What's Life in Oregon Like? (Portland, Eugene: real estate, 2015, how much)

[IowaRose]

My husband and I are in our mid-40's and considering relocating to Western Oregon. All of this is dependent upon finding employment first. He is finishing up an associates degree in computer networks and security. He has work experience repairing computers and installing networks, but I told him if he ever wants to leave Iowa, a degree would be important.

I moved to Iowa from Michigan in my twenties, fresh out of college, and for a long, long, long, time have wanted to move out of the small town where we live. One of the things that seems so nice about Oregon is the scenery and wide variety of climates, depending on whether you are along the coast or further inland. We are outdoor type people and like hiking, camping, visiting state and national parks, and I like photographing nature and scenery.

One of the things I hate about Iowa is the humidity in the summer. The humidity makes even a mildly hot day seem that much hotter. I hibernate indoors where there is air conditioning for the better part of 3 months during the summer here, and I hate it. From what I have heard, Oregon summers might be less humid and cooler.

I keep hearing about how much it rains in Oregon, so how bad is it really? I grew up in the U.P. of Michigan, where it snows sometimes from Oct. through May, so a rainy winter season doesn't seem all that bad. At least you don't have to shovel it every day. Are there a lot of ice storms in Oregon in the winter?

We have also looked at New Mexico, but I like to garden and the lack of moisture there limits the things I could grow without having a huge water bill every month.

I have a degree in accounting and mostly I am a "jack-of-all trades" type of person. I have done some bookkeeping, general office work, and have also been a CAD draftsperson. Not a lot of job opportunities where we live, so it would be good to move somewhere with more.

We hope to plan a trip out to Oregon in the spring or late summer to have a look around. I look forward to hearing more about Oregon.

[Larry Caldwell]

Oregon's climate is much milder than Iowa or Michigan. Thanks to the low humidity it cools off nicely at night. Even during the hottest days of the summer, it is delightful from daybreak to perhaps 10 AM. On the down side, wildfires are common everywhere but along the coast, and the smoke can get pretty thick during fire season. In such a wet area you would not think water would be a problem, but it is. We have a persistent summer drought that lasts from the first of July through mid September. Things get pretty dry in the summer.

The North Pacific off the coast is about 50 degrees, so winter temperatures hover around that. Western Oregon gets occasional snow, but not every winter.

The majority of the state is owned by the government and it is illegal for people to live there, so there are lots of opportunities for hiking and camping. There are vast uninhabited areas.

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by IowaRose

I keep hearing about how much it rains in Oregon, so how bad is it really?

It probably rains as much in Oregon as it snows in Michigan. Given the choice between 60 degree rain and 20 degree snow, for me it’s a no brainer. That's why I live in Oregon.

Originally Posted by IowaRose

I grew up in the U.P. of Michigan, where it snows sometimes from Oct. through May, so a rainy winter season doesn't seem all that bad. At least you don't have to shovel it every day. Are there a lot of ice storms in Oregon in the winter?

We have also looked at New Mexico, but I like to garden and the lack of moisture there limits the things I could grow without having a huge water bill every month.

I have a degree in accounting and mostly I am a "jack-of-all trades" type of person. I have done some bookkeeping, general office work, and have also been a CAD draftsperson. Not a lot of job opportunities where we live, so it would be good to move somewhere with more.

We hope to plan a trip out to Oregon in the spring or late summer to have a look around. I look forward to hearing more about Oregon.

If you can find jobs, I think you should move to Oregon.

[IowaRose]

Thank you for your responses, so far. I have read a lot of posts about how difficult it is to find a good job in Oregon. I read the following article that mentions Corvallis, Oregon as one of the best places for tech jobs. Best Places for Tech Jobs - NerdWallet

So, just wondering, are there many good tech jobs in Oregon? Portland gets mentioned in a lot of articles as far as there being a lot of tech and computer jobs there, however, we would prefer somewhere smaller than Portland. I tend to take all of these articles with a grain of salt, as it is better to hear from someone who actually lives there than someone who might not live there and only wrote about the place.

[Nell Plotts]

The best tech jobs in Oregon are located in Portland metro. Always look in Corvallis and Eugene as well. As that article notes the ratio between salaries and housing costs is important.

[Thom52]

My career is mechanical engineering High Tech, especially electronics packaging.
Slim pickings in Oregon, for that field outside of Portland area.
I have been searching for something for over a year in the Bend area with no luck.
In the Seattle area I have 30 years of uninterrupted employment in my field.

To me, it seems as though most of the "High Tech" jobs are software. Just another reason to kick myself for not going the software route 35 years ago....sigh...

advice I generally give to young people that are debating hardware or software. Software is much more portable.

