Portland vs Vancouver (Phoenix: sales, real estate, home)

[skypros]

Which area costs less to live?
Portland vs Vancouver areas

Utilities (what is the avg cost per month For a average 3 bed 2 bath home)
Real estate taxes (I know WA has a tax when you purchase real estate)
Car taxes/registrations
Car gas average per gallon
Income taxes (WA doesn't have any?)
Sales Tax (is everything sales tax free in OR)

Thanks
Steve C.

[otto-focus]

i have a friend who lives in vancouver,wa as you said no state income tax,he shops in portland,no sales tax.they are both pretty crowded now.i worked construction up in mount vernon,wa used to be a nice little town.cant say what it's like now.do a search for cost of living calculator,you just put in 100k for income and put in where you are living now and where you want to live check the c.o.l. and it tells you what you will have to earn ,plus or minus,to have the same standard of living.by using 100k the difference is also the percentage above or below where your at now.

[diggitydot]

Originally Posted by skypros

Which area costs less to live?

Vancouver is by far less expensive than Portland. Just look at the home prices and you'll see a HUGE disparity.

Originally Posted by skypros

Utilities (what is the avg cost per month For a average 3 bed 2 bath home)

There's really no such thing as "average". There could possibly be a huge difference between utility bills between a 1400sf 3bed/2bath built in the 40's and a 2500sf 3bed/2bath built in the last five years.

Originally Posted by skypros

Real estate taxes (I know WA has a tax when you purchase real estate)

Oregon also has property taxes. That's how they fund most of their public education and its an absolute mess. They passed a ballot measure several years ago that limited the amount property taxes could increase from one year to the next. That, in turn, drastically limited the amount of funding for schools. They are constantly closing schools for lack of funding.

If you're planning on eventually having kids, I'd steer clear from Oregon until they fix their public education system.

Originally Posted by skypros

Car taxes/registrations

Comparable...now. There used to be a HUGE difference, but WA passed laws to limit the car license registration fees. They used to be based on the value of the vehicles. (Yikes! ) However, you still have to pay sales tax on the price of your vehicle, which can also get expensive.

Originally Posted by skypros

Car gas average per gallon

I'm assuming you mean cost of gas/gallon. Depends on the area of town in each city, but usually fairly comparable. (In my experiences working in Portland and living in Vancouver, lower prices were easier for me to find in WA.)

The only really major difference is that it is actually illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon. I've actually had friends call me from the gas station to come and help them because they didn't know how to work any of it.

Originally Posted by skypros

Income taxes (WA doesn't have any?)

Yep. WA doesn't have an income tax. But if you work in Oregon, you pay their income tax, regardless where you live. The Oregon income tax isn't really that big of a deal, and depending on your income and deductions, you may get quite a bit of it returned. (I always ended up getting anywhere from 75%-80% back.)

Originally Posted by skypros

Sales Tax (is everything sales tax free in OR)

Yes, everything in Oregon is sales tax free. In Washington you pay sales tax on every purchase, except for food items from the grocery stores.



When we lived in the NW, I lived in WA but occasionally worked in Oregon. The wages in Portland are usually higher than those in WA. But living in WA is usually SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper.

If you elect to live in WA and work in OR, be forewarned that traffic into Portland can become nasty. (By nasty, I mean that you won't be able to go the speed limit and may occasionally run into some stop-and-go traffic, depeding on your route.) But it's all relative. I'm currently in a suburb of Phoenix and Portland traffic seems tiny and inconsequential compared to this area. (BTW, traffic in AZ is stupidly bad.)

[mobilemindstationaryreality]

On the WA side of the river you have:
1. most likely better schools
2. cheaper housing
3. no income tax

On the OR side of the river you have:
1. more inclusion into the Metro area and Oregon region
2. no need to cross a river to not pay a sales tax
3. income tax

I could go on...either way I think they're both the same. Both in the NW, both liberal to moderate states, I don't think it matters that much. Everyone has their own opinions though.