This is the vacation rental house I called home last week. It's a charming, comfortable little place right in the main business district of Hood River. 2700 square feet. It's not in bad shape, but it could use some updating and sprucing up.
If you want it, it's on the market. All you need is $1.5 million.
I first visited Hood River 20 years ago. Back then it felt like a really down-to-earth sort of town... a place an ordinary guy like me could live. Now it's an ultra-wealthy resort town like Aspen. It's not hard to see why, as the Columbia Gorge area is an absolute paradise for people who love water sports, mountain sports, or both. For paddling alone, the Gorge has it all for both whitewater and open-water enthusiasts.
But Hood River suffers the typical problems that bedevil every "it" town. The cost of living is through the roof, and on the weekends when tourists flood in it's nearly impossible to find a place to park and the streets and highways are gridlocked.
I can't overstate how beautiful and fun it is here, but I can't see myself living in a place like this. I've learned to appreciate the upside of living in a city that the rest of the world doesn't want to move to.
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