Astoria Oregon?? Thinking of relocating. Is anyone familiar with that area? (Tillamook: low income, for sale)

[Mama Ebey]

We do have a four year old, a baby on the way and a large dog.. We are thinking of moving sometime in March of 2013. As for work, I have never, ever earned more than 8.50 per hour where I currently am. And I am the sole provider right now, as my fiance can't find work here. We will even pump gas if needed to make ends meat. We live a simple life. Never had a career, not really looking for one. I don't mind living the poor life, but living someplace beautiful while living the poor life, would be awesome. I don't need state assistance. Not a welfare Mom. Just happy with the little things in life. Thanks for any info.

[hamellr]

Do you live in Oregon now?

Astoria is a nice city. I'd live there if I could find a good paying job.

In the Winter is bears the brunt of storms coming in off the ocean. In the Late Spring to Early Fall it's full of tourists and campers staying out at Fort Stevens. So jobs tend to be seasonable. The old standby jobs of working at the fish canning places are long gone. Most of the canneries were destroyed due to arson years ago, the rest have been converted into warehouses or retail space.

Astoria now gets the occasional cruise ship stopping by. I don't know the schedule but that certainly adds to the tourist influx.

The other thing to keep in mind is that Astoria has never had a lot of rentals, with vacancy rates as low as they are across Oregon right now you may have a hard time finding a place to live.

[Random_Walk]

I kind of disagree about the rental situation. As late as a month ago you would have no problems with finding a place to rent in Astoria/Warrenton. Some places to peek for that are here:

Tillamook Headlight-Herald: Tillamook County's News Source ONLINE
The Daily Astorian
oregon coast all housing classifieds - craigslist (Search for Astoria and/or Warrenton)

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Here we go again.

[Steve Pickering]

Lots of forsale, not many rentals. No jobs to speak of in the low income catagory.

[Random_Walk]

I counted 15 rentals this week alone in craigslist, just in Astoria (not counting Warrenton or surroundings):
oregon coast apts/housing for rent classifieds "astoria" - craigslist

Warrenton adds 6 more to the pile, again just this week.

Considering that many rentals sit around for a month or beyond on average out here, I'd say there's not a bumper crop, but there is a decent variety to pick from (especially when you compare it with the slim pickings I went through while looking everywhere between Gearhart and Pacific City).

Tons of homes for sale, true - that's a constant up and down the coast. You have owners demanding near-literal ransoms for their bubble-mortgaged "beach" homes, but no one with any sense will (or can) pay that kind of scratch for them. Most will probably sit empty until either black mold or the bank's repo men come to claim them.

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Jobs is another matter entirely, and I agree with you to a point there; OTOH, most local low-wage jobs are advertised locally at best, and most often by word-of-mouth or the Shopper circular. Folks out here tend to look after their own first and foremost.