It is seen in: the cost-of-living, the standard-of-living, and in how much you need to earn to stay viable.
It is seen directly in terms of: land prices, housing prices, wages, local taxes, and the volume of local bureaucrats [building inspectors, code enforcement officers, selectmen, and other folks whose salaries come from the tax revenue, and whose job it is the 'regulate' the citizens].
While that line exists, it is hotly debated as to where exactly the line lays.
The reason why it's exactly location is so hotly debated is that the line of demarcation is really like a rainbow. It is not a line like between night and day. There are shades, or gradients. Made up of layers one atop the next.
Many folks appear to live happily in the first gradient, just one step away from the highest levels of bureaucratic regulation [ie, the highest home prices, the highest wages, and the higher taxes].
While many others look on that in shock and horror. They live in other gradients of that line, where things are cheaper and less regulated.
There are two corridors where the volvo line follows a contour and extends itself Northward much further than in surrounding areas. The line [or more properly the layers of lines] extend a long ways up the coast, hugging most tightly to route 1 and the communities immediately along the shore-line. Traveling along the shore you must need to go much further North to find lesser and lesser layers of volvo. However as you travel away from the coast, away from the tourist industry, those layers fade away quickly and you can find rural communities that are obviously enjoying much lower levels of regulation and higher prices, and there is no volvo at all.
Also along the corridor of I-95, the darkest layers of that line travel in a fairly narrow corridor right up the freeway for quite a distance. Volvo appears to be everywhere. But again as you travel to either side, moving away from the freeway corridor, you can find many quite small communities where peace and tranquility reins, and no volvo can be found at all.
To see this most profoundly look at any community up in 'The County' and compare it to Portland. Entirely different lifestyles, and the reason for such different lifestyles is based largely upon a combination of those factors I have listed previously. Beginning North, as you work your way South, you begin to add layers of volvo, one layer onto another layer. Until you finally get to the Southern border areas and the darkest level of volvo layers.
With of course the noted exceptions of the two corridors where the line does appear to extend Northward a ways.
I hope that this helps.
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Anyone else? Portland area commutable within or around
Good luck, I hope you can find what you're looking for 
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