Moving to Pacific Northwest with two teens (Portland, Eugene: real estate, insurance)

[revelation2012]

Hi there,

I am looking to possibly move with two teens (12-14) to the pacific northwest. I am actually changing careers after retiring from a business I have worked in for 20 years. Sort of forced retirement due to the owner selling in the near future (undisclosed). I still need to work but have a little flexibility to choose something. We have no debt and no bills. We keep it simple. My wife is a Nurse but has moved into Case management so the flexibility of her working as floor nurse is not very good. She finishes her masters program this summer. My son is still in Junior High School and my daughter will be starting High School. She is not anxious to move but would if it was some place cool.

I would live to find some place with some green with some room but enough surrounding activities to keep teens occupied and out of trouble. I like the out doors and hicking and would like to be withing decent distance to the ocean but want to be far enough away to not be fighting wind and over priced real estate.

I have looked at areas form Seattle to Humbolt, CA but spent some time in Portland in late 2012 with my wife. We loved it even though three was a lot of rain (maybe a little less rain would be good). We loved the Columbia Gorge Valley. I would love to be some place in the 40 to 45 degree latatude area withing a 30 to 45 minute drove to the beach. I would go father out if it was lovely.

Is there any place good for raising teens that fits this criteria? Like I said I will need to find some work in aobut 6 months to year.

Thanks for any replies.

[Silverfall]

In Oregon you are on the coast or about an hour away due to the coastal range. Everything on the coast is small town. What kind of work will you need and what do your kids like to do. Might be easier to help you find the right city.

Everyplace in Oregon has some green. Kind of the point of Oregon.

[revelation2012]

My kids mostly just like to hang out with other kids. Neither of them are particularly active in any sport except my son is in baseball but I am not sure how long he will stay with it. Mostly I think having some good schools and kids to hang out with.

I am Christian but I am not religious. I don't like organized churches but love small Bible groups and studying on my own. I guess finding good moral kids would be good. Ironically my wife is not a Christian and liberal but she is open and supportive to my faith. We are a mixed bag so we like that as well in people. People are people and good people are in all groups. Bad ones in all groups too. People are individuals. My wife and I don't necessarily want educated friends but it is nice. We like people who think and wonder about possibilities. Areas with tweakers make me uneasy. I can deal with smokers but tweakers are unpredictable.

I like fishing, hiking hunting, and outdoors so I'd like to avoid a situation of being on top of my neighbor but cant afford huge plots of land. I don't need a big house and don't want one either but outdoor space is nice. I love to garden and raise chickens. 4 bedrooms is nice but reasonable real estate. I can always build on the land eventually if there is room.

My wife needs to be near some medical facility to be an RN Case manager. Unless he leaves the hospital and works for an insurance company we need to be in reasonable commuting distance. Keeping in the hospital realm I think might be more stable benefit wise. So being in reasonable commuting distance to a hospital is probably necessary.

I ran a small business for a long time - 18 years - (The owner is selling in the near future). Office management/operations, IT network (all self taught - no letters behind my name). I am sort of a jack of all trades running a small business. So I could do that. Not sure I want to do that anymore - at least running a business unless it is my own. I thought about going to work at a University registrar doing something for the education benefits as my kids approach college. Perhaps going back to school myself also. I have a Liberal Arts BA in History.

I hope the added information helps.

Thanks.

[Steve Pickering]

It's all here, but don't expect less rain. If it bothered you in 2012 it will drive you nuts long-term.

[Billy_J]

Major hospital cities Portland, Eugene, Salem, and Corvallis.

[Nell Plotts]

Your wife needs to check the requirements to become registered in Oregon. If she has that then she should apply at all the major health care systems. Once she has a job I am confident you can find a home in that vicinity that meets your needs.

Portland has the largest number of health care jobs but it also has several schools of nursing with graduates who don't want to move. The competition can be fierce. She may have a better chance in Eugene. Personally I wouldn't choose Salem or Albany but I would look at Bend.

[Terryj]

If rain is a problem you might want to look at Southern Oregon, average rainfall is about 17 inches per year.
Here's a link to some interesting weather data gathered from all 50 states, it ranks the top 10.
Interesting United States Weather Facts and Extremes

Astoria is the wettest city in Oregon it ranks 4th nation wide. Oregon also gets the number 1, 5 and 10 spot for the cloudiest cities in the US, Astoria (1) Portland (5) and Eugene (10). Eugene also get the number 8 spot for being one of the most humid cities.

[bler144]

Wait? Steve didn't recommend Dallas? I personally have no objections to advocating for the Salem area in general - ultimately I may end up there if affordability drives us out of Pdx. Like anywhere, it has pros and cons, but it's not a bad area, and there are both nicer (Silverton) and less nice (Albany) options.

The registrar notion is curious - how did you settle on that interest? While potentially doable, I'd caution that it's generally not something one just falls into these days. The modern registrar position tends to be complex - in a small office you're required to be the expert on everything the office does (grading policy, scheduling, transfer policy, usually VA benefit certification) and on most campuses the registrar is the FERPA authority. In a larger office you can delegate, but those tend to be the primo jobs in the field (I think the UO Registrar makes 125k or so these days but they've started overpaying top admins with reckless abandon) you only get after decades in the field.

Here's the WOU registrar posting: http://www.wou.edu/admin/hr/staff/E9...strar_0314.pdf - this is pretty typical of what a Registrar job posting looks like these days.

Certainly you can start at more of an entry level position or maybe even an Assistant gig if you happen to have a background in scheduling or transcript evaluation or grading policy. But most of those starter gigs will tend to pay in the 25-40k range depending on the school and the exact position.

[bler144]

Originally Posted by Terryj

Eugene also get the number 8 spot for being one of the most humid cities.

That's just crazy talk. As a measure of year-round relative humidity, it could be technically true, but if so that's going to be largely winter dampness pulling up the average. Summers are generally on the drier end.

As the normal human being perceives 'humidity' as muggy hot days where the body can't use evaporative cooling/perspiration to cool itself, Eugene doesn't even rate. I'll grant, it's muggier than it was a few decades back, but really you're talking 1-2 weeks of moderate unpleasantness. Compared to the southeast, or even the midwest or northeast where you're looking at 6-10 weeks of horror, it's not much to write home about, much less '8th'.