Its not as large of a Yogi community as a place like Portland but we do have a few studios around town that offer all types of Yoga. If you're a hardcore or casual Yogi, you'll be able to find a studio that is right for you.

@@SalemOR Awesome thank you !

The literal worst drivers ever and this is coming from an Oregonian. We're terrible drivers.

Thanks for mentioning this. For those who are interested here is an article for further information: www.salemreporter.com/2023/09/15/cause-of-vitae-springs-fire-ruled-undetermined-a-year-later/ ---------- "The fire in September 2022 burned 164 acres in the Vitae Springs area, which is southwest of Salem city limits near Independence. An estimated 119 single-family homes in the area were under mandatory evacuation notice - Level 3 - with 516 under a Level 2, meaning they had to be ready to go in a moment’s notice. No injuries were reported and no structures were lost to the fire. But several residents told Salem Reporter that the evacuation alerts were confusing, lacked information about where to go, linked to unhelpful maps and weren’t accessible for those unfamiliar with technology."

Which coffee shop is your favorite in town?

Are you telling me that you're a fellow hill-hater? They scare me for the exact reason you mentioned! How long ago did you leave Salem and where did ya relocate to?

With 800 souls, does it feel too small of a town or just right? What prompted you to leave Salem?

Thanks for sharing your perspective. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts as a fellow Salem-ander. How long have you lived in Salem for?

@@SalemOR no longer live there. We moved out in 2010. As native Californians we were really affected by the gloomy weather for what seemed like 10 months. The river has some of the best fishing in the country. A great cooler climate and lots of terrain from waterfalls, mountains, beaches and many more rivers.

@@Mr5150Sarge I totally get that! The weather can be a big shock if the sun is what you're used to seeing in the sky for most of the year. Did you end up moving back to Cali?

I couldn't agree more!

My Cali clients are always so impressed with how much house they can get here. I'm seeing a lot more Californians move up this way because they want more peace, a bigger/better house and more often families are moving in together and wanting dual living. Creekside has some nice houses that are sitting longer than expected.

Thank you for sharing your experiences as someone who's relocated to Salem, Oregon from California. What do you wish you knew before you relocated here?

I completely understand your perspective, and I really appreciate your feedback. I chose Target for this video because I wanted to give people relocating to Salem a familiar point of reference. Since many of us have a local Target, I thought it might be helpful to compare prices at an Oregon Target to what folks are used to at their own stores. What local grocery store would you recommend I check out next?

Keep Salem Lame! Any hip urban center is soon overrun by the sort of dbags one finds in Portland or Austin. I’ll take the bums, mentals, and fussbudget home gardeners over them.

Thanks for sharing your perspective. It sounds like you no longer live here, but what do you think others need to seriously consider before relocating here? What part of town does your family live in? I think that context will help others who are thinking of relocating to Salem better understand the city. Thanks for watching!

Paul, while I can appreciate that you have your own lived experience here in Salem, what I don't appreciate is you attributing Salem's problems to the influx of Californians and immigrants. Attributing State wide issues (as you mentioned the decay of Salem) to a specific group of people(s) is not accurate and a weird thing to say. It sounds like you're ready to move out of Salem. Where would you rather live and why?

Before I reply to your question, I would like ask you to consider taking a look at the still rather nice and historic middle-class Englewood area of Northeast Salem, located conveniently close to both the downtown area and Interstate 5. This area includes many nice, quaint older homes, full of old-style charm and character, many of which date back to the early 1900s. There is a wide range of home sizes in this area as well, which gives younger and senior singles, couples and families quite a range of options when it comes to finding a new home here. The Englewood area is full of many beautiful, well-established tree-lined streets as well, which gives the area a nice, comfortable old-fashioned feel, very similar to that of the Grant neighborhood and also the area just north of the Capitol Mall, which includes a designated historic neighborhood. I believe the Englewood area has sadly been long overlooked by both the city and investors for critically needed renewal efforts, which is very unfortunate considering its irreplaceable historic value.

With respect to Californians and immigrants who have come to Salem, I believe they simply have relocated here in the greatest numbers of all groups, and have contributed the most to the existing shortage of affordable housing in the Salem metro area, particularly for younger adults and seniors with less than six-figure incomes. Many Californians, who began coming here five or more years ago, arrived after having sold their homes for $500 or more and thought nothing of paying $250k or more for a home which would have sold possibly for $125-130k just a few years earlier. And, with no offense intended for immigrants, we just never saw palm trees in Salem until they began coming here in such great numbers, as Oregon historically has been characterized by its beautiful and native old Douglas Fir and oak trees. We expected to see palm trees only in areas well south of here, such as California, Arizona and Mexico, if we should ever actually choose to travel there. I recently saw quite a nice home for sale fairly close to my neighborhood which had several palm trees in its front and back yards. I’m sorry, but I find palm trees rather unsightly, as they look so out of place in this area, especially situated amongst all the many surrounding native fir and oak trees. When I saw this home for sale with its four palm trees front and back, I immediately lost all interest in it as I am averse to the creepy, “invasive” feeling that palm trees give me. Possibly the seller of this home should seek prospective buyers from the more southern areas I mentioned earlier. You are correct; I have been looking to relocate outside of Salem. However, I generally avoid widely divulging just exactly where I would like to move , as I choose to avoid inadvertently creating or contributing to any increase in the number of people who might find my preferred areas quite to their liking as well, and, in turn, possibly a major influx of newcomers to those areas, which I like so much.

