Virginian looking to be close to family in Eastern Oregon/Treasure Valley (Bend: real estate)

[novalad]

I'm a young Virginia native with a perma-remote job, family in the Boise area, and just enough financial security to be in the market to purchase a home together with my fiancé.

Although we're primarily keeping our search to Virginia, we've spoken about moving out west to be closer to my family and to make sure our future children grow up with plenty of outdoor space and a safe community.

Not looking for a "forever home," but rather a child- and dog-friendly starter home where we can get the most "bang for your buck" from a real estate investment perspective while playing at homesteading on the side.

The ideal would be a single family home in an established neighborhood, or otherwise a standalone SFH on 2-10 acres. I'm very biased toward the Wallowa Lake/Grande Ronde Valley due to spending much of my childhood out that way, but we'd also consider anything along the I-84 corridor from Ontario to Pendleton, Bend, and the Hood River area.

Where would you recommend we look?

Hard preferences:

-- Fast, reliable internet available by end-year 2022. I get this is a challenge in much of Eastern Oregon, but it's a must-have.

-- At least 1,000sqf and 3br, with enough room for 1-2 kids and a home office.

-- A fenced-in yard, or the potential for a fenced yard. We have a very large, very social dog that wouldn't fare well without a yard or easy access to a dog park. Given the areas we're investigating, the dog park route won't be too practical.

-- Under $500,000.

Soft preferences:

-- Within a four-hour drive of the greater Boise region.
-- A quiet, kid-friendly neighborhood. The kids in our future will probably appreciate it, and I definitely will, as I work UK hours -- something like 7:30pm-4:30am PDT.
-- Enough yard for a ~400sqf garden or more, and animal-friendly zoning should we decide to lay in some hens and a rooster. Biased toward USDA 6b-7b plant hardiness zones.
-- Not in a newly-developed neighborhood. This is the softest of soft preferences, but the newbuilds I've seen out west look pretty barren and I'd rather buy into mature foliage than a just-finished stick-frame.

[ejisme]

That's a tough price-point these days. I did a zillow search and found zero properties in the La Grande area with a half-acre lot or bigger lot at $500,000. There are a few, very few in the Boise area, a few more in Weiser, ID or Ontario, OR. The link below is to a better looking home/property in Weiser. I don't know the area, but picture wise it looks like a nice part of the town. Good Luck. Maybe your family can help you find something... or buy land and then build a few years from now.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2...48973704_zpid/

[texasdiver]

4 hours from Boise will put you in Walla Walla which is a significantly larger and nicer city than anything on the OR side of the border. About 3x larger than Baker City, LaGrande or Hood River with 3 universities and just a lot more going on. And I'm pretty sure that Walla Walla has very robust broadband service. It also has reasonably good schools and school funding tends to be more robust and reliable in WA compared to both OR or ID if you are thinking public schools. That would be my pick of east-side cities that are 4 hours from Boise. You might also find your fixer upper there for under $500K. For example:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6...91568226_zpid/

[ejisme]

Walla Walla would be a good choice. But, if you are dead-set on acreage then you probably need to look east of Boise. Start in Mountain Home, which currently has cable and DSL internet, easy to get up to 100 mbs, but they are currently installing fiber throughout town, so 1 gb should be coming in the next year or so. Mt Home is about 14K in population about 40 miles east of Boise. It's growing due to a new rail spur in town that is being developed for light industrial uses. It's within commuting distance to Boise, with housing $100 - $200k less than Boise. Plus, the Air Force base is 10 miles out of town, so there is a built in rental market for many years to come. This is one of a few properties listed in the area.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4...10857036_zpid/

There are a few more homes with acreage in all the little towns out east to Burley, ID. It's just high desert, with the mountains north and south, vs. the mountain valleys of La Grande to Joseph Oregon.

[novalad]

Thankya kindly for all the replies. I'll respond to each in turn, but this is all good stuff to know. In truth, it's making me reconsider the viability of moving back west. The Boise market is just so hot these days, and perhaps counterintuitively it's easier to buy into meaningful acreage in the east than out west.

That's a tough price-point these days. I did a zillow search and found zero properties in the La Grande area with a half-acre lot or bigger lot at $500,000. There are a few, very few in the Boise area, a few more in Weiser, ID or Ontario, OR. The link below is to a better looking home/property in Weiser. I don't know the area, but picture wise it looks like a nice part of the town. Good Luck. Maybe your family can help you find something... or buy land and then build a few years from now.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6...91568226_zpid/

That's good to know, and funny enough my fiance saw that listing right as it went pending. That's Boise for you.

4 hours from Boise will put you in Walla Walla which is a significantly larger and nicer city than anything on the OR side of the border. About 3x larger than Baker City, LaGrande or Hood River with 3 universities and just a lot more going on. And I'm pretty sure that Walla Walla has very robust broadband service. It also has reasonably good schools and school funding tends to be more robust and reliable in WA compared to both OR or ID if you are thinking public schools. That would be my pick of east-side cities that are 4 hours from Boise. You might also find your fixer upper there for under $500K. For example:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6...91568226_zpid/

I quite like Walla Walla -- been through a couple times and really enjoyed it. Funny enough, it was exposure to that college town that attracted me to my current city in the first place. I'll look into it further.

Walla Walla would be a good choice. But, if you are dead-set on acreage then you probably need to look east of Boise. Start in Mountain Home, which currently has cable and DSL internet, easy to get up to 100 mbs, but they are currently installing fiber throughout town, so 1 gb should be coming in the next year or so. Mt Home is about 14K in population about 40 miles east of Boise. It's growing due to a new rail spur in town that is being developed for light industrial uses. It's within commuting distance to Boise, with housing $100 - $200k less than Boise. Plus, the Air Force base is 10 miles out of town, so there is a built in rental market for many years to come. This is one of a few properties listed in the area.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4...10857036_zpid/

There are a few more homes with acreage in all the little towns out east to Burley, ID. It's just high desert, with the mountains north and south, vs. the mountain valleys of La Grande to Joseph Oregon.

Being within the Boise/MHAFB rental market would be a nice plus, but I don't know how much of a price premium we'd be willing to pay for it when we could live/work anywhere with good internet.

[zed42]

Originally Posted by novalad

Being within the Boise/MHAFB rental market would be a nice plus, but I don't know how much of a price premium we'd be willing to pay for it when we could live/work anywhere with good internet.

I am a resident of Canyon County
Ada County (Boise area) average price of a home is $546,000
Canyon County (Nampa area) average price of a home is $430,000
Elmore County (Mountain Home area) average price of a home is $350,000

Homes stay on the market for about 1 week and more than one party is bidding on it.