Opinion: Coos Bay rent isn't worth it and it should be lowered

Wood coming out of the water in Coos Bay.Photo byFabio SassoonUnsplash

These past few years, inflation has caused rent to go sky high. In my area, the apartments across the street went from about $800 a month for a 1 bedroom to $1.250 a month.

Homelessness in Coos Bay is getting considerably worse if you pay attention to the chatter in one of the biggest Coos Bay Facebook groups called What's Happening Coos County. The fact is, homelessness is going to continue to get worse if the price of everything doesn't get somewhat lower.

What do we even get when we pay higher rent? In my case I don't get more work done on my rental and in fact I feel like there are less benefits now than ever to renting.

Property taxes are said to only be $1,387 per year for a home in Coos Bay worth around 190k or so and that's about how much the rent for one month is right now for a place like mine. So, I'm not sure how that adds up to hundreds of dollars extra a month, but that's where we are.

I am sure that there are landlords out there that can comment about why there are such severe increases but in my opinion it's really not worth it to live in Coos Bay. The average pay in Coos Bay is said to be $20 an hour currently but lots make less than that still even after all this inflation.

I would understand the high prices if there were a lot going on here and if jobs were in the area that were paying more but we don't really have that here. I'd just go to another area in Oregon, but to move anywhere is going to cost you thousands right now, on top of the costs of moving everything.

There hopefully will be some changes but I think the prices will stay where they are instead of going down. I'm not even sure why companies got a massive tax break a few years back if we're not benefitting from that and now we are expected to work even more for even less benefits.

It's really a shame that we could all prosper but it would seem that's just how our world is designed. Coos Bay will be home for me and my family for a while longer but as it stands currently it's not worth moving to the area in my opinion because what you get out of it versus what you pay leaves a lot to be desired.