Correction: In my previous comment, I intended to note that so many Californians had just sold their homes for $500k or more before moving to Salem, not just $500, which obviously no one would do except under some highly unusual circumstances. Also, concerning where I would choose to relocate away from Salem, I’ll just share a comment a friend of mine from California made, to the effect that Salem’s present-day climate reminds him of the climate where he grew up years ago near San Francisco. I would just like to share that I am looking to relocate to some other area with a climate very different from and nothing at all like that of San Francisco or anyplace else in California for that matter.

Technically true but thankfully we don't have to ensure those Minnesota winters. They are a different kinda terrible.

@@SalemOR LOL. Still looking at a valley move in the future.

Thanks for your input. I agree, there are better shops for grocery shopping but I figured most of my viewers who are considering relocating to Salem and curious about the cost of living here also have a Target. This way it would be easy for those moving to compare apples to apples, oranges to oranges and Target's to Target's.

What do you think is the most lame thing about living in Salem, OR?

When you first relocated to Salem, how did you determine what neighborhood you'd move into?

We didn’t have a set location in mind. We had just had our second baby and the place we lived wasn’t a right fit for us anymore. It had a giant lake in the back and was very secluded and I wanted a yard our kids would be safe playing in. My husband (ex now) had gotten a really good paying job and we felt comfortable enough financially that we felt we could afford to buy a nice house as long as it didnt go over the budget he’d figured out we could comfortably afford. I tried my best to stay blissfully ignorant of all the technicalities of it lol he said he’d take care of everything. Our house shopping ranged anywhere from McMinnville up to maybe Hillsboro, Beaverton, etc since he worked in Tualatin and all the way back down through Salem/Stayton ish. I grew up in the Mill City/Gates area and was hoping something would be found closer to Salem because all my family still lives in this part of Oregon. We looked at several houses in several cities and most were too expensive for what they were or it just didn’t feel right to me. I had a few small really really wants if we were going to be buying a house. Fenced back yard, garbage disposal, garage, air conditioning. When looking for houses online and with our realtor, there was close to nothing fitting our budget and one day our house came up and it almost seemed too perfect. Two story house with a fenced back yard and built-in outdoor fireplace, corner house at an intersection of a dead end street and a street that wouldn’t be used for Main Street type traffic. Cute little neighborhood with families that had kids outside playing, and even though it’s far enough away from Lancaster and all the shopping etc available that it makes much more sense to drive anywhere, it’s only maybe a 10 or 20 minute walk from the Mall so the kids and I could go for walks when they’d be older. It’s super close to Weathers park where there’s a playground for the kids, it’s not so close to the main roads that it’s loud. It has all the things I was hoping for and more. The garage is huge and even has a fun lil workshop type area in the back of it so even if it had two cars parked in it, you could still easily fit a large toolbox or work bench type thing or it makes a great storage area for us. The only thing I do not like about our house is there’s no grass at all. Everything is lava rock in the front and smaller river pebbles or whatever they’re called in back. The back also has beautiful paved stone in the middle which is where the fireplace is and the yard even came with a small shed that the previous owner had figured out a way to run electricity to with an extension cord. I’d eventually like to make it a play house for the kids some day. I have completely forgotten what your question was now and I can’t see it either while typing lol so I’m sorry if I still haven’t answered, I know I’m rambling 😂 Anywho, we offered slightly more than listed price because we knew it wouldn’t be available very long and others were probably also making offers and I was shocked at how quickly everything went. From the day we decided to move to the day we started moving things in… I think it was maybe two months total and I remember wishing it would be more complicated than it had seemed because I’d barely even started packing lol. We’ve been here since June 2019 and I still love this area. We drove less than two miles and went apple picking not long ago… the same area out past cordon also had a church doing a free Easter egg hunt I could take my kids to this year, we’re like .5 miles from Awesome Indoor Playground or Wunderland the other direction. Idk, it’s just pretty much everything you’d hope to find in a home and neighborhood. I’ve even managed to make some friends with a few neighbors and most others are friendly and will wave or let the kids use their basketball hoop out front or have random unplanned water balloon fights with all the neighbor kids 😂 One last thing, I’m not sure if you know what a “Buy Nothing” group on Facebook is, but it’s basically a free items group thats only for your neighborhood-so it’s more of a community helping group rather than just free for anyone and there are tons of them all across the United States. Since the problems in our marriage, I’ve been back and forth and have been in a few different ones and Salem has BY FAR the absolute nicest and most friendly, helpful people I’ve come across. It’s not just items that can be gifted or received, but also gifts of time or knowledge or whatever you want to offer or ask for. I even was able to ask the group of anyone lived close enough with kids my kids age because my littles were lonely and wanted someone to come play in the pool with them for a while and within an hour or so, someone had messaged saying they were nearby and they came and hung out with us and played for a few hours. No expectations or exchanges necessary, just came to make my kids happy and went on their way. One of many reasons I really do love this area and would absolutely recommend it to friends looking around for a home even with it’s questionable side. Gonna stop here and hope I answered the question somewhere in all of that.

