My family and I will be relocating to eugene/portland/medford within the next 6 weeks or so..... (Salem: apartment complexes, rentals)

[peaceloveandtattoos]

Hello!
My family and i will be relocating from Arizona to Oregon within the next 6 weeks or so. (Yay! hehe)
We are interested in The areas of Portland, Eugene or Medford (we would also consider Corvallis). We are needing to spend under $850/mo for rent, and would prefer a single family home though we will take whatever we can get. Little crime, and don't really want to live in a manufactured home unless there are no other options. We do have a 50 lb dog, so a fenced yard is essential.
We are in our late 20's with an 8 and 2 year old. We are naturally the "hippie" type that i keep seeing people talk about on here. We both are pretty heavily tattooed, gauged ears, etc. A place with little judgement of that would be nice! We are very open minded and loving people....just going with the flow of life
My husband is a certified respiratory therapist, and is looking for work in the field (most of his tattoos aren't visible with clothes). We always see job openings at Peacehealth in Springfield (as well as a few other hospitals...the market for RT's there is not as saturated as it is here).
I guess my point is to ask you guys all what you think of those 3 cities, and which would be the best fit for late 20 something "hippies" raising a family and just wanting to have fun in a slower paced city. I am so excited for some beauty! The Az desert has become terribly ugly and boring to me. (not to mention, a city without 120 degree summers would be awesome!)
My husband is from Roseburg (we will NOT be going there...) and I am an arizona native. (Only slightly concerned about all the gray skies and rain...i'm ready for a change!) Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance guys!

[Silverfall]

Hippies equals Eugene but you'd be fine pretty much anywhere. Lots of hippies all over Oregon. $850 a month for a house in a good area with a dog, I don't think will be happening. Even Salem rents aren't that cheap for a house.

Have you looked at all at rentals?

[peaceloveandtattoos]

Yes, i have been looking quite a bit for the past couple days and i have found a few different places that seem to fit the bill. One place in the Springfield area thats actually a 2 bedroom with a loft for $845/mo. We could make that one work, but with 2 kids (one boy one girl)we kindof need 3 bedrooms for quiet and privacy, so I'm gonna keep on looking often. Do you know of a property management company/ Realtor with a good reputation? I'm having the most luck on Craigslist, but nervous about scammers since i am unable to view a property first. I think i would prefer Eugene, though it would need to be a house there..i have read some reviews of different apartment complexes and complaints of loud, partying college students there seem to be common.

[garyzgal]

Ashlans sounds like a great fit for you but it can be pricey. I currently live in Medford & it's become my home (I'm a CA native). There are areas you need to watch out for though. East Medford is a good area with working class people & have some great neighbors. We go to Ashland a lot in the summer time. Medford does have months of nothing but fog though, that part is a bit depressing. I don't know of any rentals in the area for that low though. Our neighborhood rentals run $1000-$1,150 & it's your typical working class area. Good luck!

[Oregonian88]

I would imagine that the Rogue Valley has more work for a respiratory therapist due to being drier than the Willamette Valley. If looking at the Rogue valley I would recommend Talent, inbetween Medford and Ashland. It's a small town so you might have to find work in Medford or Ashland but it would probably be a better fit for your family than Medford itself and Ashland housing would probably be too expensive, though you might check it out also. Phoenix, right next to Talent inbetween Talent and Medford will have cheaper housing, so that's an option, but it's not as vibrant as Talent or Ashland or even Medford.

[peaceloveandtattoos]

Thanks for your suggestions, all! I think we would prefer to stay in a bigger town/city...The phoenix area where we live is GIANT and i think it would be really hard for all of us to adjust to a small, small town. Thats why I'm looking into Medford, Eugene, etc. Rogue Valley Medical Center is not currently looking for respiratory therapists. Thanks for the suggestion, though! Keep the info coming, please!

[Nell Plotts]

IMHO you should first nail down a job then look for inexpensive housing convenient to work.

[Brenda-by-the-sea]

Of the three, Portland, Eugene, and Medford, Medford is the odd one out. Comparing Portland and Eugene to Medford is a bit like comparing Scottsdale and Tempe to Kingman. The culture is quite different in southern Oregon. You might find the climate a little bit closer to what would be comfortable to someone from the Southwest, but it's really just an incremental difference from Portland/Eugene. Medford can also get quite hot in the summer - over 105F during a heat wave - though it cools down into the 60's at night. Portland and Eugene both have a heavy dose of bohemianism and marginally better job markets. Medford is more conservative/blue collar.

Your target price bracket for rent is based on the Phoenix market. You'll have to adjust those to West Coast cost-of-living norms. You can have rent that is under $1000 a month, or rent someplace in a nicer low-crime area, but not both. If rent is low, there's always a reason why. Considering that cost of housing is really monthly rent PLUS monthly utility costs, the difference in actual housing costs between western Oregon and southern Arizona isn't as high as it seems at first.

Additionally, you'll find that most Oregon landlords are not as desperate for tenants as they are in Phoenix. You'll need a clean, documented rent history, a decent credit score and verified employment to secure a rental. The dog will exclude 60-90% of available rentals and will incur an additional deposit of $250-500. As Nell pointed out, jobs are too scarce in Oregon to be picky about exact locations. In some parts of the country, you can write your own ticket if you're in health care. Not here. It's reasonable to exclude some areas as unacceptable, but you'll have to take what you can get among the areas you are willing to consider. Don't even think about moving before signing an employee contract first.

[peaceloveandtattoos]

The thing about getting a respiratory job there first is that you have to have an oregon address to get an oregon license. They can't hire without a license in the state of practice. There are 4 different respiratory colleges within 30 min of here, so our market is completely saturated. Not to mention that it is the slow season for respiratory here. My hubby has been applying daily to every respiratory/medical position that comes up from here to washington for the last 4 months or so....we think the fact that we are out of state is the reason he is not being considered. The job market here is so bad that were at that point that we either go now, while we have the cash, or wait until we run out of money here. Thank you for your suggestions!

[peaceloveandtattoos]

And we are looking for jobs outside of respiratory as well, btw.