are you thinking about moving to rural
oregon did you watch our best world
towns in oregon video if you did today
the judgmental pendulum swings back the
other direction that's right we are
looking at the worst rural towns in
oregon these days i try and keep a
positive vibe on this channel but this
type of video sort of been requested a
lot lately whenever i post a best world
towns video i get a flood of emails and
comments that normally start with
something like what about this town and
then they go on to list some random
rural town that in most cases looks like
a miserable place to live so i thought
it was time that we start listing some
towns you should probably avoid are
these towns the absolute worst places on
earth no they just have some bad stats a
bad location things like that these
towns normally have high crime high
unemployment numbers and more than
enough poverty to go around one thing i
need to say when you go to a small rural
town ninety percent of people are some
of the best folks you'll ever encounter
small town people are like that they
just have that ten percent screwing up a
nice place to live got it get it good
let's take a look
number five jordan valley oregon jordan
valley is where you move when you're
heading east to get as far away from
portland oregon as you can but you can't
quite make yourself move into idaho
jordan valley is about an hour south of
nampa idaho just about on the idaho
oregon state line if you need a hospital
you better have some time on your hands
nampa is the closest like i said about
an hour away or you got burns oregon two
hours to the west if you have some
strange insurance that says the entire
state of idaho is out of your network
this place is not a great place to live
unless you really want to take pictures
of a abandoned motel they have a
livability score of 64. let me explain
that in my experience if you're in the
80s it's a really good place to live if
you're in the 90s it is an outstanding
place to live and it's probably a gated
community when you start getting below
70 it starts to suck and as you'll see
on this video some of them suck terribly
bad jordan valley isn't the worst place
it's got a livability of 64. they only
have a population of about 150 people
the good news is their overall cost
living is about 15 below the national
average and their housing is about 49
below the national average that's both
buying a home and renting if you can
find something to rent there now here's
what really sucks there their crime rate
is 79 higher than the national average
and their poverty level is almost 9
above the national average the
unemployment here is about a hundred
percent above the national average they
don't have jobs unless you've decided
collecting recycle on the highway is a
job they have the jordan creek and the
baxter creek in town they kind of meet
right there so in case you want to fish
for dinner and then they got plenty of
open space around jordan valley in case
you want to hunt prairie dog for dinner
number four up in oregon maupin sits
about two hours east of portland oregon
and it's about two hours from bend
oregon so it's right there in the middle
tucked behind mount hood on the
deschutes river maupin's a great place
to move if you like fishing rafting and
you want people to forget you exist
because no one will come visit you
moppin is in what they call the rain
shadow since it's tucked behind mount
hood all that rain that portland's
famous for never seems to make it out to
mopping and this kind of gives it a
landscape that's kind of brown
especially when you look at the west
side of the state the coastal part this
is definitely almost looks like a desert
not desert but it almost looks like it
they do have a clinic in town but if you
need a hospital you gonna need about an
hour for travel time better not be an
emergency either that or you go down to
the river and rub some mud on that rash
you got oddly enough they have a
world-class track and field complex in
town it's really strange this is a
really nice place for such a small town
maupin has a livability score at 55
which is not outstanding they have a
population of just about 650 residents
being this far out in the sticks you
don't even get a discount on your cost
of living it's actually two percent
higher than the national average which
isn't great their housing though is 20
lower than the national average so if
you want to move here call jessie rose
she's a local realtor that's on youtube
now here's some of those bad stats i was
telling you about maupin has a crime
rate that's 68 above the national
average now i will put a little asterisk
on this one i believe a lot of that has
to do with the people that come to town
to go fishing rafting whatever rafting
usually means a lot of alcohol and a lot
of problems so i almost wouldn't put
this one on the people of maupin but
they do have a poverty level that's 11
that's pretty high their unemployment
rate is 5 most the people here survive
on that rafting and fishing industry and
that's seasonal
number three fall city oregon falls city
sits about 35 minutes west of salem
oregon it's sort of where the farmland
meets the trees i drove through here
about three years ago i'm totally
kidding nobody drives through here
