Eastern Oregon home buyers can travel only a few miles and encounter surprisingly different housing markets. Hermiston, Umatilla and Stanfield are excellent examples. These three Umatilla County communities are closely connected geographically, yet each provides its own mix of housing inventory, price points, transportation access, recreation and community amenities.

Umatilla County is much more than one housing market.

Travel east from Pendleton toward the foothills of the Blue Mountains and the Oregon-Washington border, and the character of the housing inventory changes considerably. Pendleton, Milton-Freewater and Athena provide a useful three-city comparison for buyers who want to understand …

Eastern Oregon covers an enormous geographic area, and housing markets that might appear similar on a statewide map can be very different when you begin looking at individual properties.

La Grande, Baker City and Enterprise illustrate that difference exceptionally well.

All three provide access to the mountains …