Moving from Southern California to Oregon (Portland, Eugene: lender, foreclosures, showing)

[ExNewYork]

I've been having a grand old time visiting the forum threads in the other states. Of course I had to check the NY forums, being a native, and laughed a lot. NYrs seem to have the hardest time relocating. Many of them move back, much to the relief of denizens from other states! NYrs also don't care about who moves to their state. You can all come here just don't get in my way and make me miss my train. They have the least preconceived notions about people who move TO their state, but the most about people in their NEW states. I too miss NY but won't go back to that weather, no way no how.

Go to each state forum and you can see, "All those people from (fill in the blank) have moved here and are trying to ruin the place." NY is the only place so far where I haven't seen that; also North Dakota (yes, people do move there). ND seems happy to welcome one and all. Haven't checked out SD yet.. The Californians mostly resent the illegals. Anyone else they don't notice. Same with NY. Texas wants everyone to notice THEM, haha.

From what I've seen, the people who treat Oregonians the worst are other Oregonians. I myself don't need: schools, libraries or great roads. Good thing, since those initiatives are voted down by the locals. I just live here, enjoy the scenery and pay my taxes.

[Des_Demona]

I'm in Oregon!!!!! YAY! I'm having SUCH a great time and everyone has been SO nice to me so far. I've only been here two days but I'm already in love with Eugene. I don't want to go back home at ALL! I think I'm going to just move in with my friends here haha. Okay so I'll report back with pictures and details after I've been here longer.

[SandyCo]

Originally Posted by Des_Demona

I'm in Oregon!!!!! YAY! I'm having SUCH a great time and everyone has been SO nice to me so far. I've only been here two days but I'm already in love with Eugene. I don't want to go back home at ALL! I think I'm going to just move in with my friends here haha. Okay so I'll report back with pictures and details after I've been here longer.

I'm looking forward to reading your report and pics, Des! I visited a friend in Salem once, and it's a nice city. Of course, I was there in the summer...

[Clear2land]

Now you will be able to post on the What I Like About Oregon thread. I can't wait to hear your comments. Those mountains tugging at your heartstrings are they?

Enjoy your trip!

Dan

[PDXsailor]

Enjoying all the rain? If you see any sunshine, count yourself lucky as it is a rare occurance at this time of year.

[OregonCoasting]

Check out Lincoln City. Over by the golf course are a few newer homes for sale. A large developement is underway in that same area. The area is minutes away from the Casino, Devils lake, Golf course and the beach. We plan to move from CA next year and love the small town atmosphere of LC. The summer weather is really nice as are the people. :-)

Originally Posted by outdoor girl

After reading about all the gloom in Northern Oregon, I'm not sure if Portland will be a good place to live. Our Transfering choices are Portland, Bend, Eugene, Medford, Roseburg and Salem. Now, just because we come from Los Angeles, doesn't mean we are sun worshipers. The Summers here have reached 106 and Winters get as cold as 34. We really could do without the heat, but at the same time don't want freezing temps in the Winters everyday.

We have vacationed quite a bit in Oregon. We have been to Gold Beach- alone the Rogue River, Oregon Dunes, Diamond and Crater Lake and Klamath Falls. All which we love and helped to make our decision to move to Oregon. We are an Outdoor loving family. We need lots of trees and streams to go fishing. Rain doesn't bother us. I'd rather have rain than snow since my husband drives class A trucks. It's just all the "depression" stories that is making us think twice about Portland. We are looking to feel safe and enjoy a good quality of life. All opinions/comments are appreciated.

[fastfilm]

Cool, DesDemona. 'Hadn't seen you on the "apologists/Pollyanas for CA vs. Wake up already" forum for Los Angeles. I'm glad there's a happy reason.

As a suffering SoCal person, I would like to remind folks here on the forum that Californians who leave/flee in terror from here indeed despise the same things you all do about California, so everyone should have a lot in common!

[Des_Demona]

Hey everyone! So I think I'm going to be moving here a LOT sooner haha as our friends we are staying with love us and want us to move in with them while we get on our feet. They even discussed going in together buying property in the South Hills of Eugene which would be amazing! We went to the coast yesterday to Florence and Newport and I can't even describe the beauty that is there!! I'm serious I was just staring with my mouth hanging open. I took some great pics that I'll post on the forum as soon as I get back to Cali... no I don't want to think about going back haha.

