Thinking of moving to the Portland area (Salem, Hillsboro: house, camp)

[malone7384]

You want to try to find a job before you come too. The job market here is very tight right now. Hopefully by June or July it will have loosened up but right now it is bad.

The one piece of advise that I can give is make the trip to really investigate. While here, make appointments with a couple of staffing agencies to get an idea of what the job market is here. Plan to take the time to drive around and really investigate the areas you are thinking about. Talk to some real estate agencies too.

Good luck

[StealthRabbit]

There is a lot of variety available here, and it would be best to state your living preferences and employment desires. something like this.. (but add employment, wage and living expense desires

We would like to move to a place that fairly small and quite (Quiet) but is within 15-20min of Portland....I prefer the quite (Quiet), country type living where as my fiance prefers the large cities... We both love the outdoors and look forward to FINALLY having a snowy Christmas and other regular season changes for once....We are also looking for a VERY LOW crime area....We're going to look at renting in a smaller, nearby city like the 2 that I mentioned and then either biking, or using the public transportation to get to work and back.
I'm looking forward to the cool rainy days compaired (compared) to our drought seasons and wild fires. =/

Your initial choices of cities raise some flags, so unless you have a reason to choose those places, let folks suggest. There are significantly different experiences from two folks living in the same community, those places you suggest have some good and BAD. We need to know more about you, and what makes you feel comfortable with a place. The pics and stats at CD will help you, but you will have to experience for yourself to decide. It seems you have a pretty broad request (which is reasonable from my perspective). I won't try to 'psycho-analyze' your request or reason for moving, tho that conversation helps add clues. There are lots of threads in OR and WA that will help you if you choose a cross-country move. A closer choice would be NC or TN.

If you haven't tried the state 10 min north of Portland you should inquire there as well. From the OR forum we can not recommend the state to the north, tho you will note many posts where people chose the 10 minute drive to Camas, WA to meet some of your desires. (the only place I know that meets most of your requirements, including; close to Portland (PDX) AND recreation / outdoors, low crime, potential snow on Christmas, riding a bike to work or public transport.

For the snow... do you want to drive 30 minutes from Downtown Portland to get that experience, or do you want to live there? It is rare to have a white Christmas in downtown, but if you lived 15 minutes east, you could be in snow in another 15 to 20 minutes.

If you want guaranteed snow near Portland, you probably need to consider Welches area on Mt Hood, or Parkdale, above the town of Hood River (that is the 'sunny side' of the mountain) and about 1 hr from Portland. Neither have public transport to PDX, or many jobs. For an 'outdoor / scenic / snow / safe' experience in PDX area I would look to Corbett or Sandy and beyond.

Jobs will be the tough thing, but we have low unemployment and a fairly diverse economy. You will probably get less income here, and if you are in OR you will get a 9% income tax hit. (why some folks choose Camas... WA = 0 income tax but 8% sales tax.. choice comes down to what you want, and whether you want to pay taxes on your earnings or purchases (no sales tax in OR)). There are lots of college and universities in the Portland area if you are interested in more education or culture activities.

[karlsch]

Originally Posted by janb

Jobs will be the tough thing, but we have low unemployment ..........

Just the opposite - unemployment is high:
Oregon jobless rate spikes to 8.1% - Business - Oregonlive.com

[Leisesturm]

I think that, albeit well meant, it is a little impractical to give advice to people not to consider moving to PDX without a job offer. For the first part that advice could apply to anywhere and for the second part the day when employers recruited trans-continentnally are long gone. Oh sure there are professions and nationally based companies through which internal transfers can be made or are in such demand that a relocation can be negotiated. I submit though that if someone belongs to such a group they wouldn't need our advice. For the rest of us we have to jump blind. No one is going to pay for our plane trips out for interviews, follow-up interviews or relocation costs. Costs which will be much higher than otherwise because if you get a two week start date then you will be paying premium prices for everything associated with your move.

