Do Portland, Eugene, Olympia or cities in B.C. have best quality of life? (homes)

[MaryVic]

I am repeating some info I had on another thread; but am wondering how cities in Oregon and Washington (Portland, Eugene, Olympia) compare to cities in B.C. as regards quality of life. Specifically, affordable housing, jobs, healthcare. I have been reading some threads re Portland and Eugene and am noticing some conflicting information. When I spoke to realtors a couple of years ago, it seemed Portland homes were a bit more expensive. Has the housing market changed? On the other hand, it seemed one might be able to find a job more easily in Portland. I have not been to Olympia, but it looks like an attractive place in many ways. My husband and I tend to like college towns because they tend to go hand in hand with culture, an educated population and foster a progressive thinking core in cities.
We are in SoCal and love where we are but need to move for practical reasons. One thing I have not seen mentioned is healthcare. In Canada this is a safety net everyone can rely on whether you have a job or not, so we are also looking at cities in B.C.
We really want to just settle somewhere for good, if at all possible, because in addition to our day jobs, we have a home business which will involve moving thousands of books.
I would greatly appreciate information from anyone who has personal experience living in these areas.

[dullnboring]

I can't offer much specific information in regards to the issues at hand, but I recommend heading over to the Canada forum and having a look as there have been quite a few interesting debates regarding the differences between health care in the U.S. and Canada on the forum.