As far as rain....
I investigated going more coastal in a move from Seattle to Oregon. 60 to 100 inches of rain was more than I could deal with, and keep in mind that I am coming from the Seattle area, not known for its sunny blue skies. Just make sure you are ok with gray sky, lots of it.

[Nell Plotts]

Portland and Eugene are software focused, Corvallis leans to hardware.

[mamh]

Hi there
You asked what can expect to find, its a gardeners paradise, soil , climate and all that goes with it..When you come plan a day in Silverton and Oregon Gardens..This is a demo garden to show our guests what we grow in our gardens, vegies , trees and all kinds of plants and shrubs its a neat place..
I'm one of their volunteers..
You will find farmers markets, fruit and veggie stands all over the place..People start looking forward to cherry season in mid-June , berries of all kinds closer to the 4th of July, lots of nice people..One of our favorite things to do is go to the Volcano baseball games near us in Keizer..They are an A-short season farm club of the San Francisco Giants and play other farm teams of the Diamond Backs, the Texas Ranger, Rockies ,Seattle and a couple of more, the games are
such fun to go to and the season starts in June to Labor day.
When living in Oregon you should never lack things to do..The weather is great .
Come see us...

[Mini-apple-less]

The Coast and Cascades are beautiful, as are the Blue Mountains in eastern Oregon. There's lots of clearcutting and tree farms here but what's left is really nice. I highly suggest seeing Crater Lake and the Rogue/Umpqua area of the Cascades. The southern coast I've heard is more unspoiled than the northern part between Florence and Astoria which is much closer to the Willamette Valley population centers.

Jobs are very hard to come by and it could take months or even years to find a job that pays you enough to live on. Expect to earn less than your potential by a significant degree. Lots of unemployment and nepotism, people tend to give jobs to friends here.

Oregonians are kind of like Swedes or Japanese, polite and almost never aggressive but not very open or accepting of outsiders. Your presence will generally be tolerated but don't expect people to accept you as one of their own or even like you that much. Shoes come off in the rare case you're invited into somebody's home. People give off kind of a "serious" vibe if that makes any sense and this seems to be the case regardless of their political/religious persuasion or gender/ethnicity. Oregonians tend to believe very strongly in whatever they happen to believe in, whether they are liberals or conservatives, atheists or Christians, etc. Oregon is about half and half left/right and Christian/atheist, with more of the left and atheist in the younger generation and in Portland.

Oregon's climate overall is definitely on the cold and dark side, and parts of the state get dumped with massive amounts of snow (winter in Klamath Falls is a lot like the Midwest), but in the western valleys where most people actually live it doesn't freeze much in the winter. Mostly you're dealing with 7 to 10 months of wetness with temps ranging from 30 to 65 degrees, 4 or 5 months of darkness and 3 months of summer that can be surprisingly hot and somewhat sticky sometimes. Basically it's a 4 season temperate climate, but one that is more moderate than what you get in the Midwest and Northeast.

[redguard57]

Originally Posted by Mini-apple-less

Jobs are very hard to come by and it could take months or even years to find a job that pays you enough to live on. Expect to earn less than your potential by a significant degree. Lots of unemployment and nepotism, people tend to give jobs to friends here.

I whole-heartedly endorse everything mini-apple-less said, but wanted to re-emphasize the above. Either you or your spouse needs to have a job in hand before you move to Oregon. The other spouse can and will find something if they try hard enough, but it may take years. Some of my colleagues spouses took 2-3 years to find a decent jobs. The only jobs readily available are tourism related service jobs. The Portland & Salem areas are the best bet for jobs of any kind, although it's harder when compared to metros of similar size and scope elsewhere in the country.

In the smaller towns... especially desirable towns on the coast, Bend, Eugene, Corvallis, etc... There are NO GOOD JOBS THERE unless you search for years or you know someone who gets you one. I live in Bend. Everyone and their mother wants to live here too, so things like teacher jobs with the school district get 100s of applicants. Portland seems to be getting like that too although it helps that it's a bigger city with a bigger economic engine.

As for earnings... my experience has been that we start off 10-15% lower than in the neighboring states relative to what housing costs here - especially compared to Washington, which is what most people use to compare to Oregon. Over time, though, it evens out somewhat. We do have somewhat lower housing costs. They have risen recently and you'll see many people complaining about it, but compared to CA and WA they are still a bargain. There was a time in the 1990s and early 2000s that Oregon real estate was an unbelievable bargain compared to WA/CA. You could get nice Portland area real estate for 200K. Now that's no longer the case. It's still lower than our neighbors but not by as big a margin.