South Salem vs West Salem (Albany, Newberg: school districts, property taxes, to live in)

[bchild]

Organizing a move to Salem area. Curious to see other opinions of So. Salem vs. W. Salem. I have a large young family. All my children are in elementary school. Looking for a solid area for great schools, shopping, things to do, good eats, and other young families. Any advice would be great. I won't throw Kaiser out of the question either. Thanks!!

[Silverfall]

South and West are similar. Honestly most people choose based on where they work. West Salem requires a trip over the bridge and traffic can be bad on Wallace Rd and over the bridge.

The schools are fairly close, test score wise, but south Salem schools edge out West Salem. Not sure there is a huge difference as there are great teachers at all schools. Oregon has funky school funding. Measure 5 capped school funding from property taxes, so only 10% of school budgets come from property taxes. The rest come from the general fund and they get evenly distributed among the school districts based on enrollments. This evens out the funding between the wealthy areas and the poor areas.

Most of the shopping is downtown in Salem so it doesn't matter on either end. Most of the good restaurants are downtown or centrally located. Young families are all over the city. I assume you have never been out here but Oregon cities are compact due to the urban growth boundaries. I live in fairly far south Salem and it takes me 20 minutes typically to get over the bridge out west (assuming no traffic). They aren't a big distance apart so in terms of reaching amenities, it really doesn't matter.

[Oregonbeachlover]

When we lived way out south, my kids went to Sprague High School (south) and it was a very good school, academically. I also lived in west Salem. Honestly, getting over the the bridge can be in issue sometimes, so a warning there. But, there are many areas to live in west Salem which have wonderful views, and I loved that. If I were to move back to Salem, I would choose west Salem for those views. There is shopping in west Salem too, like Roth's IGA, Safeway, and Walgreens, so one can do some regular type shopping there.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by Oregonbeachlover

When we lived way out south, my kids went to Sprague High School (south) and it was a very good school, academically. I also lived in west Salem. Honestly, getting over the the bridge can be in issue sometimes, so a warning there. But, there are many areas to live in west Salem which have wonderful views, and I loved that. If I were to move back to Salem, I would choose west Salem for those views. There is shopping in west Salem too, like Roth's IGA, Safeway, and Walgreens, so one can do some regular type shopping there.

If something ever happens to those ancient bridges, Salem is going to be in a world of hurt. The only other bridges over the Willamette are at Albany, Independence and Newberg. The Wheatland Ferry and River Road won't help much. 99W is already a mess through Dundee, so realistically, all that highway 22 traffic would have to go through downtown Albany. Talk about traffic jams!