Living in eastern washington, want to move to Oregon (Portland: sales, low crime)

[starrieyed]

I currently live in a small tourist town in eastern, Washington and am considering a move to Oregon this summer with my son. The summers here gotten unbearably hot causing us both heat exhaustion (temps up to 110 degrees) and the winters are terribley cold, (up to -10 degrees). We had the worst winter this past year!!! I don't believe it will ever get milder. I moved here from western, Washington to escape the wet, dreary rain that lasts 9 months out of the year (it was very depressing!). I would like relocate to Oregon but would like to be close to the coastal area so we can go to a real "beach". I don't want to live in a small town again but not a huge city either and would like to be in a place that has warm weather up to 80 degrees with mild winters and not much rain if possible A community that has a good high school (my son will be starting hs in Sept), shopping close by, night life, friendly people vs. narrow-mindedness, low crime and hopefully somewhere I could buy a 3 bedroom home comfortably. I don't want to make a mistake but have read this forum and still don't know where the best place to consider in Oregon. I would appreciate any information. I have only been to Mount Hood & Bend to go skiing in the past. Also, I have passed through southern, oregon by car, just loved it. Many of the places that I looked up are very small, retirement communities or have very cold weather. Any ideas?

[live free or die]

Try New Hampshire. close to the coast affordable homes no general income tax, no sales tax. not alot of traffic 20 min. to Boston. Mid size cities Nashua 89,000 best, Manchester 106,000 plenty of recreaition. Down side high property taxes 3,200 to 7,000 per yr. average is 4,200. Winters can be a burden here, maybe not as bad as Wasington. spring here does not start unitl mid April and good weather lasts until mid October. weather here can be quite a strange phenomenon. You could have 50 F and rain in Boston and at the same time 20 min. away it could be 32 F in Nashua and snowing. Funny thing is I was looking to move to the Oregon coast myself. Home prices do not seem nearly as high there but from what I have read there is very little in the way of jobs. It is just the opposite here, where there is plenty of high paying jobs but also home prices are high as well! I grew up in the north Mass. coast and I can no longer afford the area where I grew up be cause the average home price there is 380,000 to 400,000 for a handy man special, also I am freaking out about living inland/ only 20 min to coast but I would rather walk to the beach! If you could send some info about Oregon I would greatly appreciate it. I would of course reciprcaite for NH / MA info Thanks.

[Spose88]

A small tourist town in Eastern Washington... Wenatchee? Spokane? Ellensburg? With summers up to 110, I am thinking high desert so Tri-Cities?

Anyway, I have lived in Ellensburg and Tri-Cities. I also lived in Pendleton and worked in Hermiston.

My employer is relocating me and my family to Wilsonville, OR. Summer highs average 80 and winter lows average right around freezing. There are communities around (and including) Wilsonville that are very nice. I have two kids in school right now with a third starting in a couple of years. There are good schools in the area and the student/teacher ratios are lower than other area I have recently lived in. Check out greatschools.net for some good information on schools nationwide.

Good luck

[Silverfall]

Pretty much everything on the coast is small. I would stick with the valley to get milder rain and weather, relatively speaking. We're probably also the most affordable for homes. We tend to have one week or so every July that hits 100, but we tend to hover in the 80's most of the time. Our winter's tend to be around 40 degrees or so most of the time as well.

It takes about 1.5 hours to get to Lincoln City from here, and about 1.5 hours to get to Hoodoo for sledding or skiing.

Corvallis is also a nice town, but it is a little bit more expensive.

We don't have a ton of nightlife in terms of bars and clubbing. I'd have to say that Salem is a little boring in that regard. You'd have to hit Portland or Eugene for that. Salem-Keizer has just under 200,000 people so we pretty much have everything you need on a regular basis right here.

I would check out the Oregon Department of Education's Report Cards for schools, but Sprague High School, West Salem High School and McNary in Keizer tend to get the best reports.