Thinking of moving to Oregon - Need advice (Portland, Eugene: real estate, how much)

[brad2388]

I currently live in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Things can be tough in a small town for someone just starting their career. Oregon seems to have just about everything we have here but with a larger population and maybe a smaller amount of national parks & forests than I'm used to.

The unemployment rate is a bit high in Oregon so I will probably teach English for a year or two in the Mediterranean and hopefully it will edge toward the 7% mark.

I have a degree in Finance & Real Estate and am fluent in Spanish so I will most likely be looking for a job within my field. I figure I will need to be within 45 minutes of Portland, Salem or Bend for a decent job. I would also like to be within 1.5 - 2 hrs of deep sea fishing, fly fishing & a ski hill. I also prefer a more rural/small community because of my love of farming. Any advice for some good towns to relocate to?

Thank You for any advice.

[JasonF]

Corvallis/Albany would be reasonable. Corvallis in particular has fairly low unemployment and the housing market here is still going fairly strong (though I'm not sure how much longer the grossly inflated housing prices can last - that bubble has to burst eventually).

It's reasonably close to everything you mentioned. Skiing an hour to the east. Ocean an hour to the west. Salem about 45 minutes to the north, and Eugene about an hour to the south.

[Silverfall]

Being fluent in Spanish is very helpful in Salem and would give you an edge in many jobs. Anything in the valley is 2 hours from fishing and ski hills. It's why people love living here, the central location.

As for your love of farming...Oregon is organized a bit differently. We have urban growth boundaries that divide our cities and farming land. You literally cross a street and you are in rural land. You don't have to be outside the city to be able to farm, so at that point it is just a matter of preference and affordability.

If you like small towns then I'd consider Silverton, Forest Grove, maybe Sandy and Canby. Affordability matters and will often dictate when you will live based on what you can afford.

[figmalt]

Like Silverfall said, anywhere in the valley should fit the bill, providing you have a job. Other cities you might consider are McMinnville, Dallas, Yamhill, or even North Plains.

(BTW I moved to the Portland area from SE Idaho, several years ago. The forests are way different here Lots more ferns.)

[Brenda-by-the-sea]

Originally Posted by Silverfall

You don't have to be outside the city to be able to farm, so at that point it is just a matter of preference and affordability.

This is very true and the distinction between large-scale gardening and small-scale farming is rather fluid.

While many people who've never spent much time there, automatically exclude Portland -- based on their preference for being close to nature and recreational open space -- the Rose City has much to recommend to those very people. It's not like most metropolitan areas. You can get almost everywhere on bike and it has the best access to farmers markets and u-pick operations of any city in the state.

If you majored in finance, you must have considered the fact that you'll almost certainly start you career in a city of some scale. Jobs are scarce everywhere in Oregon, but I'd say Portland would be your best bet out of a combination of career and lifestyle opportunities. College towns tend to have a surplus of newly-graduated degree holders hanging around looking for work, so places like Eugene, Corvallis and Ashland may not be the best.

p.s. If teaching in the Mediterranean is something you end up doing as an interim position while treading water on the domestic economy, post your experience. I've heard a thousand people say, "I'm really gonna do this," and not one "I did this," from any of them.

[370z]

Originally Posted by Brenda-by-the-sea

This is very true and the distinction between large-scale gardening and small-scale farming is rather fluid.

While many people who've never spent much time there, automatically exclude Portland -- based on their preference for being close to nature and recreational open space -- the Rose City has much to recommend to those very people. It's not like most metropolitan areas. You can get almost everywhere on bike and it has the best access to farmers markets and u-pick operations of any city in the state.

If you majored in finance, you must have considered the fact that you'll almost certainly start you career in a city of some scale. Jobs are scarce everywhere in Oregon, but I'd say Portland would be your best bet out of a combination of career and lifestyle opportunities. College towns tend to have a surplus of newly-graduated degree holders hanging around looking for work, so places like Eugene, Corvallis and Ashland may not be the best.

p.s. If teaching in the Mediterranean is something you end up doing as an interim position while treading water on the domestic economy, post your experience. I've heard a thousand people say, "I'm really gonna do this," and not one "I did this," from any of them.

Do you know why labor statistics shows Benton County with a 6.5% unemployment rate, which is really low for these days, but yet everyone says the job situation is really bad all over Oregon? Ours here is 15%!

[jjpop]

Originally Posted by 370z

Do you know why labor statistics shows Benton County with a 6.5% unemployment rate, which is really low for these days, but yet everyone says the job situation is really bad all over Oregon? Ours here is 15%!

I think this has a lot less to do with job opportunities and a lot more to do with population dynamics. There are 3 major employers in Corvallis: OSU, the hospital/medical community, and H-P. Each of these employs highly educated people for many of their jobs, and when those jobs go away, these folks with their graduate degrees generally don't sit around on unemployment waiting for other opportunities to come up in the community. Instead they move to where the opportunities are. If you don't file for unemployment in Benton County, you aren't counted as unemployed, obviously.

Bottom line is that the population is too small to support a very diverse employment base. If you're not employed with one of the three biggies in town or in a service-based job, then your employment opportunities are limited.

[370z]

Originally Posted by jjpop

I think this has a lot less to do with job opportunities and a lot more to do with population dynamics. There are 3 major employers in Corvallis: OSU, the hospital/medical community, and H-P. Each of these employs highly educated people for many of their jobs, and when those jobs go away, these folks with their graduate degrees generally don't sit around on unemployment waiting for other opportunities to come up in the community. Instead they move to where the opportunities are. If you don't file for unemployment in Benton County, you aren't counted as unemployed, obviously.

Bottom line is that the population is too small to support a very diverse employment base. If you're not employed with one of the three biggies in town or in a service-based job, then your employment opportunities are limited.

Thank you! Has there ever been much manufacturing/warehouse type jobs in OR? Is it required to be bilingual for many of the jobs available, like here in CA?

[jjpop]

Originally Posted by 370z

Thank you! Has there ever been much manufacturing/warehouse type jobs in OR? Is it required to be bilingual for many of the jobs available, like here in CA?

You'll find most of those jobs in the Portland Metro area. Maybe a few jobs scattered here and there in Eugene and Salem and even fewer in the smaller cities like Bend and Albany.

Bilingual always gives you a leg up on pretty much any job here, but I wouldn't say it would be required.

[karlsch]

Originally Posted by 370z

Thank you! Has there ever been much manufacturing/warehouse type jobs in OR?.......

Off the top of my head, major distribution centers not in the Portland area:

Walmart; Hermiston

Lowes; Lebanon

True Value Hardware; Springfield

Do It Best Hardware; Woodburn

BTW, the magenta font makes your posts harder to read.