Emily -
My wife and I are relocating to Salem this fall and we’ve been trying to figure out where to live. We plan to rent when we arrive but will look to buy…if all the stars align. What’s your recommendation on areas for us to look. We keep hearing about south Salem but it sounds like the NE is our type of neighborhood. Every place we’ve lived we chosen to be walking distance to restaurants, coffee houses, etc and enjoyed our eclectic neighbors.
Love the blog, can’t wait to try…everything!
Cheers,
Carlos
Dear Carlos,
Congratulations on your move to Salem!
Now, before I launch into a very opinionated rant about the North Salem/South Salem divide, I would like to offer what is possible the first-ever disclaimer on this blog. If you have been following my adventures here then you know I am living in Northeast Salem and have a particular affinity for this part of the city. However, having moved three times now, in as many years, I know that looking for a place to live, anywhere is fraught with many emotional and social nightmares. Many people believe that where you live is who you are, so I am quite reticent to offer too much real estate advice other than my personal experience. If you’re looking for a realtor, may I recommend Melina Tomson? So with that caveat out of the way…
We moved to the Northeast for a couple of reasons aligned with our values systems. For one, we wanted to be near my husband’s work (2 miles) and refused to be the kind of people who fritter their lives away on the morning commute. We also wanted good access to I-5. West Salem is out, and some very nice parts of South Salem come with cumbersome access. Beyond that, I insist on living as close to downtown as possible because I believe in being part of a centralized community as well as a church/school /work/writerly community. The Northeast has some great neighborhoods with very reasonably priced, smaller historic homes — I’m talking everything from century-old farmhouses to 1920s cottages to Craftsmans to mid-century modern homes. This aesthetic variety is much of what attracted me to the Northeast. If you, like me, were happy living in gentrified parts of other cities, you may like living on the fringe here as well.
Now, the bad news. If you are a professional person who could afford to live in South Salem, you may encounter some very alarming judgments about your decision to live in the North. The idea is, of course, if you have the money, why wouldn’t you live where it is nice? Nice is the operative word, and South Salem is, yes, very nice. If I lived in South Salem, I would live in the neighborhoods closest to downtown, such as Bush Park, Fairmount and, perhaps even Candalaria (for the schools and the views). I wouldn’t feel comfortable going too much farther into the suburbs, but that’s just me. By the way, parts of South Salem are just achingly gorgeous.
And yes, there are more insidious forces at work in Northeast Salem. Just drive around and, from a real estate perspective, you will discover there are some streets that look, on the outside, to be great (and are), as well as streets you might not feel comfortable walking down at night. These neighborhoods intersect in ways I didn’t expect when I moved here. I lived in a great micro-neighborhood for two years and moved to a larger place after expanding the family, but even my beloved micro-hood had a drug outpatient treatment facility just outside its borders. Before my landlord called the cops (I believe), you could sometimes hear the sounds of what was unmistakably a puppy mill. That neighborhood was on the edge of some multi-unit housing. We never had a problem with anybody, though.
We moved to the irresistibly cute Englewood neighborhood in December and had an $800 camera, as well as a guitar given to me by my father (only gift I ever got from him) stolen right out of our house. Now, Englewood is, ostensibly, a “nicer neighborhood,” whatever that means, but what I didn’t know was there is, yes, another outpatient drug treatment facility a couple of streets over. In turn, there are sometimes people walking through the back alleys behind our house as they head for a Big Gulp at the 7-11. I’m guessing they are going to eschew the figs when they start ripening.
Now, some more bad news. We are still renters here after 2.5 years and are not sure we’re going to buy anytime soon. If you don’t have any emotional attachments to home ownership, that might be a good way to go. To buttress your resolve in a community where many people expect home ownership, I will tell you one the condensed version of one very complicated house purchase. Last fall, we got involved in a short sale of an awesome property over in the Court-Chemeketa Historic District, which is absolutely where I would buy a home if I were to pick and choose. It was a short sale, and I was very attached to the idea of living there.We were getting it for a steal (roughly $40,000 off the 2006 price). After three months, I basically wigged out because my Spidey senses were going crazy and something didn’t seem right. Within a week, we were in another larger rental in the northeast and had pulled out of the house sale.
Was I right? Did the alarms going off in every nerve in my body prove prophetic?
Yes, indeed, they did. The price of that house has dropped roughly $25,000 since we cancelled our bid. That’s a pretty hairy investment, no?
I really feel for people in this community who are under water on their mortgages. I hope home values rise again and my neighbors and friends struggling with this issue can breathe deep at night knowing their dream of a little piece of earth and a place to call home, of their own, has not been quashed, as TIME and other publications have said. The breakdown, or, we can hope, restructuring, of all of the great signifiers of life — real estate and education included — is easily one of the most pressing issue of my generation. And man, does it hit close to home!
But, if you feel comfortable as a renter, you might do well to choose that option here in Salem. Just look around in the northeast and you’ll find countless options. The market right now for rentals is insane! Then again, I’m an optimist, and things have to improve, right? The same advice holds true for home-buying now as it did before the crash — plan on living in your home for a decent amount of time (7 years) if you want to recoup your investment. That doesn’t take into account the emotional rewards of home-owning, but in uncertain times, you have to make the right financial decision for your family (can you see I’m projecting a bit here?).
I belong in the northeast because most of my good friends live here. When I considered renting in south Salem, it was my friends who convinced me to stay in the north. Actually, I didn’t talk to any of them about it, just thinking about their part in my life kept me here. That’s something hard to judge when you’re new in town, so your plan to rent for a while sounds like a good one.
Now, to the most contentious issue of all: South Salem Flight. This is a disease some new Salemites catch when they come to Salem. It takes about three years, or one baby, to manifest and involves a quick turn against the diversity and charm of the Northeast in favor of the good schools and manicured lawns of the south. I have seen many an awesome northeasterner succumb to the disease. Just a warning.
I’ll close this with a final footnote on the problem of life choices. This blog post is meant exclusively as one recent newcomer’s opinion, and I hope people with similar and different experiences will chime in here, since you’re not alone in wondering where you might belong. No one deserves to have their life choices steered, or condemned, on one person’s little blog. I have put this out there in the name of your information-gathering and hope you find what you need in your search!
Best regards,
Emily
P.S. If you want to, let us know where you end up!
