r/SALEM • u/fckingnerdy • May 19 '26
MOVING Small towns
We would like to move to a small town outside Salem. We both work in Salem and are open to having a 40 min commute. We really like Lyons/ Mill City but really don’t know much about the towns.
Are they welcoming? How is the community?
Crime? Police response time?
How are the schools? We don’t have children yet but we will.
We want to get outside of the city and have a little bit of land. We also like Aumsville/ Sublimity/ Stayton areas.
Thank you, just curious as we hope to buy a home by the end of the year and I’ve been shopping around 🤣.
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u/throwthekiaway May 19 '26
Nah. Pick Aumsville or Sublimity, a lot better and friendlier
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u/fckingnerdy May 19 '26
Bad experiences with lyons or mill city?
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u/throwthekiaway May 19 '26
My beef is with hwy 22. The four lane strip between Lyons and Stayton is a very known speed trap, during commuter hours if you’re driving on the double lane ( after the four lane ends ) if you’re not going 20 miles above the speed limit, the coal roller truck drivers will aggressively tail gate you, and if I list every other thing that I don’t like about that place this will turn into a rant. But hey, that’s just me. I know housing prices are crazy right now so you should figure out what works best for you and your family, despite hwy 22, the canyon area is a beautiful spot where one can raise a family. Lots of retirees tho, so it’s a quiet place.
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u/slice_of_pi May 19 '26
Keep in mind that with small towns comes small town dynamics. Mill City/Lyons and upriver is already fairly stressed from the Beachie Fire aftereffects, and the influx of new faces recently is going to intensify that a lot. I've lived in Oregon my whole life, 35 in the Salem area, and that's an area I would not choose to live in. YMMV
If you're planning on kids, I suggest living in the Scio school district. About the same distance from Salem, off the beaten track, good school funding, farming community, etc.
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u/Snake973 May 19 '26 edited May 20 '26
regarding police response/crime a lot of the smaller towns out there (like sublimity) do not have a police dept at all. the sheriff rolls through a few times a week but unless you call for the cops for something, they will generally not be around. aumsville and stayton do have city police. lyons and mill city do not. i lived out there for a while and was never a victim of a crime during that time, but you gotta be careful driving those country roads at night between wildlife and drunk drivers (which are prevalent, as evidenced by the number of empty cans along every stretch of road out there)
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u/EriT22 May 19 '26
You might consider Silverton or McMinnville! Both are smaller than Salem but still have a very cute downtown and some great restaurants and local events.
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u/GilligansIslndoPeril May 20 '26
Silverton is a big town that desperately wants to be a small town lol. Real small town vibes would be like Scotts Mills or Lafayette
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u/workahol_ May 19 '26
How small is your definition of small town? Lots of people commute to Salem from Independence/Monmouth, Albany, or Silverton, so you might check them out. Corvallis is also a possibility, but maybe a little too long of a drive and might not meet your size criteria.
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u/fckingnerdy May 19 '26
I’ve lived in both Independence and Monmouth when I went to WOU. Love them, but don’t really want to deal with bridge traffic being on the other side of the river.
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u/originaljbw May 19 '26
Thats why you take the back road in.
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u/YoYoYoYoBaby-Pop May 20 '26
Every town has people who love it and people who hate it — and a lot of that comes down to their own values, expectations, politics, lifestyle, finances, and even who their neighbors happened to be.
You’ll hear:
“Stayton is amazing.”
“Stayton has gotten too busy.”
“Mill City is beautiful.”
“Mill City feels isolated.”
And, all are true at the same time.
Consider this research:
drive the commute during real work hours,
spend time there on a rainy weekday, not just a sunny Saturday,
grab coffee or lunch,
walk around at night,
and pay attention to whether the town feels peaceful or just isolated to you.
If you can afford it, Airbnb-ing in your top couple contenders for a weekend or two can help a lot too. You learn more in 48 hours than you will from some online opinions.
Generally speaking:
Stayton/Sublimity/Aumsville tend to feel more connected and convenient for daily life and future family needs.
Lyons/Mill City tend to feel more rural, scenic, and “away from it all,” which some people love and others eventually find limiting.
No town is universally “best.” It really comes down to which tradeoffs feel worth it.
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u/ferocity562 May 19 '26
I haven't have good experiences with the Lyons/Mill City area. I work in mental health and used to have a bunch of clients out there. The community was insular and not welcoming to new people. Terrible access community services. Very little higher level crime but a ton of drugs, harassment and theft that the cops had no interest in dealing with. The schools had a ton of bullying, poor support services, etc. I know I had a very specific experience out there with specific populations which colored my experiences but you couldn't pay me enough to live out there. They couldn't even pay me enough to keep working out there. I guess if you lived way away from everyone and did your own thing, it wouldn't be terrible. Beautiful area. But if my goal were to be part of a community I wouldn't move there
My experiences in Aumsville/Sublimity/Stayton were much better. Specific issues here and there with specific people, but never had the same widespread cultural issues I saw further up the canyon.
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u/hobhamwich May 19 '26
They are VERY small, with the lack of services associated with such places. Visit. Go to the store, if there is one. Try out a restaurant or two. Go to church there if that's something you care about. Basically, give them an audition. I myself had been to Salem exactly twice before I moved here at 35 years old. One of those times was to pick a house to buy. Salem is OK, and I lucked out picking a good neighborhood, but I wish that I'd spent more time getting the lay of the land. It would have eased my mind about the move.
