tillamook to portland? or salem? (Gresham, Beaverton: mortgage, loan, school)

[snuggarelli]

i live in the Bay Area (in Northern California). One of the things that my husband and I realized is that I can never be a stay-at-home mom NOR ever retire with the mortgage we have here (it's quite a bit). And we live in a small place that is three stories and no yard. I'm originally from San Jose, but loved it in Connecticut where I went to school for 4 years because of the forests and fall foliage. I also lived in Virginia (too close to my mother-in-law) and in Huntington Beach.

One thing my husband said that he has always dreamed about is living near the ocean. Obviously unless we win the lotto, there's no way that'll happen in California. So, we are thinking of staying on the West Coast (so that we are close to my family who are in CA and Disneyland), but just moving one state north.

My husband started to research tillamook (I on the other hand liked what I researched so far on Williamette and was looking at Salem). And he really wants us to visit and check it out. But, my question is how is the commute to Portland? My husband is in high-tech, so I'm assuming that he'd have to commute at least to Hillsboro or Portland. I also saw that there is a bus from tillamook to beaverton that takes 1.5 hours (he commutes a little over an hour now, and we've both did 2 1/4 hour commutes each way before). Has anyone taken that bus and what's it like?

Also, my other requirement is lots of trees. I saw that Salem has maples which I love, but Tillamook has lots of cedars. So, I think either place will suffice for that. My other requirement was to have somewhat affordable housing which both places has. Also, broadband was a big requirement - which both have. My only other requirement was that I wanted to be within commuting distance to a Japanese market, which I found one in Beaverton (I don't go that often, so that is within my parameters).

Can any one give me some other input on Tillamook vs. Salem? Anyone doing the commute from Tillamook to Beaverton/Portland? What are things you like/dis-like about Tillamook and Salem?

PS: my husband thought it would uber-cool to live in Astoria so that he could be a Goonie, but I think the commute for him would be WAY too far to Portland.

[snuggarelli]

anyone commuting from tillamook to portland?

how is salem?

[Waterlily]

People don't make such long commutes as they do in California. It's not likely you'll find people living in Tillamook but working in Portland.
I can tell you that Tillamook gets very wet. There are lots of cows on the edges of town and a cheese factory in town. It's a pretty small city.

You can use the search feature at the top to find other threads about Salem.

[snuggarelli]

hi waterlilly,
if you wanted to live on the coast or water and think that you'll end up working in portland, where do you recommend living? just curious. thanks!

[Waterlily]

Lake Oswego is is a southern suburb of Portland. The only problem is that it seems to be kind of expensive.
Other places by the water would be cities along the Columbia river outside of Portland. I wouldn't drive clear to the coast everyday.

[snuggarelli]

thanks - i'll do some more research!

[snuggarelli]

any suggestions of nice towns to live in along the columbia river or water?

[dachmom]

If you want to live along the Columbia River and stay in Oregon the closest "big" town would be the Gresham/Troutdale area. Or, if you don't mind living in Washington there is always Vancouver that is "just across the river(Columbia)" from Portland. There are towns further East along the Columbia, but I am assuming you want to stay in Western Oregon. Salem is about a 60 minute commute on a good traffic day. If you will be working the normal 8-5 shift it will probably be longer due to accidents, and just basic gridlock.

[LarryMorris]

I live in Sherwood and love it. It's close enough to the coast to get there in a little over an hour, the weather is nicer then much of the valley nad much better then the coast. There is high tech available in Wilsonville and Hillsboro isn't to far.

Keep in mind that people move around here to get closer to work/play then put up with a long commute. 30 minutes is bordering on unreasonable. I just chnaged from my position as a loan officer for a Beaverton mortgage company to a Newberg company to shave 20 minutes off my commute. Now it's a 5 minute drive.

If you like the CA coast you will be frustrated with the OR coast. It's beautiflu but very rainy, windy and cold. It's great to visit but gets old living there.

[snuggarelli]

wow - my husband does about 1 hour on BART (it'd be much longer to SF otherwise), and I do 30-45 minutes on freeway. So, I guess people in Oregon like to live close to work?