregon is actually one of the top ranked states for highest taxes. The employment situation is bad like most places.
Last I heard in the Bend area where I live, it is almost 17%...
Central Oregon (Bend area) is where a lot of people would like to live, but just can't afford it. We have no industry to speak of, its mostly tourism and skiers, so most jobs are fairly low paying. There are a lot of places for sale, some with acreage. A lot of them are foreclosures and can be had for a reasonable price , it just depends on which area you look at. The best prices on property in Central Oregon are North of Bend in Redmond, or south of Bend in the La Pine area...
I grew up in Springfield which is across the river to the east of Eugene.
Eugene would be a great place to live if you are into riding bikes and hugging trees
Eugene and the entire Willamette valley gets a lot of rain. But if you like a lot of trees and green grass, thats the part of the state you want to be in. As you probably know, Bend is high desert country, and we have some incredible views of the Cascade mountain range in our back yard. There are a lot of great lakes to go fishing that are 1/2 hour from my house, I can drive about 15 minutes out of town into the desert and get away from people.
Oregon is a shall issue state for CCP's. I've had mine for many years.
In general the crime rate is lower in central Oregon, but we don't have as many people living here either. The biggest problem we have here is the Mexican gangs that use hwy 97 to run drugs from Cali up into Washington. It seems like almost every week or two there is a traffic stop that they find a car load of drugs.
I hope this helped you a little
