Honest Opinion of Portland (Milwaukie: property taxes, apartment complex, income)

[PeacePlease]

Originally Posted by Rhiannon29

Yeah, everyone knows that seattle has an extremely high cost of living, certainly higher than Portland. not sure where those stats came from...

Seattle is a nice city, but traffic makes it much less desirable for me..

[suncat]

Originally Posted by SteveMark

You say you didn't want to "go off personally" on suncat, and I don't want to go off on you either. But it's your type of attitude that makes Portland such a crap hole in the first place...

... It's the whole "accept anything" mentality that pervades Portland and will always make it like it is.

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to SteveMark again."

You nailed it.

[suncat]

Originally Posted by oldtintype

you're comparing Portland to places I'd never move to and don't consider of any interest to me. So yes, it's all relative but comparing Portland to places like Oklahoma City,.....uh...not a equal comparison at all.

Of course there are cheaper places to live, but they're usually cheaper for a reason, particularly places like Oklahoma.

Wow. That's really elitist, even for you.

[Suzer]

I don't think oldtintype's comment was elitist, in the slightest. Each person has preferences for a community, and who can deny that Oklahoma City and Portland will appeal to different people?

[Suzer]

Of course you will pay more to live in climates with milder weather. Anyone who has experienced a significant tornado in their residential community can attest that their reward comes in lower real estate prices. The weather is only one of many aspects that factor in to costs.

Try comparing Portland to Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Sonoma County (communities on the west coast with similar amenities), and compare prices.

[JTJ1977]

Hello ladies and gentlemen. I am considering a move to Portland during thr summer months. I am a recent college graduate with a degree in political science. Basically, I am looking for entry level government ot nonprofit work. What are the prospects of a 30 yr. old, recent (December 2007) college graduate with limited nonprofit experience or internships?

Secondly, I was wondering about race relations in the area. Is Portland as open minded as it espouses? Or is it merely tolerant, in a libertarian sense? I would like to live in a diverse neighborhood ( I am African American), and would prefer a 1-2 BR apartment for around $700-800/mo. Can anyone give me any advice? Thank you in advance.

[SteveMark]

Originally Posted by suncat

Wow. That's really elitist, even for you.

Not only that, I think if you count you'll see I compared Portland to NINE cities, not just Oklahoma City. That's so funny to me that every comment she made was to put down ONE of the cities I compared it to. Also, I didn't compare Portland to cities with smaller populations except for Orlando, Salt Lake City and Pittsburgh. In fact, the estimated Portland 2006 population is 537,081 and the estimated Oklahoma City 2006 population is 537,734, so OK City is NOT "some small city in the Midwest". Wow, there really is civilization east of the Cascades!

Also, one of the quotes against me was, "With the exception of Chicago and maybe Seattle, you're comparing Portland to places I'd never move to and don't consider of any interest to me. So yes, it's all relative but comparing Portland to places like Oklahoma City,.....uh...not a equal comparison at all." Well, this is a public posting site, therefore, I was talking to all of the public. I wasn't saying that you would like to move to any of those other places. But when you made the statement in a public forum, "When you look at the stats it's still incredibly affordable compared to other cities", I was simply contradicting that, because clearly Portland is not affordable nor incredibly affordable compared to other cities.

If you want to attack me or disagree with me, that's great. However, at least have your facts straight. Not only that, I used cities from every part of the US; West, Midwest, South, Southeast and East Coast, so I'm not sure why you focused on Oklahoma City. Have you ever even been there? It's a wonderful city. I have been to 46 of the 50 states, so I feel I can at least fairly compare MANY places.

As for the barbs about Seattle, I didn't make these numbers up. The come from Bankrate dot com's site, not my head. And yes, housing in Seattle is high, but $100,000/year in WA (anywhere) is going to go farther than $100,000/year in OR (anywhere), simply because of the tax situation. You will lose about $8,000/year to OR that you won't lose to WA.

[oldtintype]

Originally Posted by suncat

Wow. That's really elitist, even for you.

Why is it elitist? There are places that I don't want to live, just like there are places that you don't want to live and people who hate the PNW. I would never move there, have no desire to and never will. I don't call that elitism, I consider it reality. He used it to compare the cost of living and let's face it--Oklahoma is cheaper because it's not as popular. Places in general are less popular for a reason.

[oldtintype]

Originally Posted by SteveMark

Not only that, I think if you count you'll see I compared Portland to NINE cities, not just Oklahoma City. That's so funny to me that every comment she made was to put down ONE of the cities I compared it to. Also, I didn't compare Portland to any cities with smaller populations except for Orlando and Salt Lake City. In fact, the estimated Portland 2006 population is 537,081 and the estimated Oklahoma City 2006 population is 537,734, so OK City is NOT "some small city in the Midwest".

Well, gee, I didn't have time to make a comparison to every city, I used one as an example. I did say that I have no desire to move to any of them so the comparisons are irrelevant unless it's a city someone is considering in addition to Portland. I can compare Portland to 9 different cities that I'd consider living in and the cost of living is lower here. It's again, just dependent on where you desire to live and what you're looking for.

[Rhiannon29]

Originally Posted by SteveMark

As for the barbs about Seattle, I didn't make these numbers up. The come from Bankrate dot com's site, not my head. And yes, housing in Seattle is high, but $100,000/year in WA (anywhere) is going to go farther than $100,000/year in OR (anywhere), simply because of the tax situation. You will lose about $8,000/year to OR that you won't lose to WA.

I'm sorry, I have to respectfully disagree about this. What part of Wa are we speaking of? Eastern Wa? Because then, yes your money counts more in Walla Walla or Spokane, than it does here in Portland. But my husband grew up near Seattle and has several friends that live there or have lived there, and the cost of living there and in the surrounding burbs is higher than here. We considered living in Seattle and didn't for that very reason. An income of $100,000 is Seattle will not take you farther than $100,000 here in Portland.