Blighting Wildfires aside...
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9/23/2020
Notice the 480K median home price vs the 41K median income price and that is mostly what you need to know.
If you looked at the AQI of 70, rest assured that is only true for 3/4 of the year, and the rest of the time, you will likely need a P100 mask to go outside and constantly run air purifiers indoors due to wildfire smoke.
Southern Oregon University is a sketchy, student-hostile insitution with dial it in faculty, bloated admin and lots of lackluster students too unmotivated to go to a real school. The exceptions being theatre, film, marketing and costuming/fashion design, which are great programs with great faculty & a surprising number of talented, devoted students (the latter is especially true in theatre, because Ashland is a theatre town and Southern Oregon has a big indie filmmaking community).
The rental market in this town is out of control and making enough to pay rent is damned near impossible unless you work 30 min away in Medford, affectionately nicknamed Methford by the locals for its dismal, strip-mall like vibe.
The Ashland Food Coop is unparalleled & living among legit hippies is nice. Too bad about the panicked bluehair neolibs, vicious business hippies, and leather & feather sidewalk hustlers harassing everyone. Lithia Park & Grizzly Peak are beautiful. Glorious hikes abound.
Restaurants are expensive, but that's the norm in the PNW, especially at tourist destinations. This town is much more of a tourist town than family town so just know that going in, if you plan to live here for any length of time. It's kind of like living in Disneyland - pricey, surreal, fun and eclectic.
Ingrid | Seattle, WA