Living In Bandon Oregon [Pros and Cons]

I Loved living in Bandon I Miss it. I have nothing negative to say about band and I wish I could move back

23 months to go.....can't wait to retire there:)

If you need to go somewhere larger than Roseburg, Eugene is quite a bit closer than Portland -- about 2.5 - 2.75 hours from Bandon, or a tad more than that.

Pro of living in Bandon, from a resident: people are usually nice Con of living in Bandon, from a resident: it can be impossible to find anything you need in town, especially during tourist season 😅

In '68 I quit a good job in central CA and moved to Bandon. For eight months I delivered propane for the area, first hauling it down from Coos Bay where it was delivered via railroad. My wife couldn't handle the isolation, so I quit amd moved back to CA. Actually, I was born in Portland and grew up in the surrounding area, but when I was 15, my folks moved to CA, so I do consider myself an Oregonian as my roots are there although I have lived the majority of my life in CA.

Bought a house in Bandon moving their next month

I live here. Please drive the speed limit too. Please leave big city driving habits behind.

My mailcarrier lives in Bandon; she and her family love it. I've never heard her saying anything negative about it!

It was a great place to grow up as a kid.... Zero opportunity for most the the kids after they grow up in that town though.

I want to move from the Napa Valley…. Used to the tourist thing for sure. Who knows……..

As a 5th generation Bandon native...this is not all quite accurate but it's close enough for people not familiar with the area to get a little glimpse of what Bandon is like. Cost of living (groceries, electric, gas and everything in between) is crazy. Most all of the service workers and people who work to support the businesses in Bandon, including those at Bandon Dunes have to commute from the cheaper areas of Coos Bay, Coquille, Myrtle Point or Powers. Housing is so scarce that the Bandon Dunes offers some employee housing but it isn't optimal or pleasant. The wages paid for most workers here are between 13 to 15 dollars an hour, the average rent for a 800 sq ft house is around 1600 a month. There are only a couple of apartment complexes in the area and most of those are low income/senior living and they have 3 to 4 year waiting lists. Crime is relatively low but per capita, not that low. The drug problems, car clouting and theft in general are pretty high.

Bandon is less susceptible to a tsunami than towns like Seaside and Walport, except near the river mouth. The latter two are lower in elevation, and Seaside is particularly vulnerable because the Necanicum River runs through town parallel to the ocean.

Bandon has burned down twice in fact. And some say a third inferno is foretold.

Off the beaten path you said ? Um, not quite Hwy 101 goes right through it. .

4:43, also, it brings in a lot of money!

Just saw this and have a few comments. While the town is somewhat isolated, it is on 30 minutes from Coos Bay/North Bend which is the largest population center on the coast. In addition, there is an airport in North Besd that can get you to San Francisco in just a bit over an hour, (other cities too). The town did burn down in 1936 due to the gorse growing in the area, and the city is working on managing that problem. The Chetco Fire was down in Brookings, not Bandon. Bandon hasn't had any recent fires. The weather is good for coastal Oregon, we get less rain than Florence or Brookings. However you are remiss not to talk about the wind. Summer winds can be pretty strong. A good part of Bandon is out of the tsunami zone, and tsunamis are a danger to any coastal city. Also you probably should update your median price for real estate, I believe it's over $500,000 now.

Bandon is a great town with unlimited access to outdoor adventures. Many beautiful walking/hiking/biking trails in the area, and of course strolling on the beach is unbeatable. Friendly people and a neat downtown with all the amenities you could hope for. As an outsider, one thing that puzzles me about the area is how bland in appearance almost all of the homes are. Seemingly very little creativity in home design and hardly any landscaping done with the homes. I grew up in a blue collar town where people simply didn't have the money to put into their homes, but that didn't prevent adding some inexpensive curb appeal to the homes.

Saying homes are 500000 to 1000000 you can get a lot for that makes me laughy. This is not retirement.

Bandon, the idyllic place people escape to, then try to turn it into the place they left!!