Moving from Southern California to Oregon (Portland, Eugene: relocating, house, rent)

[Clear2land]

Hi Forestpixey:

My grandmother lived here entire life in Oregon and mostly South Bend, Washington. She opened Oysters for a living. Thanks to her, I learned to love small towns. I tasted my first Salmon Berry growing wild on her property. She lived on a hillside overlooking Willapa Harbor, which is within walking distance of town. I felt I had the run of the town. A local cannery paid me a nickel an hour to put lids on jars of Oysters. To this day, I love Oysters!

Dan

[forestpixey]

I have a question: Are there a lot of illegal immigrants in your state.. I live in Central California, I grew in So. Cal. thought moving here I would get away from all that... I was wrong... I'm so tired of seeing someone get out of a nice car( one day it was a Lexus Suv) going into the local market and paying with their food stamps....

[TMBishop7]

Ok, I'm gonna make this really easy.

Southern Oregon and the Bend area are the only places that SoCal people can handle. The Rogue Valley only gets 18-20" of rain a year, and it all occurs between November and April. It's pretty much a mediterranean climate (Get all the rain in 5 months, then little the other 7) Also, EVERYONE is these areas are from California. Being from Ashland, Sacramento is closer than Portland, and I'd much rather go there or the extra hour to San Francisco than go to Portland.

Anywhere north of Roseburg is gonna be really rainy and cloudy...

Long live the state of Jefferson.

[Clear2land]

Hi TMBishop7 and welcome to the forum!

You took the words right out of my mouth. If weather is a primary concern, you have to draw a horizontal line right through Roseburg and that is your dividing line between rain to the north and less rain to the south. You can call that the banana belt of Oregon weather with Roseburg probably having the best weather in the state due to it’s 529 feet above sea level. Applegate gets very little rain for some reason. Go up another 500 feet, Grants Pass, and you will be 3 degrees cooler. Location, location, location, it is all about the location. Medford to Roseburg along the I-5 is as good as you are going to find if a California Mediterranean type climate is what you seek. My nephew and I grew up in Roseburg. He now lives in Oregon City and once he knew we were moving back to Oregon, he took me aside and said, “Look at Southern Oregon" on no less than three occasions during our family reunion in Roseburg. The beauty of Southern Oregon is unsurpassed too.



Dan

[Kathleenh54]

Originally Posted by Clear2land

Here in Southern California we have four seasons Early Summer, Summer, Late Summer, and Fall. Actually, Palm trees grow all the way to Portland. I agree with you that the best Oregon weather is in Southern Oregon from Brookings to Medford. The only difference I see in the weather is the amount of rain and the length of winter. Our cool months in California are December, January, and the first two weeks of February where in Oregon winter is from November through March with some rain in April to bring May flowers. We are going to be retired so we'll just winter along with the rest of the snowbirds in Palm Springs or Scottsdale. For the majority of the year, weather in Oregon rules!

Clear2land, when we moved to SoCal five years ago, my discovery of the seasons was as follows: Fire season, rattlesnake season, Santa Ana season, rainy season, and summer.

[Kathleenh54]

Originally Posted by Clear2land

Hi Kathleen:

Well it is to bad you are moving. I would love to have you as a neighbor. Being a native Oregonian, I have never been one to really dress up. I had to wear suits for years and just hated it. I now own one suit and I don’t know if it even fits anymore. My wife says that I have never been a fashion statement and she is right. Sometimes I wonder if a restaurant will let me in. No, I like casual. To look at me, you would think that I don’t have two nickels to rub together. I try to stay understated except when it comes to my passion for sports cars. I have a 1999 Mercedes SLK, push a button and the top folds into the trunk, with 22,000 miles and a 2003 50th Anniversary Corvette, which is the best car I have ever owned. Without going overboard, we do intend to buy a nice house. I would like three or four garages. I will be looking to partner with someone on an airplane and I intend to volunteer a lot. I will not give permission to anyone to give me a hard time about where I’m from or engage in I hate California talk of any kind. In fact, one way to lose me as a friend it to bad mouth someone else. All I can say is that it is tough banana’s, I’m moving to my home state of Oregon no matter if the locals like it or not. You get out of this world just about as much as you put into it. Lastly, we like Ashland, but not enough to live there. I hope you won’t give up on your finding happiness in Southern Oregon.