All that said, no matter how unpleasant, the fact must be faced early that a given move may not work out. Minervah mentioned not finding a job. What if you do, but are fired or have to quit after a short time. No one should have a PDX or bust mentality. Well, I don't think so anyway. We certainly hope PDX works out for us but we have at least talked about what we would do if it doesn't. Where we might go next. How long we will remain in PDX trying to make it work before we must bail.

Friendly, laid back, well intentioned Americans can be found in many other cities besides Portland or in the state of Oregon! I find Iowans to be all of the above. Midwesterners in general with the exception of Michiganders, but that is my own perception. YMMV. I even find that the southern states have their own charm and might be very practical choices for someone else. Coming from NYC anywhere else except possibly Hawaii is going to have lower housing costs and lower taxation in general and a bottom line COL that is more manageable. Coming from Florida OTOH almost everywhere will have higher costs. This must be kept in mind. The City-Data site has factoids on any city worth relocating to. Research and research some more and select choices based on the things you want in a town not what you don't want. After you have done that take a look at the negatives as reported by a majority of people. One of the perennial PDX negatives is the rain. Well, I don't love rain. I don't know anyone who does but I figure a lot of rain falling during a time of year when I am not likely to be intensively outdoors is preferable to a place where rain is less in amount but falls with equal intensity at all times of year. The poor job market is another Oregon red flag. It must be said, Oregon was settled with logging in mind and logging and related industries have never quite recovered from the downturn of that industry. There may be places where unemployment is lower than in Oregon but there aren't many of them. And it still doesn't mean that if your chosen profession isn't in demand that you would be guaranteed a job there. Obviously I would be something of a hypocrite if I simply waved people away from Oregon and Portland but when I see people eager to move here that do not mention having an appreciation, a strong appreciation, for natural beauty, conservation ethics, urban constraint, hiking, biking, car free lifestyles then its not that I think that Portland is wrong for them but that other places might be just as nice. Right now it is well under freezing and quite windy. Wind chill factors must be in the teens. From our NYC vantage it is just another winter day. That is definitely not how the locals see it.

H

[StealthRabbit]

Wow, you gotta love the social dynamics of the OR forum

The 'low' unemployment is relative. Most everywhere his having an issue with that now. If you have a good job KEEP IT, but... if you are just making ends meet with basic jobs, or you have a few skills, you can probably get a job in a week, rather than a more typical job hunt of an afternoon in a strong economy. For high wage earners, it is one month search for every $10k in salary in good economy, and 2-3x that in bad. If employment is the OP's primary goal them I would certainly recommend ND, SD, NE, or WY. The employment stats are good there, white Christmas is more likely, and the social climate is much warmer there . Wherever you move, the rule of thumb is to bring 6 mo minimum cash needs, 1 yr is better.

White Christmas might be possible for me, only 20 min 'upriver' from PDX... at the moment, it is 10F and 38 mph wind with gusts to 52mph. Definitely not sweating, as in a FL summer. Only a few inches of snow, but it is not going away anytime soon, no rain predicted b4 the 25th, and only one day with a low above 32F.

cheers, good luck
and Merry Christmas

[Salena Willner]

I've never been to Florida, but you're right about having all 4 seasons here in Oregon. I have lived here my whole life so I dont know what its like to have summer all year round, but I wouldn't enjoy that. This year we've had the worst winter in 30+ years (and winter just started!) But its not that bad even at its worst. Oregon is beautiful, we have all types of weather and its never "too cold" or "too hot" compared to freezing cold Alaska or Way too hot Arizona. Oregon is a great happy medium. My suggestions are Beaverton for public transportation and being close to portland, though the further West you go, the smaller the city public transportation becomes less. Just West of Beaverton is Hillsboro, much smaller community but still has "The Max" which is the train that goes into Portland and other areas. West of Hillsboro is Cornelius, West of there is Forest Grove (my home town) and surrounding areas are very small "country-like" communities. Other areas you may like are Newberg and Sherwood. Some beautiful areas with some land, views and a lot of trees are Bald Peak which is a hill going from Hillsboro South over the hill to Newberg. Another beautiful area is Pumpkin Ridge in North Plains (Just North of Hillsboro, still West of Portland) its close to Highway 26 which is the major highway that takes you from the beach all the way to Portland and on through to the snowy mountains. Being close to highway 26 is a great plus if you want to live away from the city, but work in the city. Pumpkin Ridge has a high end golf course and the area above that is a large hill with beautiful homes and a lot of land. Property taxes tend to be a little higher in the North Plains area but again, the location is great and could be worth it to you. I hope this helps you and if you would like pictures of some areas out this way, feel free to ask me! Goodluck!

