Corvallis neighborhoods and house rentals (Albany: real estate, apartments, foreclosure)

[amees]

We are moving to Corvallis for my husband's new job at OSU. We've never been to Corvallis, though we've lived in the PNW before and are really excited to move back.

We are in our 30s, and have a baby, and are looking to rent a 3 BR house (or maybe an apartment, though preferably a house). We currently own our home, and it's been a while since we've lived in a rental, so we're a bit lost as to how to find places. Our first instinct was to check craigslist, but there are hardly any homes listed. Are we looking in the wrong place? Or are there just not many houses for rent in Corvallis?

We would like to live in a neighborhood where we can walk to a library and some restaurants/bars. It would be a bonus to live near a grocery store or farmers market.

We aren't interested in living amongst undergrads, so we're thinking it may be too much to ask to also be walking distance to OSU, right?

What parts of town would you suggest we look at? I've done a bunch of googling, and can't seem to find a good description of the neighborhoods of Corvallis.

Thanks so much in advance for your help!

Pretty much anywhere between say 6th and 12th would be good. There are some students there, but it's mostly houses. It's far enough away from campus that you won't have many (if any) issues. I live in the area and pretty much never hear any noise.

Once you get to ~14th or so, you start to run into a much higher density of student housing.

The area west of campus is also reasonable, though it's a bit farther from the nearest grocery store (but not unreasonably far).

Really, as long as you're more than a block or two from campus you won't have much of a problem. Even if you live right next to campus, you probably still won't have a problem. OSU isn't exactly a party school.

[FVWinters]

Originally Posted by amees

We are moving to Corvallis for my husband's new job at OSU. We've never been to Corvallis, though we've lived in the PNW before and are really excited to move back.

We are in our 30s, and have a baby, and are looking to rent a 3 BR house (or maybe an apartment, though preferably a house). We currently own our home, and it's been a while since we've lived in a rental, so we're a bit lost as to how to find places. Our first instinct was to check craigslist, but there are hardly any homes listed. Are we looking in the wrong place? Or are there just not many houses for rent in Corvallis?

We would like to live in a neighborhood where we can walk to a library and some restaurants/bars. It would be a bonus to live near a grocery store or farmers market.

We aren't interested in living amongst undergrads, so we're thinking it may be too much to ask to also be walking distance to OSU, right?

What parts of town would you suggest we look at? I've done a bunch of googling, and can't seem to find a good description of the neighborhoods of Corvallis.

Thanks so much in advance for your help!

I guess it depends on how far off walking distance is. Speaking only for myself, anything under about a mile and a half is "walking distance". If you are comfortable with that, there are good neighborhoods from about 6th thru 15th or so north of Tyler up to Grant Street. There is another neighborhood north of Harrison up to Grant between 29th and 36th. There is a regionally owned grocery store midway between these two neighborhoods. We also have a Market of Choice (expensive but you can get anything there), a Trader Joe's, Winco, two food co-ops and Safeways dotted all over town.

We have a thriving Farmer's Market along our riverfront but that only goes from April to November. The first neighborhood I mentioned is within walking distance of it. There is also a "Farmer's Market" that is held during the winter months but it is much reduced and is out at the fairgrounds several miles away.

I'm sorry I can't help you with good rental advice since we also own our home but any good listing service can help here. There may, in fact, be a rental shortage at present but that should ease come June. If you can, pay us a visit. Corvallis is a pretty nice sort-of little town and I think you and yours will enjoy it here.

Oh, by the way; congratulations to your husband for scoring a job at the university. OSU's been shedding jobs recently so that's quite an accomplishment.

One note about rentals. Avoid anything with the name Schoning linked to it (mostly Bula Realty, though I've heard that he's entangled in at least one other property management company) . He and his wife are slumlords who are rather notorious around town (really around the region) for stealing security deposits, not doing necessary repairs, etc. He routinely finds himself facing foreclosure, having houses condemned, etc. He's so bad that the reporting on his outlandish fees and terrible record actually managed to inspire landlord-tenant law reform in the state. He actually charged his tenants a fee when he sued them (something he's also rather infamous for doing. He has a relatively small number of properties in town, yet makes up for a huge fraction of rental-related lawsuits).

You should not rent from him unless you enjoy living in houses that may or may not be facing foreclosure, may or may not have electricity and running water, and may or may not actually be safe to inhabit. And if you make this mistake, don't be surprised when he keeps your entire security deposit and then drags you into court after you move out (which may happen because you're freezing or the place gets condemned).


More information about him

[amees]

Thanks, this is really helpful. Does the neighborhood just northeast-ish of the University have a name? It's so hard to tell by looking at a map, but seems like that area might be good for us?

FVWinters, I agree with you about what constitutes 'walking distance.' Under a couple miles is a good little walk, especially when it comes to distance from OSU. As for ability to walk to bars/restaurants/libraries, a little closer would be nice, as I'd probably doing those walks with my baby often. Well, not the bars, but the library.

Thanks again to both of you for your responses!

[BruceM]

Be especially wary of renting a house from a Craig's List ad. There have been scams involving people lifting a house description from a real estate agency and putting it on Craigs as a rental. Never, ever send someone a security deposit without seeing the house first and even then you might want to look the property up in the tax assessor's roles to see who the owner is.
Our rental market is especially tight right now. OSU has added a couple thousand students this year.
I really doubt you could find much of anything within a mile of the campus.
I live on the SW side in the Country Club neighborhood about a mile from campus and we love it here. Bike paths are close by and we are just a little over a mile from the Sunset Village shopping plaza and the south side co-op is nearby too.
The Gazette Times had videos of the Corvallis neighborhoods on their website. You might be able to find them with an internet search. You can also order a package of informational materials on the town from the welcome center.
Good luck with your search.

[trixie09]

You might also try the newspaper classifieds for the Corvallis Gazette. I saw a few homes listed on there, that were not on CraigsList. If you google Corvallis Property Management, you'll see a few offices.

Seems that Albany has the majority of rentals now. Hopefully it'll open up more as the students move out toward the end of the year. I don't think that schools should keep adding students if they're not building housing for them -- it impacts the towns too much, and keeps families from living in town and contributing to the community.

[amees]

Thanks for all of your responses. Based on a map alone, it seems that the neighborhood just NE of the intersection of NW Kings Blvd and NW Van Buren Ave might be a good location for us - walking distance to OSU, walking distance to the library, and walking distance to the co-op. (Walking distance being defined as just under a mile)

What's that neighborhood like? Is it student housing still in that area? Are there houses or apartments in that area? (Is it a residential area?) What's the feel from that neighborhood (does it have a name)? So hard to tell from the maps!

Thanks!

[Zombiestare]

That neighborhood is filled with random student housing, but the further you get to the high school, the quieter the neighborhood is. There are some frats close around there, closer to OSU, but if you're a few blocks away the noise isn't too bad. The closer to Fred Meyer you are, the more town homes / apartments there are, I think.

if you go to zillow.com or maps.google.com you can get a street view of the homes and see how run down or upkept they are. There are some really quaint streets mixed in with student housing, so you kind of have to just come and take a tour with a property agency.

Overall its a nice, safe neighborhood. We walk it at night all the time with no problems. The park right between Fred Meyer & the high school is clean and quiet and there are usually some families hanging out. (blanking on the name of the park)