What a great reply...I forgot what I asked you mid-way through your answer too 🤣 But I love that you're happy in your home and the area of town you ended up in. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience and let others know what it's like to live in Salem. I love it when my YT viewers have multiple perspectives to consider.

Great question. I will use facts from my recent relocating clients who have moved to Salem to try and help answer this question. In 2024 I've had 2 LGBTQ+ clients (2 couples, 4 people total) relocate to Salem. As for overall diversity, Salem is homogenous when you compare it to many other cities across the US. I would love for other locals and relocating friends to chime in and provide there perspective. Another great place to ask this question will be the Salem, OR Reddit page. www.reddit.com/r/SALEM/?rdt=60008 When the time is right we can discuss your unique situation on a 1-1 buyer consult. I can share some past client experiences with you and provide some more info to help you decide if Salem is the right place for you.

Rain...what rain?...

@@SalemOR I love the way you describe and the expletive you used made me laugh. I just moved here Feb 2023 from the San Antonio, Texas area, and love it here. It has it's charm and culture, and not perfect, but the local music scene, the Grand Theatre, the Elsinore. No need to go to Portland. The parks, the green, West Salem! The rain on the other hand is great cozy snuggle weather with a fireplace and blanky. I could not live anywhere else!!! PS, Love your channel and subscribed.

Sweet! As a fellow non-local, did I do a good job describing Salem for those who are not familiar with it?

@@SalemOR I got into the local music scene, met other practicing musicians and have established a community of fellow musicians that I practice and perform with. That was key. I had to make the effort. I am also involved with the local Buddhist community and that is another circle I have, but I did have to make the effort. I smile and greet people I pass and am always open to starting a conversation. Then I have family in Dallas, Portland, Albany and Salem, so it is a beautiful, wonderful place for me. I am in West Salem and I love it here, even with the bridge:).You did a wonderful job of describing the best kept secret!

I totally agree that you have to make more of a concerted effort to meet people and find your tribe here. What kinda music do you make?

Whats your take? Do you think Salem is boring/lame?

@SalemOR It is slow paced that is for sure, but I like that. I grew up in Las Vegas, and when I moved here in 1991, it was a culture shock for sure. As time went on Salem grew and I adjusted. I love Salem despite all that crap talking about it. Salem has tons to offer, folks just need to get out and find it. The thing about Salem is, the folks that live here hate change. They whine on Facebook about crime but don't take into account all states have crime. Or they whine how we have no restaurants here, and then they will bash a new place because they think the prices are too high. What I recommend to anyone moving here, STAY OFf SOCIAL MEDIA and really explore the area before passing judgement.

Salem is located in a perfect spot.. 45 minutes to Portland, 1.5 to the coast, 3 hrs to the desert, California border or Seattle.. (Maybe a little longer depending on the speed you drive 😀)

Change is hard and it make sense why people are a bit stubborn to allow change in. I always appreciate your input on the city.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences as a fellow Salemander. Which direction do you like to drive to get away from the city? My husband and I love the beach and heading out to the coast. Although we just went there for labor day weekend and it was soooo cold and foggy. Not what we expected since it was almost 90 degrees in town.

Agreed, Salem has a small town feel with some big city benefits.

What if your favorite thing about living in Salem?

What path do you think I should take?

What path do you think I should take?

What path should I take instead?

That is not my area of expertise so I'm unable to provide useful info.

Oh I was just in Eugene doing some antique-ing. I don't know if I can make that a verb but there ya go! What is making you consider leaving Eugene for Salem?

Did you move to Salem from Beaverton?

Did you relocate to Salem?

@@SalemOR Yes. I lived in Manila, Philippines before moving here. I was used to malls closing at midnight everyday and was so shocked when malls closed at 8 here. I eventually got used to the slower pace of life and love it now.

I hope the Mall downtown will have a rising Phoenix kinda moment. Its currently a very sad mall, but there is a lot of potential. What other things caught you off guard when you relocated to Salem?