Leaving Ohio for ... Portland, Salt Lake City, Sacramento, Denver, Seattle... ? (San Jose: mortgage, environment)

[MtnSurfer]

Here are a few shots from our first CO blizzard:

Our front door. Do not even try to open it.


Snowboarding down our street




Our back yard

[sheri257]

Originally Posted by MtnSurfer

And the concept of 5 degrees and sunny out was a foreign concept as well as weeks on end of below freezing temps in the winter. Then there is driving on black ice and snow to work for many days or even weeks in a row during snow season. That is something we were not used to or necesarily expecting.

Yep ... snow totally sucks. Totally ...

[yumboltd]

Thank you all for your answers !
Derek, your pics are stunning !
I think im narrowing down to 3 choices, and I will try to get there asap during a trip to see first hand... It is Portland, SLC & San Jose.

SF is my favorite city so far in hte US and it would be awesome to live close enough to spend a week end there once in a while, hence the choice of San Jose... Cost of living still freaks me out though. But I would definitely only rent.

I am a huge fan of South Utah (zion, arches, bryce, etc) and the idea of living only 4 hrs from there seems just unbelievable to me. I am not a big sportsman, not good skiier, etc... by the way, so it is not really what attracts me in SLC. I don't care about the pseudo-ultra conservatism I read on that city , i think it is exagerated, and anyway I do not see how that could eally affect our lives, should we decide to live there. (??)

Portland seems to have beautiful scenery too, more on hte green side, and is close to the ocean... Plus the european city feel.

Btw I see that I forgot to mention we have no kids and we're 28.

[Sassberto]

Portland - relatively inexpensive, ultra-liberal, so-so job market, Oregon has some problems
Salt Lake City - very inexpensive, ultra conservative, good job market, growing, insular and weird
Sacramento - relatively inexpensive, politically moderate, high crime, many places are dumpy, hot, OK job market
Denver - relatively inexpensive, politically moderate, somewhat charmless, OK job market
Seattle - expensive, liberal, charming, great job market, bad weather, unhappy people

If I had to choose from this group it would probably be
Denver
Seattle
Portland

[yumboltd]

What is the weather like in Portland ? and in Salt Lake City ?
Cincinnati has very cold winters (can go as low as 15 deg F) from late Nov to early march. Summers are damn hot, high eighties .
Does it snow a lot in these 2 cities ?

[MichaelinWA]

Winters in Portland (and Seattle for that matter) are too long, wet and gray, but they are actually quite mild in terms of freezing temperatures, snow, etc. At least in comparison to what people in the Rockies, Northeast and upper Midwest are used to.

[MtnSurfer]

Yes, while the PNW gets some clouds and rain/drizzle in the winter Salt Lake City and others cities in CO like Denver will get some heavy snow and freezing temps during that same period. Being near the Pacific Ocean acts like a stabilizer which essentially keeps the weather more mild overall throughout the year. The Winters aren't as cold and summers aren't as hot. So if you can handle some rain and clouds in the Winter you may like it much more. The Spring, Summer and Fall can be very, very nice. For the most mild weather you have to go to CA. But then home prices are much higher.

We are headed to Monterey CA soon because my wife wants to be closer to family. But I would be very happy living in Portland as well. It is a beautiful city. And if you want lush and green you also have to live with some clouds and rain. I'll take that kind of weather over a dry, barren place like Arizona or a mid western state with freezing, snowy winters any day.

[yumboltd]

I was worrying about Portland because many people on this forum portray it as grey/rainy all year round apparently...

Regarding Portland also, does it basically offer the same as Seattle, just on a smaller scale ? What would be the benefit of being in Portland vs Seattle ?

Thx !!

[MtnSurfer]

Well Portland is a more affordable, less crouded city. And Portland has the Columbia River Gorge right next door. Plus the coast and mtns can be reached in ~1.5 hours.

Seattle is a bigger city (the largest in the PNW), has higher prices and it is a lot further to any *real* coastal beach ~ 4+ hours. But it is cool that you have the Canadian border so close. And there is a lot beauty up there as well with Mt. Rainier, Olympic & N. Cascades National Parks. It also has more jobs.

I think both get about the same amount of rain & clouds. But it is definately *Not* grey and rainy all year long. There are many falacies regarding this. I recommend visiting the area for yourself. We spent two weeks there this Spring and the weather was great! Summer and Fall are supposedly nice as well. But lets face it, there will be a good amount of rain and clouds. How else would it get so green? I guess it depends on your definition of 'good weather.' I personally don't like clear sunny days all the time. It makes things boring and too dry. Landscape photography is one of my hobbies as you might be able to tell. And the PNW is hard to beat in terms of scenic beauty which includes *Clouds*. Many pro landscape photographers live there for this same reason. So what is one man's paradise is depressing to another.



You can also do a search on the Oregon forum for Seattle vs Portland. This is a common Q and recurring theme there.

[yumboltd]

thank you Mtnsurfer ! :-)