Dan

Well thanks for the kind words, Dan! Maybe we're just a bit oversensitive. I read a lot of newspapers and what the locals say about us. Most of the people I've met in person however treat me as if I've made their day just by saying hello. We can probably get used to that!

And so far no one has asked us when we're going to replace our four-year old car!

[Kathleenh54]

Originally Posted by Des_Demona

Wow... Steve, Dan and Rod you all make some amazing points and arguments regarding the tax situation in Oregon. I am drawn to Oregon because of its "no sales tax" laws (and about 600 other things) and when I hear people talk of perhaps implementing taxes there I think "Oh no!" but when you really step outside of that initial reaction and the idea itself, the reality of it really does sink in. Taxes are a source of funding for very important resources (education, roads etc.) and Steve you make a very good case for people sharing the burden and rejecting unnecessary material things for the good of the community.

It's so hard with all the consumer pressure to buy "the latest version" of this and that what with pop up advertisements on the computers, billboards, Huge TV screens over the freeway advertising (In California), TV's in each check out lane at the grocery store advertising, every commercial, every person on the street pushing their product, and making products that rely on purchasing many other products. In California it is SO hard to reject such repeated inundations and just be happy with what you have. I don't have a TV anymore and I don't have the Internet at home anymore either (just at work) so I'm slowly cutting out the unnecessary stuff but it's so hard! The latest thing is offering totally FREE services but you have to watch/listen to an advertisement first. You're drawn to the idea of the free service obviously and for a lot of people, FORCED to it financially and then constantly bombarded with pressure to buy buy buy.

The way this Capitalist society is turning is sickening and it really scares me. Capitalism is good in a way... but it's getting really out of control. That's a huge reason I want to get out of California. Even if you don't have a TV at home you are forced to watch it everywhere you go and still get bum rushed every place you turn by an advertisement. I don't really think it's gotten that bad in other places but I know that California (LA area), Las Vegas and New York are the worst offenders. I just need to get away from all this and be happy with what I have because I AM happy with what I have... if only they'd leave me alone.

Des, one day I went on e-Bay and splurged on a Coach wallet. It was maybe a third of the price one would pay in a store. I liked it because it was red.

One day I took it out and my SoCal daughter's SoCal friend immediately pounced on it, saying "Oh, is that a Coach wallet? It's beautiful! I want a Luis Vuitton someday." WTF?! This kid was 13.

The kids in Oregon don't know a Luis Vuitton from an Albertson't shopping bag. That's the way it should be! Not that they are unsophisticated, they just don't care.

[Des_Demona]

Wow if that is true then I just can't wait to get to Oregon. I'm not one for buying brand name stuff and my "purse" is a patchwork handmade bag that I got in San Francisco for like.. 7 dollars lol and my wallet... well I don't quite remember where I got that but it was about 15 years ago! I know what you mean about the little girls in SoCal being SO overly focused on growing older faster and dressing like... well *****y with their mini skirts, high heels, earings and clutches. It makes me sick! I see them all the time looking like that and I swear they can't be much older than 8 years old! I'm just in shock. I hope kids in Oregon are still kids because I'm tired of seeing parents actually letting their kids go out of the house looking like that. When I was 8 I had NO idea what the "cool" kids were wearing (which is probably why I was never cool haha). I can't wait to get to Oregon! I wanna wear poofy down jackets and 20 dollar jeans and not be gawked at for it!

[washinton native]

To be honest, nobody from the PNW appreciates a Californian transplant. In fact, in my opinion, they are often looked at with disdain in both Washington and Oregon.

[PDXsailor]

Des Demona, you can't wear puffy down jackets here as the down gets all soggy. We wear ski parkas, leather, and P coats here