PDXSailor I'm not sure what's going on with the weather here but we haven't seen ANY rain yet! Not even at the coast. It's been sunny (but cold definitely). In the morning around Corvallis it was foggy, but it went away by around 11 or 12 and was sunny and about 40 degrees.

I wasn't overly impressed by Corvallis... it was a REALLY small town and not as attractive as I had pictured I guess. It seemed to have a lot of industrial buildings. The neighborhoods were cute I guess. Nothing was open and it was 11am... it was really quite boring. We ate at a place called Sunnyside Up and the food was really bland. I haven't been too impressed by the food yet here but I love how everyone recycles even at the restaurants.

You guys... I am having SUCH a great time! I've learned so much about a lot of places and I'm really excited to post and relate the info here when I get back. It really helps living with native Oregonians who have lived all over Oregon. It's pretty crazy in this house because there is a kitten, a cat, a puppy, two small dogs and a really BIG dog, and a RAT! There are 5 girls staying in this house with one bathroom but it's been really fun. I have the kitten sleeping in my lap as I type this. To me, this place is paradise. I went to the University of Oregon and the campus is INCREDIBLE! It's soooo beautiful, the architecture, the green, trees everywhere, fountains, even a graveyard with really old stones where the founders of Eugene were buried. It was a wonderful experience. I went into the student bookstore and they were playing my favorite song and I ended up buying like one of everything that said Oregon on it LOL. I love it here so much I actually started crying a little (happy tears). I've been all over the United States and NOTHING has captivated me like Oregon. I don't even want to go back. I spent an hour yesterday plotting a way to get all of our stuff Fedexed up here haha. I absolutely love Eugene!!!! I haven't met a lot of other locals yet because it's really quiet here... I haven't seen many people at all. The people in the stores and restaurants are very nice though. In Corvallis we went into Borders bookstore to get some CD's for the drive to the coast and the girl at the register said "I really hope you had a 5 star experience with us here today!" and I had! They had been very helpful when we couldn't find this CD we were looking for and they found it for us. Corvallis is definitely a great town full of friendly people if you are looking for the very very quiet small town feel. It seemed too isolated and empty to me though. The University (Oregon State) wasn't beautiful like the U of O either. Maybe I was expecting too much of Corvallis from being on these boards but I just wasn't impressed. It would be a wonderfully safe place to live for retirees or something though... just wasn't for a 25 year old that gets bored easily.

It's definitely true that people drive slowly here and the speed limits are much lower than in California. I saw my first 20 mph hour sign yesterday, but it's been really nice because I actually can look around and focus on the scenery and the journey rather than on where I'm going. I'm on vacation so I'm not in a hurry anywhere so I'm guessing it might be different if I was trying to get to work but we'll see...

Well it's another beautiful day today so we're going to go outside and go rollerblading! I'll talk to you all soon and for those of you who are moving to Oregon soon... I would plan even sooner because your quality of life will be so much improved. I love everything about it. I'm hoping for some rain and snow later... I do love the rain and it's like we brought the California sun with us.

[PDXsailor]

**** Californians!! First you want to bring your California way of doing things up here and now you bring your sunshine!!!!

Glad you are having a good trip. The Oregon coast is an awesome place to visit. Not sure I would want to live there, but beautiful beaches and scenery. And I agree with Corvallis. Kind of boring and plain. Much prefer Eugene or Portland. You should ask your buddies down there to take you up to Cougar hot springs for a soak in the pools. Warning: the place is clothing optional.

[Steve97415]

Originally Posted by ExNewYork

Go to each state forum and you can see, "All those people from (fill in the blank) have moved here and are trying to ruin the place." NY is the only place so far where I haven't seen that; also North Dakota (yes, people do move there). ND seems happy to welcome one and all. Haven't checked out SD yet..

I'm sure we've all wondered how it can be possible that every single part of the country seems to be undergoing a growth spurt. There must be some parts of the country that are experiencing a net population loss with all this moving around. There are. The Dakotas are probably at the top of the population loss list. They really need new blood to make up for all the kids that leave, so it certainly isn't surprising that they're welcoming newcomers.