[subsound]

With current conditions, if you are in a good place (job, housing) stay in it for a bit. It's never good to stay where you hate it, but the risk to move anywhere at the moment is pretty high of being unemployed or under employed for a good while...better to wait a bit, sock away more money for when things do get better and a bit more job experience never hurts. I can say I have visited Florida, and I would rather be in Oregon myself....especially in the summer.

I would have to say crime is much lower in Oregon then most cities in comparable size on the eastern seaboard. Although Portland crime tends to be dealing with drug users, poverty based crime (property theft) and a pretty high amount of identity theft. There is a pretty extensive amount of homeless as well, due to a large amount of good social programs.

I would certainly say take a trip out here, see how it is before packing up and moving...with extra vacation time and cash Best of luck.

[Minervah]

Minervah mentioned not finding a job. What if you do, but are fired or have to quit after a short time. No one should have a PDX or bust mentality.

I will agree with this. That is why I also recommend people have enough money to fall back on in the event that this does happen.

if you are just making ends meet with basic jobs, or you have a few skills, you can probably get a job in a week, rather than a more typical job hunt of an afternoon in a strong economy.

Remember Holly's mom? She was an experienced wait-person but couldn't find a job in that field because the restaurants were not hiring. I think she would up working at Wal-Mart. From everything I have heard, witnessed or even at one time experienced, it is the so-called "low-level" jobs that are actually the most difficult to come by because they are so easy to fill and there is so much competition for them. Lately I have noticed more and more older people behind the counters at McDonalds and the like. I suspect they are retirees who have to retun to work to make ends meet.

I absolutely go along with the idea of putting off moving here until the economy gets better but even in the best times, the job market in Portland is never easy. The competition is always heavy.

[Brandon26pdx]

Originally Posted by lucara

Right now we are looking at the Mount Saint Helens and Milwaukee (sp?) area. We would like to move to a place that fairly small and quite but is within 15-20min of Portland.

Both of those suck. Check out North Plains. Situated right off Hwy 26 and suprisingly rural/small town USA feeling for only being about 15 miles from downtown Portland. The cops like to hang out around the hwy and write speeding tickets but other than that it's pretty nice.

Nearby is Forest Grove and Banks, which would be worth checking out too. Happy Valley would be a good try on the east side of the city center. I'd stay off of Hwy 30's communities personally.

[EnricoV]

Isn't perspective an interesting thing. I intensely dislike the West side, and wouldn't live in the Hillsboro/Beaverton/North Plains if you paid me to (well, maybe). I think the traffic out that way is horrid, and the land's just too flat and soulless.

I grew up in Milwaukie (note the "ie" not "ee") and loved it. Most of my family still lives there. It's certainly not an "upscale" area, Happy Valley would be more upscale. Milwaukie's a working-class town, but still seems to be very affordable. And I think the commute is the easiest into Portland of any of the commutes. I wouldn't want to have to drive 26 regularly. Doing it every so often to head out to the beach is nightmare enough. But I'm not sure that Milwaukie would be rural enough for what it sounds like you want. You might want to go past there, out at least to Clackamas, or further. It'll be much more rural. And closer to Mt. Hood.

St. Helens (which is where I think you mean) is more rural. It, too, seems very affordable. And not too bad of a commute, though it'd be longer than a commute from north Clackamas County.

If it's a higher possibility of snow you're looking for, Sandy might suit you. But like St. Helens, it's a little further out.