In The Eye’s past trips to Hawaii, when other tourists asked us where we were from and we replied, “Bend, Oregon,” the response would be something along the lines of: “Oh, I hear that’s a real nice place.”
This year the responses were more along the lines of: “Oh.” Although one woman did say, “Isn’t that where they built that Hobbit development?” – referring to “The Shire,” arguably our most egregious example of speculative madness.
From national envy to national joke in just a couple of years – that’s quite an accomplishment.
Our status as national joke was reinforced earlier this week when the New York Times, as predicted a few weeks ago by The Eye, ran a story – on the front page, no less – about Bend’s collapse.
Reporter William Yardley takes a somewhat different angle than other publications have taken, focusing on how California émigrés have had their “Oregon dreams” broken by the bust.
He writes about Susan and Mike Telford, a young couple from Fresno who moved to Bend in 2006. The Telfords thought they’d be able to sell their Fresno home for $300,000 and use that cash to help pay down the mortgage on their $475,000 Bend home. But they haven’t been able to unload the California house yet, Susan Telford is unemployed, and they’re scraping by on her unemployment checks and Mike’s salary as a school teacher.
“Now the Californians who contributed to Oregon’s growth are in some cases adding to its economic struggle,” Yardley writes. “While some other states with high unemployment, including Michigan, have seen their labor forces shrink, Oregon’s labor force has grown. Economists say some of the growth appears to be driven by people who moved here with money they made in California, whether from real estate or stock market investments, and expected to get by but now must look for work.”
Yardley quotes economist Phillip J. Romero as saying Californians who move to Oregon get the blame for both good times and bad: “California immigrants can never win in Oregon. In a boom, ‘They are crowding the roads and bidding up house prices.’ In a bust, it’s: ‘They alone caused the price of my house to drop by hundreds of thousands of dollars. They came up here without a job, and now we can’t absorb them and they’re competing for my job.'”
Bend blogger and businessman Duncan McGeary sees the Times story as evidence that our little boom-and-bust town will be a joke, and a cautionary tale, for many years:
“We’ll be in the top ten lists for a long time. Over-priced, under-employed, and out of luck.
“The rest of the country needs someplace that was worse than themselves. They need someone to wag their fingers at. Wow, we have it bad, but at least we’re not Detroit or Bend, Oregon!!
“Bend has beautiful surroundings, they’ll say, but look what they did to themselves. It’s a shame.”
Indeed it is, Dunc.
This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2009.
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“Poverty with a view” has pretty much been the inside joke around here for the five and a half decade since I was born-on-the-hill. I first saw “in print” in a mid-seventies National Geographic pictorial of the Cascade Lakes. Said NG article also referenced a then timely unfortunate Westside Tavern incident involving a guy capping off a guy who was bonking his wife, naming Bend as the “place to get away with murder”.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
As for the Telfords, I’ve no sympathy.
(I’m not saying anything about having linked to said NY Times article at my place @ 8am Thursday morning)
“As for the Telfords, I’ve no sympathy.”
I have some. Seems to me their only crime was trying to sell a house at the wrong time.
I am the guy that was featured in this article although my wife gave the interview. I know better than to talk to a journalist but…..(grit my teeth and bless my wife) lol
Left out in this article is the fact that the move to Bend was a return home for me after 30 years in the oil business. I am a graduate of Pendleton High School and the University of Oregon. My professional interests took me out of the state but I always dreamed of returning. She wouldn’t live in Pendleton so we compromised on Bend. My wife told this to the journalist but it didn’t fit his slant.
We left a city with the 4th dirtiest air in the nation,in the top ten in car thefts and gang infested. The year that we finally had enough the EPA listed over 100 days as unhealthy. At these levels it is recommended that you stay indoors. She told this to the journalist but it didn’t fit his slant.
My wife is a CPA a/k/ “bean counter” and for many years we had a rule that once money went into savings it didn’t come out. She drives me crazy each month when the brokerage statements arrive but I know the results without looking. When the accounts are up, she files them. When they are down we have a discussion. Having to use the savings account to fund bills from time to time is new to her but for me it is the reason for having one.
