Relocating to West Coast (Portland, Eugene: real estate, mobile home, buying)

[C10h12n2o5ht]

Hi everyone, I’m new here, and am looking for some advice! I’m from New Orleans, and my husband and I are currently living just outside of Atlanta. We had been planning to move back to New Orleans once our daughter graduates high school (she’s in 10th grade) but they recently announced that the $14 billion dollar levee system they built after Katrina will stop providing the protection they intended as soon as 2023.

So now we’re broadening our horizons and trying to figure out where the heck in this country might actually suit us. We’re not terribly familiar with the west coast, but feel like it might be the best region for us politically and personally. The two cities we picked were Portland and possibly Seattle, but so far in our research Portland definitely has seemed like the better fit. We’re also open to California, but don’t have much familiarity with it.

We would love some advice on what might be good areas for us to check out to build a house, and here’s some info about us so you’ll have that background:

I’m 33, a Paramedic, and finishing a Master’s degree in Emergency and Disaster Management. The goal is to get into hospital-focused emergency management, so being relatively close to nearby hospitals would be a big bonus. My husband makes video games and can work remotely, so that’s not an issue. We want to have about an acre or so, and would like to build a net zero house that we can live in and practice some mild urban homesteading (gardens, a couple chickens, etc.). We hear that Portland is extremely green/eco-friendly, so we’re hoping that might be of benefit. We know land is expensive out that way, we have a tentative budget of approximately $700k.

As far as socially, we’re pretty weird and quirky liberal atheists. Would love to be close to the city for a daily commute, but far enough away to do our own projects.

Thank you for your time and advice!

Rebekah

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Portland is the place for pretty weird and quirky liberal atheists.


There are several major hospitals in Portland. However, your chance of finding an acre or so close enough to commute to the hospitals at a price that you can afford is pretty slim.

[Terryj]

If your weird and quirky then Portland is the place for you. Portland is the bastion of liberal ideology here in Oregon, so your political viewpoint will be welcomed. As the last poster pointed out, you may have a problem find the property you want within a reasonable commute to work. Portland has a number of medical facilities in the area, so getting a position at a medical facility shouldn't be a problem. Good luck on your quest.

[Silverfall]

Your best bet would be to find a dilapidated mobile home on acreage, remove it and then build. Trying to find land that is easily buildable will be difficult in the Portland Metro area. We have Urban Growth Boundaries out here to prevent sprawl and so those small parcels are few and far between.

[texasdiver]

Small acreages are going to be very difficult to find in the Portland metro area on the Oregon side of the Columbia because of the urban growth boundaries as Silverfall mentions. Building on raw land out here is a LOT longer process than down in the south due to more complicated permitting and higher costs. Probably better to find an existing house or maybe a mobile home and then take your time with the renovations or rebuild. It is easily to accidentally buy a rural lot that you can't really build on for one reason or other and then be stuck with it.

A better bet might be Clark County WA across the river from Portland which is still Portland metro and has two major hospitals of its own. Land use laws are less strict in WA and there are a lot more properties that fit your description. The more rural you go the redder it will be politically, but there are still loads of like-minded people doing what you are doing. If kids and schools are not an issue, I'd look at Battle Ground, Ridgefield, Hockinson, and pretty much all the area north and east of Vancouver WA. For example, here's a random house with a 5 acre lot in Ridgefield that would be about a 20 minute drive to two hospitals and 30+ minutes into Portland depending on traffic: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2...23325167_zpid/ a similar 5 acre lot on the Oregon side would be harder to find. Or something like this in Battle Ground: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3...23325603_zpid/

Anything within the Seattle metro area is going to be out of your price range if you are looking for acreage.

Honestly, Portland itself is pretty conducive to things like intensive gardening on city lots. Based on your political persuasion and interests you might ultimately be happier just buying a fixer upper home in the city and then doing intensive gardening and eco stuff on a smaller city lot like a lot of other people do. And remodeling an older home into something closer to net zero. Lots of people in Portland are doing the same and you see all kinds of interesting intensive gardens all over the city. But you'll more likely have to make do with a much smaller lot than 1 acre. That is what I would do in your shoes, rather than try to find acreage out in redneck country with long commutes to every place.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by Silverfall

Your best bet would be to find a dilapidated mobile home on acreage, remove it and then build. Trying to find land that is easily buildable will be difficult in the Portland Metro area. We have Urban Growth Boundaries out here to prevent sprawl and so those small parcels are few and far between.

Just to clarify what Silverfall said, even if you find a small parcel, you may not necessarily be able to get a building permit to put a house on it. Check with the county planning department before you spend any money. If it's inside a city's Urban Growth Boundary it will be buildable, but not necessarily for housing. That depends on the city's comprehensive land use plan, so a visit to city planning is also a requirement.

You can almost always get a building permit to replace an existing residence, which is why land with an old mobile sells for a premium. Generally you can bulldoze it and build a site built home, but not always. The process can be involved, so back to Planning you go. Do your due diligence before buying.

One advantage to buying developed property is that the utilities will be in. By the time you bring in power, drill a well and get phone/data lines strung, it can cost $50,000 to develop bare land. If you build a new house, you will probably need a new septic system.

I have seen one person get a one acre lot by buying four adjoining quarter acre lots in a subdivision. That limits your uses, since development standards may require a house on a parcel before you can construct accessory buildings. You may get around that with boundary line adjustments, but they won't let you create a non-conforming lot.

Wending your way through Oregon land use and planning can be complex. You can do more than most people think, but you need to know what questions to ask and how to apply. There are consultants who specialize in the process.

Now for some details. Forget Portland. Portland is a landlocked city surrounded by other towns. The there is a regional government called Metro that handles all the land use for multiple towns. Since most of the hospitals are in NW Portland or Hillsboro, you should be looking at small towns NW of Metro, like Scappoose or St. Helens. Be methodical. Do your research. The area has a growing population, so housing is at a premium.

[gemstone1]

Don't overlook Eugene

"We’re also open to California"....Santa Cruz

Regards
Gemstone1

[PNW-type-gal]

If you use one of the real estate search engines, you can find some properties in the greater Portland metro area that are at least close to one acre and in your price range. You'll see that the pickings are slim and a lot of the properties are less than wonderful - but they are out there.

Portland (including its suburbs) is, by far, the largest metro area in Oregon and will therefore have the highest number of hospitals, but you might also consider Salem and Eugene, which are smaller cities but surrounded more closely by open land than Portland is. The 1-5 acre category is probably one the hardest land sizes to find - the Urban Growth Boundaries mentioned above are an attempt to keep farms intact and from being split up into smaller properties.

[Willamette City]

Originally Posted by gemstone1

Don't overlook Eugene

"We’re also open to California"....Santa Cruz

Regards
Gemstone1

Eugene has two major hospitals about 3 miles apart. One is McKenzie Willamette hospital and the other is Sacred Hear/Peace health hospital.


Good luck on your search!

[Willamette City]

Forgot the "T"! That should be Sacred Heart/Peace health hospital.