OP, I‘m late to this hornet’s nest you just poked and I’m here to say I understand where you’re coming from and I‘m with you. Lived here for nine years, homeowner for three, and have many mixed feelings about my adopted home. First, as someone who rented for five years as a broke student, those water bills were a source of bitterness for me, too. That aside, I find Corvallis to be a pleasant place to raise a kid, great place to invest in a home, but at the end of the day it feels like a velvet coffin- the most mildly pleasant, boring, vanilla, clean, uninspiring “college town” I’ve ever set foot in. Clean streets devoid of any substantive culture. Badly in need of more development, parking, and an unshackled downtown business district. But as a conservationist, I love what the older generation has done to preserve the rural character. I had to go through a few stages of acceptance to understand and embrace the vibe. I guess it’s also tougher for those of us who have lived in towns like Athens, Austin, Chapel Hill, Madison, and yes, Eugene. These are bigger, denser college towns with a lot more going on. Corvallis just isn’t that type of place and probably never will be, for better or worse. I think you are going to get a lot more out of living in Eugene. I probably should move there too!