Best Town for us around Portland?

[CBaillo]

ya i expected some traffic, considering portland is a huge city, compared to our closest "city" now which is Ithaca. Ithaca = 30-40,000 people even when all the students are in town. I will research the places y ou listed though, thanks for your help!

[HonuMan]

My dad is from Rochester, and I spent my childhood there. Scenically, Oregon reminds me a lot of Upstate NY. I read once that Rochester statistically has about as many cloudy days as Portland, so if Ithaca is similar, you probably won't mind the weather. One of my Rochester cousins moved here before I did and calls Oregon "Upstate NY without the winters."

Last year, my wife and I were checking out rural properties close to Portland, and we were impressed with the Scapoose/St. Helens/Deer Island area. Prices are reasonable (by Portland standards), you can find acreage, and the commute to downtown Portland, according to friends of ours who live there, is 34-40 minutes via Highway 30. A new house in the country that we were interested in had DSL Internet, but cable or FiOS wasn't available. St. Helens is a charming little town. Our local friends advised us against buying property south of the Columbia River and north of the railroad tracks along Hwy 30, because it's in a flood plain.

[Nell Plotts]

Before we can give you concrete advise we need to know where you will be working, we do have commute hours bottle necks. The differences between WA and OR's tax programs can be important to independent contractors.

And yes, there are areas prone to flooding, even some areas prone to slides, but before this discussion can really get down to specifics you need to give us more information.