Should I move from Portland, OR to Indianapolis? (Salem, Hope: sales, to rent)

[tomfarr56]

I want to move from Indianapolis to Oregon!!!

[Meemur]

Originally Posted by tomfarr56

I want to move from Indianapolis to Oregon!!!

Can you and the OP swap rentals? (-;

[tomfarr56]

My rent is only $500 for a single family home in the 'burbs. But it is my brother's, so I get the family discount.
I hear that there are a lot of violent crimes, including murders and Lawrence Police deaths, as well. But I don't watch the news or read a paper, so it could be worse.
Actually, my neighborhood is pretty quiet. Quite racially diverse - which I like. But then, politically speaking, I am not your typical "Hoosier". We also have our share of confederate flags flying. Like I said - diverse.

I like the idea of your parents basement, wherein you begin saving for a 20% downpayment on a house.
Learn to save now, while you are young, and get in the habit - much like eating raw organic vegetables is the best thing you can do.

Maybe look into the State unemployment office for career guidance. Lord knows I didn't get much in H.S. (Arlington '74).

And if you enjoy GOOD dairy, you DON'T want to get outside of The Tillamook Zone.

You have mountains and beautiful rivers and waterfalls! Hike the Larch Mountain Trail! Commune with nature! You can't get that here.

[W & C]

Originally Posted by tomfarr56

My rent is only $500 for a single family home in the 'burbs. But it is my brother's, so I get the family discount.
I hear that there are a lot of violent crimes, including murders and Lawrence Police deaths, as well. But I don't watch the news or read a paper, so it could be worse.
Actually, my neighborhood is pretty quiet. Quite racially diverse - which I like. But then, politically speaking, I am not your typical "Hoosier". We also have our share of confederate flags flying. Like I said - diverse.

I like the idea of your parents basement, wherein you begin saving for a 20% downpayment on a house.
Learn to save now, while you are young, and get in the habit - much like eating raw organic vegetables is the best thing you can do.

Maybe look into the State unemployment office for career guidance. Lord knows I didn't get much in H.S. (Arlington '74).

And if you enjoy GOOD dairy, you DON'T want to get outside of The Tillamook Zone.

You have mountains and beautiful rivers and waterfalls! Hike the Larch Mountain Trail! Commune with nature! You can't get that here.

LOL, that made me chuckle.

Guy is a minimum wage fast food employee with no aspirations for a career move. Somehow I doubt that access to top dairy is one of his top priorities.

[MortonR]

Originally Posted by tomfarr56

And if you enjoy GOOD dairy, you DON'T want to get outside of The Tillamook Zone.

Absolutely critical for serious cheese lovers. When I traveled to Portland on business it was not uncommon for me to use a travel day to make a pilgrimage to Tillamook. Especially for their 10 year old white cheddar.

Yum.

RM

[ShellNic]

I understand what all of you are saying, but why must someone always have to be so dang motivated, climb higher, be more? Sometimes, some people do well just to live each day. Let's try not to make him feel like crap for asking about practical living arrangements. Maybe once he gets here, he'll feel better about himself when he's not struggling so hard, and just maybe, his motivations will change.

But for now, OP, I think this could be a good city for you. I have lived in many cities including Portland (although many years ago) and I moved to Indy about 2 1/2 years ago from Dallas. I live and work on the north side of town. It's a little more expensive up this way but even here, it's pretty reasonable (at least from my perspective). I see signs EVERYWHERE for help needed. If you actually care about doing your job well, I suspect you'd move up the chain pretty quickly. Fast food, restaurants, any retail - show initiative and care and you'll be in, I'm confident.

I've done searches for apartments (for friends thinking of moving here) as recently as late last year and I found studio apartments going for 400-500 per month and they didn't look crappy and they were in the middle of many commercial areas.

As for the comment about people thinking you're a loser for not having a car or working minimum wage - well, that may be a reality for some, but my opinion is that you wouldn't want to be friends with folks like that anyway. You have your own goals and your own needs that you alone must meet - no one else should judge you for that.

My nephew (23), in fact, is moving here from Seattle this month. He'll be living in a home he's buying for cheap, fixing it up and looking for creative ways to make money (maybe Uber or something). While this may not be your path right now, you'll have lots of options. And no matter how flat, cold, icy or boring some folks think it is around here, I'm going to have to disagree with the attitude about it.

It's cold and icy (you can get used to it). It's flat but not as much as TX or KS or NE - it has plenty of hills and rolling farms and the trees are wonderful. I love the 4 seasons and I'm finding this to be a very decent place to live. I have found the people to be a little different (and that's where the culture shock will come from, IMO) but I've met many wonderful people, even if a smidge weird. I was asked once how weird they were compared to Texas. I answered, just different weird and I had to adjust my weird meter.

Good luck, kid!

[A1eutian]

It's a great city for working and saving a few dollars. Even making restaurant money you should be able to pull enough to afford an apartment for $500-$1,000 even less if you just rent a room.

The amount of money it takes to survive there is minimal, especially coming from Portland. Winter weather is not as bad as it's described, since there is a lot of variability in snowfall and extreme cold year to year. Sure it can get to the negative teens but not every year.

If you get bored in Indy, Chicago is only a three hour drive away. As much as everyone complains about it, traffic is better than any west coast city by far. Indy is the bizarro Portland, really. It's very corporate and conservative, real estate is affordable, and built on urban sprawl.

[tomfarr56]

One more thing to keep in mind when looking for a place to live - Bus Route!

And all of our buses have bicycle racks on the front, so you don't have to live or work particularly close to the bus stop, as long as you have a bicycle.

[Peter1948]

Portland is the dream city. If I had a high paying job there, I'd never leave. Not sure why you'd move to Indianapolis or really any city over Portland.

That said Portland is to Indianapolis as Craft Beer is to Budweiser. They are diametrically different in arts, culture, urbanity, food, history, walk-ability, transit, etc.

[bluemarine772]

Just so you guys know, ive decided to move to Fayetteville, NC. Indianapolis has a high crime rate, plus it gets cold in the winters. I really miss the great climate in the south east. Also, the scenery is much better in NC.