PLEASE HELP US! Where to move to? (Portland, Eugene: fit in, apartment)

[wmattlowe]

I'm brand new to the forums so i apologize in advance if this question is in the wrong place any help would be much appreciated! And so the story goes...My fiancee and I have been wanting to move for some time now..We absolutely hate where we live....Texas. I honestly cant think of one good thing about this place. For us, it just simply doesnt fit us or our personalities. Our ideal climate would be rainy, grey, beautiful cool summers, white winters and fresh air, and no where not depressed people, never quite understood where that steretype came from. I cant quite explain it but the rain along with the weather associated with that type of climate calms us, unlike the 100 degree humid heat that irritates us beyond belief. Based on our findings, oregon seems all in all a beautiful place, a place that fits our ideal setting. I've read so many amazing things about the state, from its coast, to its mountains, to its rain and clouds, to its sheer beauty. There in lies the problem...what part of Oregon do we move to. We are both in our mid twenties, we both love sitting in and watching movies and playing games and listening to music(were kinda nerds) but we also love being outdoors, riding bikes, kayaking, rock climbing, exercising etc. We would love to live somewhere that rains more often then not, a place that we dont melt when we walk out the door (seriously its been in the tripple digits for months here)..were looking to move into an apt..any recomendations would be much appreciated...figure well stay untill we get on our feet then look for a house a year or so later. Were not rich by any means, but not poor, average i suppose(were ok with that, we have each other and our content with that...we live to love not live to be at our jobs 24/7 and have no life) I guess at this point im rambling...i clearly dont know what questions need to be asked...but if anyone could help us, wed greatly appreciate it! we want to start the next chapter of our life up there and hopefully spend the rest of our lives together in oregon! Thanks again!
-Matthew

[delta07]

Matthew, Oregon definitely seems to fit what you are looking for. You posted this is the Eugene forum though, and I'm thinking you would get a better response if you posted it in the general Oregon forum (unless you are thinking specifically Eugene).

Some other things that would help us to give you recommendations would include:

Do you need jobs?

What size town/city are you looking for?

You mention white winter...do you want to live where you will see snow on the ground, or just live within driving distance to snow?

What is your budget for an apartment?

[Minervah]

He has posted in the Oregon and Portland forums. Unfortunately, we are still not getting any specifics. His wants are kind of all over the place or should I say all over the State.

I hope the OP will take the advice being given and bring it down to more specifics so we can answer his questions more accurately.

[clarachan]

SUSAN, DON'T MOVE HERE! (I know you read this all the time) don't move here, as you planned! The city of Eugene and the county Lane, are instituting huge new taxes, on all newcomers, they go back 10 years! Through loopholes in the laws, they've decided to take advantage of all the new people coming here, to support the budget again, and the taxes will be HUGE! I saw all the paperwork, all the mechanical work is done and it's going to go through. It won't hurt people who've lived here longer than 10 years, but all the newcomers in come and money, will be devastated. Repeat, DON'T move here as you planned! I'm going to sell my house as soon as I can, and move way out of the county. -- get a hold of me, the usual way --
you know who

[rsdotson]

I was in a very similar situation to wmattlowe a couple of years ago, except that my wife and I are in our mid sixties and retired so we needn't worry about finding jobs. I was born and raised in the San Joaquin Valley of California (essentially a very hot and dry irrigated desert) and spent my working career in Southern California (also very hot and dry). I fell in love with Oregon when I visited the Pacific Northwest and western Canada in my mid thirties a couple of times because of the wonderful cool, cloudy, and rainy (more of a drizzle really) weather and the absolutely stunningly beautiful green scenery and seemingly endless evergreen forests.

At that time I hoped to someday live on the Oregon coast, but unfortunately I subsequently developed a severe form of arthritis that requires me to visit a rheumatologist every two months, which means the Oregon coast is out and leaves only those cities with a large enough population to support a largish hospital with at least one rheumatologist. Even so, I consider myself very fortunate to live in inland Oregon and have been temporarily renting a house while trying to pick a spot to buy a home. I was concerned about what effect the damp, cool, and rainy weather would have on my arthritis especially during the wintertime, but my rheumatologist said that as long as I stayed on my medications it shouldn't be much of a problem and I am very happy to report that it hasn't been a problem even though I never experienced high humidity and winter coldness at the same time before. That was a bit of a surprise, but I purchased a dehumidifier for next winter if needed.