She told the journalist that the house in CA was rented at a positive cash flow but he left that part out. Personally, I think it is great that someone else goes to work everyday to build my equity plus the tax benefits. Longer term, I look at this house as a winter refuge and it is only 25 miles from the south gate of Yosemite. My wife told this to the journalist but I guess it didn’t fit the slant.
Has it been difficult moving to Bend? Yes, largely because we miss the social networks that we established but we are forming new ones and I have reconnected with old ones up here. Our summers are filled with friends visiting…after all who wouldn’t go to Bend especially when the lodge is free.
The biggest challenge that I have in Bend is deciding where to go fishing. I have ADD and sometimes the choices simply overwhelm me.lol I have had the opportunity to fish on 3 continents and over much of the western hemisphere and in a fifty mile circle around Bend it is as good as it gets. Draw a 100 mile circle….
In five years this same journalist will be writing an article about the lost opportunities of not buying a house in Bend while the prices were below the cost of construction. In the meantime, it looks like the NYT will soon join Bend Living.
Yesterday, while gazing at Mt. Thielsen from the middle of Diamond Lake I asked her if she would be happier professionally in CA. The look that I got as an answer is not one that I care to see again.
She now knows rules #1 and #2.
#1 Don’t talk to journalists
#2 Refer to rule #1.
Mike Telford
P.S. Everyday I am grateful to have the opportunity to live in a city with clean air and polite, friendly people. If that is a “bummer” then I am doubly grateful to be “bummed out”.
Yeah, I have some sympathy too. They tried to make a move and it didn’t work out for them. What are you upset for, ’cause they’re from California? Shut up Ware.
HBM: “… Seems to me their only crime was trying to sell a house at the wrong time.”
Actually, that’s not all. They entered into an agreement at the very obvious peak of the boom to purchase a Bend home for $479,900 (this, for less than 2,000 square feet, according to county records, which also tell the tale of a separate post-boom “investment”) without having sold their previous home. This isn’t a crime in this day and age, but those who facilitated the Telfords’ deal (WaMU) HAVE been called criminals.
Not sure it’s a “shame” to have moved to a place with hundreds of miles of mtn bike trails, world class fishing and a great ski mtn. People tend to forget, you don’t move to Bend to “work to live,” rather we are here to live, then work. It takes some resourcefulness, but if you study and pick the right industry, there’s plenty upside here, despite the downturn. I mean, really, does Bend deserve this kind of national attention? It’s less than 100,000 people?
I see the problem with Bend, OR is that they keep building more homes then business STOP BUILDING homes unless we can fill jobs plan and simple I’ve seen to many homeless people all over Bend. Even talked to a few of them they say if the City would actually pay attention to what there building then business wouldn’t be going out left to right. I mean I’ve even seen people that are homeless that have there kids out with em holding up signs for food or alittle cash it’s just sad
“People tend to forget, you don’t move to Bend to “work to live,” rather we are here to live, then work.”
Very true. But the downside is that we attract a lot of people here who are more concerned with living (i.e. playing) than with working. For example, I have had pretty extensive dealings with the Bend medical and dental professions over the past two years and I am definitely not impressed. When I need a doctor I want one who’s interested in being the best doctor he can be, not the best skier or golfer he can be.
Mike Telford: Thanks for providing that clarification.
As Americans, (not just Californians exclusively) we have become a highly mobile society. People move. People liked a place, our town of Bend. When I moved here in ’92 (not from California btw) this was a total “truck stop town” with little to offer. We’re in a tough spot now, and yes Merenda closed, but the growth brought some good things here also – and Californians are responsible for some of those positive changes. I think it’s time we all got over playing the “blame game” and pull together as a town to get back on our feet.
To the Telfords: You aren’t alone, and you aren’t bad people for trying to move to a place you enjoyed. Isn’t that the American dream? I hope everything works out – keep your heads high! I’m jealous you have savings :).
“I documented my network in the 7 figure range”
Assuming you mean “net worth,” that’s pretty impressive for a couple in their mid-30s, one of them a teacher and the other an accountant. Had you been flipping houses down in CA?