unless you make a wrong turn while being
chased by the police the last time the
google street view car drove through
here was 2008. even back then you could
see on the map how it went about halfway
down main street and was like yeah now
i've seen enough and they made a hard
left and went south and if you see the
stats on this place you'll see why they
have a livability score of 43 that is
one of the absolute lowest i've ever
seen i honestly think the lowest i've
ever seen was like 38 or 39 43 is not
good they only have a population of
about 950 residents the good news is
their overall cost living is 14 below
the national average and housing is 29
below the national average the downside
is their crime rates 84 higher than the
national average and their poverty level
is 41 percent higher than the national
average their unemployment rate is 48
percent higher than the national average
but if you like to fish they do have a
creek that runs right through town
called the little luchamute river that's
not a creek it's a river they say but
they got a bunch of other creeks like
berry creek in the area and dutch creek
so if you like to fish like sit by the
creek and stare at the water good place
to live if that's your thing
number two spray oregon yes it's called
spray spray oregon is out in the middle
of nowhere on the john day river i could
tell you what it's by but it would be
easier to tell you what it's not by
civilization a nightlife a walmart or
anything remotely close to a hospital if
you're not feeling good my suggestion
would be to bake a birthday cake put
some candles on it when you're blowing
the candles out wish that infection away
that being said it does sit three and a
half hours southeast of portland in the
oregon outback they have a liveability
score of 54. there's just about 200
people that live here the overall cost
living is good it's 15 below the
national average housing if anything
ever goes up for sale is 51 below the
national average but they have a crime
rate that is 103 percent higher than the
national average and it's mostly
property crime people are stealing stuff
from each other here i guess their
violent crime rate is only 22 higher
than the national average but their
property crime is 120 percent higher
than the national average their poverty
level is about 30 percent and the
unemployment rate is about 98 above the
national average like fall city this
place is so far out in the sticks that
the google street view car hasn't been
there in over a decade 2009 was the last
time that thing rolled through town
that's one reason we're getting such bad
footage on this video it's hard to come
up with footage for these really out of
the way small towns every year the town
of spray holds their annual spray rodeo
and eastern oregon's half marathon race
it takes place on memorial day weekend
and this is the oldest annual half
marathon in the state i thought that was
interesting and also it's on the john
day river which is a good sized river
and if you like to fish or float down
the river this is probably a pretty good
option
all right before we get to number one
don't forget we have another channel
called on this day there's a link down
below we also have the vlogging channel
which is usually travel and videos of my
pig there's a link for that down below
that's just called life according to
briggs all right on to number one
and number one prospect oregon prospect
oregon sits a little over an hour east
of grants pass oregon not too far from
crater lake on the rogue river prospects
a town with some bad stats and a
beautiful area this is a great part of
oregon if you like the outdoors i mean
they got trees it snows they got rivers
canals creeks everything around here so
it's great for the outdoor types they
have a cafe and a horrible livability
score of 44. almost 500 people call
prospect home and they're not there
because of a really low cost living it's
actually one percent higher than the
national average their housing though is
25 below the national average if you
could ever find anything to buy there i
mean you could buy a lot build something
there maybe a log cabin a una bomber hut
whatever make sure you have a padlock on
your unibomber hut because the crime
rate here is 73 percent higher than the
national average their violent crime
rate is next to nothing it's only two
percent higher than the national average
so that's not bad but their property
crime rate is 87 above the national
average 29 of the residents here live
below the poverty line and they have an
unemployment rate that's about 5 percent
higher than the national average so that
sounds to me like they got some jobs but
they don't have many good paying jobs
that's kind of typical for a rural town
though this is one of those towns that's
always at risk of being burned out by a
wildfire prospect has been here since
1870 and started out as a logging camp i
know this one has some bad stats but
this is a great area to live in if you
do like the outdoors of oregon
all right that's today's video hope you
guys enjoyed it hope you got some
information out of it there's some
videos being suggested right now it
really helps out the channel if you
watch one all right everyone have a
great day be nice to each other