My wife and I first moved to Medford, Oregon because even though it's a relatively small town it has two large hospitals, a group of rheumatologists, and provides excellent health care; however, there wasn't a lot to do in Medford itself and the town isn't particularly noteworthy but there are beautiful places nearby where I would love to live such as Cave Junction, Grant's Pass, and of course the coastal towns if not for my arthritis. My wife however is a "city girl" and was very bored because of the lack of shopping and other activities in Medford. She decided she wanted to live in Portland because it's a larger city with more activities but I came to Oregon to get away from crowds, congestion, and traffic, so we were sort of at an impasse until summertime. That first summer was a real surprise for me. It was very hot (close to 100F at times!) and dry for almost a full three months in Medford. We had to water the lawn all summer long to keep it alive. It was the kind of hot, dry weather I was trying to escape from, so I finally capitulated to my wife and we moved north to the general Portland area although I would have chosen Eugene as our next stop. Since we haven't yet decided on our "final resting place" so to speak, moving back down to Eugene is still a possibility and that is why I'm browsing the Eugene sub-forum today.

I wasn't prepared for the scarce rental housing availability in Portland, so we ended up renting a house in Troutdale north-west of Portland. The "Gorge" as it's called (the Columbia River Gorge) is very beautiful but we are a little too close to the crowded and decidedly not beautiful town of Gresham for my comfort. We have been looking at the various neighborhoods surrounding downtown Portland because I definitely would not want to live in the city limits of Portland because it's far too crowded, expensive (especially property taxes), and the crime rate in parts of Portland is surprisingly high (higher than average for Oregon state). The weather here so far is ideal and this past summer was short enough to be tolerable even though it was in the ninties for two or three weeks and we don't have air conditioning in this house like we did in the Medford house. We only had to water the lawn a few times. I'm guessing this is the kind of weather the wmattlowes are looking for, but I don't know how they would feel about the traffic and congestion.

There is a lot of variety here however, including many bicycles, a good public transit system (including light rail) and so called "hipsters" with lots of tattoos and somewhat odd attitudes, so I think I would encourage the wmattlowes to perhaps consider Portland for the cool weather if nothing else. Meanwhile, I've convinced my wife to look for a home in a southern suburb of Portland within reasonable driving distance to downtown, or perhaps even giving Eugene a try.

One final word of warning: Jobs in all areas of Oregon are just as scarce as they are anywhere else these days, except for South Dakota which I hear is a boom town because of some newly discovered oil fields or something.

Best of luck in finding your dream location.

[Charlene1234]

You guys sorta sound like the typical Eugene resident! Outdoorsy but enjoy hanging out and listening to music in a coffee shop. Research Eugene more, I think you might be pleasantly surprised at how well you'd fit in.

[haggardhouseelf]

I'm from Texas. I love living in the Pacific Northwest. We prefer Oregon over Washington state (have lived in both as well as California, which we didn't like at all...). Portland and Eugene are both very cool towns and offer lots to do and are great jumping-off points for weekend road trips - close to the coast and close to the mountains. Corvallis and Ashland are also great little towns but both are smaller with a lot less to keep you busy and entertained.

Eugene's winters are not "white winters" as you put it... we get some snow but nothing like the higher elevations get. Personally we love this. We can see the white from where we live in the Willamette Valley (Eugene) and you can easily drive to it in under an hour or so... to play in or make snowpeople with or sled or tube or whatever... but you don't have to deal with shoveling your driveway or sidewalks or anything. Last winter it even snowed on the coast which was really cool. Due to the current weather patterns they are predicting that we are going to have a very cold and wet winter this year. We're getting ready for it...

[jessiebonbon]

My husband and I are 26/27 and just moved here from Bend OR. We live on the far east side of Thurston/Springfield area and love it. We both attend UO and we have easy access to it (about 15-20 mins in the car, 45 mins by bus). We also love being outdoors. I love the rain and fog! I am definetely not going to miss the high desert winters (tons of snow that only stays for two days at a time and no one can drive in; and it never getting above 20 degrees until summer when it skyrockets to 90 and dry). We are an hour and a half from the coast 30 mins to great kayaking, an hour to the hot springs, and 2 hours to skiing/snowboarding.

One thing that drew us to the edge of town was the easy access to everything Eugene has to offer, but outside of what people call the 'shady' part of Springfield. We live in a quiet area without a lot of traffic. Our home is a $900/mo duplex, with three bedrooms 2 baths, allows our two dogs (one is very big), has tile floors, all stainless steel and black appliances, garage, and is about 1400 sq feet. When we looked at places in the city of Eugene something comparable was about $2000/mo. Also, the utility costs in Eugene are about twice as much as Springfield.

I think the people on here that trash Springfield have never seen the nicer parts. In short, weigh all your options and try not to get caught up in the hype. Based on your desires for recreation and weather, I think this area of Oregon would suit your tastes! Good luck!

[Charlene1234]

I would agree with the previous post. Springfield has some wonderful areas. Just as Eugene has different areas in town. It's also a little closer to the mountains for skiing. It is cheaper to live in Springfield and is convenient to everything in Eugene.

[Nell Plotts]

Eugene's hospitals and physicians are excellent. Rsdotson's health care needs should be easily addressed.