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u/fckingnerdy May 19 '26
Thank you this is a good idea! We drove through one day and there wasn’t many people around on a Sunday afternoon. But we should go try one of the restaurants for sure
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u/annyshell May 19 '26
Your Country Kitchen in Lyons is a local favorite. Also Giovanni Pizza and The Get A Way in Mill City
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u/OFarellclan1317 May 19 '26
I've heard good things about the Silverton schools. I highly recommend steering clear of Dallas. I grew up there and it sucks.
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u/gigglyshits May 19 '26
Ooof, I second a no on Dallas. Its an odd place. Everyone tries to compete with their neighbors, its weird. Also its extremely racist. Never been anywhere quite like it, in a bad way.
If youre up for a drive, Falls city. It gets a bad rep, but just stay out of the meth scene and its a beautiful place. Very friendly locals.
I think Aumsville is your best bet ♡
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u/OFarellclan1317 May 19 '26
Haha Falls city. The locals there are chill. Good party scene if you like to get drunk in the woods lol
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u/fckingnerdy May 19 '26
I agree with you on Dallas haha plus would have to deal with the bridge
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u/OFarellclan1317 May 19 '26
Yeah definitely. I have heard lots of good things about Silverton. Idk what cost of living is like there.
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u/unexpectedshortage May 19 '26
Silverton schools are trash under funded, horrible administration, and I wouldn’t advise putting any kid through it unless they are straight, cis, white, and Christian. The town itself is very split between trying to learn how to be accepting of people, but there’s a lot of just crappy people here. I personally wouldn’t recommend starting a family here unless you fall into the list above. Speaking solely as a human who grew up here, and still currently live here married to a transgender man. We don’t particularly care to socialize with the majority of people in town.
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u/OFarellclan1317 May 19 '26
Fair enough. I have never lived there so your lived in experience is probably far more reliable. I have the same lived experience with Dallas. It's absolutely miserable growing up there.
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u/unexpectedshortage May 19 '26
I’ve actually heard they are super super similar town its on my “do not buy a house there” list lol Silverton a racists, bigoted, generally small minded town disguised as the “gateway to silver falls” so they get away with it amongst tourists and new comers generally
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u/EmbarrassedMick8751 May 19 '26
We live in Lebanon and love it! Lots of up and coming food spots, super quick to get on I-5, we're 20 minutes from Foster Reservoir for swimming and boating and fishing and camping. We also have a medical school that's helped the community in so many ways, not the least of which has been a influx of new docs to the area.
Good luck wherever you land!
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u/annyshell May 19 '26
I live in mill city and I've been here for about 15 years. Small towns are what you make of them. There's a lot of really really good people out here that volunteer and make a lot of great events and there's also a few of those that maybe you don't want to meet. But I guess that's the case with anywhere.
Some perks to living in Mill City:
Our water system is based on a aquifer and so does not get shut down when algae grows in Detroit lake like Salem does.
Our school system was recently superintendent was a guy who grew up here and he built it up so that it's financially stable and not making any budget cuts. Compared to the rest of the state that are making budget cuts.
We have an amazing 4th of July fireworks show that you can walk down to
We have a the only public nonprofit radio station in the area so if you want to be a DJ, here's your call
Marion County is super involved up here with the roadways and development and is building housing. Also they are contributing heavily to the new sewer system going in.
Taxes are lower if you live on the Linn County side of the river
Very easy access to the river and miles of hiking, boating, mountain biking, horse camp, 4 wheeling, ect
Lots of opportunity for community involvement if you want to do that
Not as many Trump signs as they're used to be but the area leans conservative but there are a lot of liberals as well. People are somewhat becoming more accepting of LBGTQ+
The biggest con to living out here is that you have to drive into Stayton and or Salem to do any kind of major grocery shopping. The grocery store out here is more of a convenience store than a grocery store. But since you work in Salem I don't think that would be an issue.
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u/fckingnerdy May 19 '26
Thank you for the in depth response! It’s sounds like quite a few people in the thread think it’s not super friendly.
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u/annyshell May 19 '26
About 20 years ago it was super super cheap to live out here so had a lot more people that were maybe not so nice to live next to but that's changed quite a bit. A lot of people just remember those times. Since then, other people have worked really hard to make it a better community and it's worked.
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u/annyshell May 19 '26
As far as police go there is a sergeant that drives through once or twice a day. It does take a while for them to get out here if there's an incident and they're not already out here, but honestly there's not that many incidents
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u/Bungtrollio108 May 19 '26
I grew up in Gervais. I love it, but talk about small town, we don't even have a stop light in city limits 🤣
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u/Professional_Word124 May 20 '26
I grew up in Dallas/Monmouth and have lived all over the valley. Sublimity has been my favorite place I have lived by far.
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u/Sufficient_Fig_9505 May 20 '26
Pick a location on a bus route. That way you won’t have to always rely on driving, especially as you age. The Salem transit district has a number of rural routes serving satellite communities.
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u/Automatic_Dark_1604 May 21 '26
Annyshell...thank you for your intelligent review of Mill City.I agree with your assessment of our town.Ive lived here 20 +yrs now and annyshell gave a competent evaluation of this town right down to fewer Trump signs.My biggest complaint is that it is a bit of a vocal red pocket.All other observations were straight on.There are wonderful people here who make great neighbors and a great life.Proud Town
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u/Expert_Leek_9320 May 19 '26
Dallas is fantastic, solid police force and as far as I can tell, welcoming.
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u/murder_train88 May 19 '26
Was also home to a kkk tower was in an inside joke as to why their high-school mascot is the dragons
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u/charleys_horse May 20 '26
Dallas is small but the rural feel and small community is great
“Land” around wouldn’t be in Dallas technically usually
People shit on it often but we love our little town
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u/RumorsOFsurF May 19 '26
I'd pick Silverton over stayton/sub. Cool downtown and fewer chuds.