Suggestions: Retire in Portland? (Beaverton, Beaver: apartment, rent, condo)

[MovingFar]

My wife and I plan to retire soon and move back to the US. It's just the two of us, and we're in our early 60s. Having lived in Japan, where public transportation is very good, we enjoy not having to drive, so finding a place with reliable public transportation where we don't need a car is very important for us.

Actually, at first we were considering Seattle, but people keep suggesting Portland instead, saying the transportation there is much better.

Wherever we end up, we'll probably rent an apartment at first until we get to know the area better. A smallish place (but w/ 2 bedrooms so we can also have guests, and ideally with 1.5 - 2 bathrooms) would be more than enough room since we'll move to the U.S. with very few possessions. A grocery store within walking distance is important, as is having easy access to the transit system. Also, we like to walk and enjoy nature, so being close to safe walking trails would be a big plus for us.

With some income from our Japanese pensions, an annuity and some IRA money, plus our cash savings, I supposed we're looking at something like $50K/year in retirement. Maybe a tad more, but I'd rather not stretch.

Are there areas in Portland or nearby that we might consider?

[SETabor]

Sad to say, the housing costs in Portland are crazy. Maybe you could find a place but the places with the best access to walkability and transit are generally the most expensive.

[Nell Plotts]

You really need to flesh out a budget first, particularly health care. If you are eligible for Medicare you can look at Medicare Advantage programs (Kaiser and Providence have them in Portland Metro). Deduct that cost from your pension. As a rule of thumb you shouldn't spend more than 25-30% of you income on rent mindful that you will pay for heat in addition.

Come back to us when you have a rent budget.

We complain about our housing costs but, basically, we are the least expensive of the cities on the west coast.

[take57]

Oregon is pretty rough on taxing retirement income. Depending on your payout schedule, might be worth a stopover in Washington state before settling in Portland.

[Nell Plotts]

Not really but much depends on their type of retirement income. SS, for example is not taxed.

[Tulippsy]

My husband and I retired to Portland last year. We are in a similar situation financially. Check out the eastern part of Washington County, zip code 97210. NOT Washington state, the county. Very close to downtown, NW 23rd, all the medical facilities you could want plus lots of transportation options. If you want more specific details, feel free to send me a DM.

Portland is a wonderful place to retire to. Don't let the state income tax scare you off. It's no big deal. Our accountant ran the numbers and we are better off here than we were in Florida which has no state income tax at all.

Good luck and welcome to retirement! It's fun.

[bler144]

Two people living fairly modestly on 50k retirement income should be able to make it work, though as Nell says you really need to at least sketch out a budget before doing anything else.

Anyone jumping to the conclusion that 50k is not enough is probably missing a few key differences between 50k in retirement and 50k in salary:
1) You're not paying 7.65% off the top to FICA
2) As Nell notes, some types of retirement income are not taxed at all
3) Larger standard deductions on both federal and state income tax over age 65

50k in wage income likely boils down to around 3300 in take-home (less if you're making voluntary retirement contributions), at which point spending $1200 on rent for a 2BR apt/condo could be too big a hit. By comparison there's a good chance your "take home" would be $3800 or higher after tax is figured ind, and $500/mo is a pretty big swing in the budget on making Pdx rents manageable.

Public transit also potentially opens the door to saving on only needing one car.

Mocking up state and federal taxes probably isn't a bad thing to give yourself a sense of what you'd really have to work with in available cash each month.

50k in wages for a family trying to get into a good school district? That's much harder math to make work. But 50k in retirement for a couple living fairly modestly is at least feasible imo.

[patches403]

Portland metro would be a modest retirement on a $50k budget, especially since you would be paying rent that would be a minimum of 1/4 to 1/3 of your take-home if you want to be in a place you would have access to public transit. Of course, Seattle would be tougher on that budget as housing in Seattle is higher than Portland. I would be surprised if the public transit is that much better in PDX than Seattle; but I don't have a ton of experience with Seattle transit. I wouldn't base my decision for PDX vs. Seattle on public transit; it's not that much better or worse to be the deciding factor in where you retire. Seattle is a lot bigger so your transit times between places might be longer in Seattle; maybe that's what people mean when they say PDX transit is better.

[bler144]

Originally Posted by patches403

I wouldn't base my decision for PDX vs. Seattle on public transit; it's not that much better or worse to be the deciding factor in where you retire. Seattle is a lot bigger so your transit times between places might be longer in Seattle; maybe that's what people mean when they say PDX transit is better.

I think that's a good point - I know people who work in Seattle whose budget forces them to live in Tacoma. It takes just under an hour to go 33 miles on the express bus. Arguably the equivalent in Portland is the max line from the airport to the Beaverton TC - also 33 miles and a full hour.

The difference being that in Portland that route covers basically the entire metro east/west, whereas Tacoma-Seattle is only about half of the metro north/south.

[goozer]

The WSJ just profiled Portland in the Encore section a couple of days ago as being a great city to retire to. I took note because Portland has been a Mecca for millenials and gen xers for the past 10-15 years, but I haven't heard it touted as a retirement town.