Oregon a good place for RN's (Portland, Eugene: for sale, 2013, house prices)

[sainz]

My family and I are considering moving Oregon. My Wife and I are 28 yrs old. We have 2 daughters one of 3 months and the other of 25 months. We currently live in Queen Creek, I am a RN, currently making around 70k a year. We are native from Ariziona, and are wanting to move, so our daughters get a better education. How concerns are:

Can we afford a house? we bought a house here for 225K. 4 bdr, 2.5 bth and 2400 sqft.

Is the salary competitive for RN's?

What part of Oregon is recommended that is affordable on our income and safe?

How does Oregon compare to Arizona in cost of living, housing and salary for RN s?

Thank you

[Larry Caldwell]

I wouldn't be moving to Oregon for a child's education. The school system here is still losing staff and closing schools. Pick a state that funds it's education system, if you can find one.

[skiffrace]

Some parts of Oregon may fit you. Ex. certain suburbs of Portland have good schools and still reasonable house prices: Beaverton, Tigard, Tualatin and Sherwood being some of them,
You should be making no less and possibly more in PDX area compared with Arizona (an overall cheap state)
And yes, some school districts here cut their budget, mostly due to the lingering effects of the great recession. However, in the long run the overall prospects for OR and it's schools are good.

[Nell Plotts]

There is no 'part of Oregon' that is unsafe. There are dicey streets or neighborhoods in every community, everywhere. There may be small towns with big problems but they wouldn't have strong schools so I doubt that you will end up near them.

Your budget for housing is modest. Homes are cheaper where jobs are few. As an RN you will be insulated from that somewhat.

Although your children are years away from school attendance school quality is one of your stated highest values. There is a state wide report of school test scores so I would start there. Make a list of the schools you would like your children to attend. Keep in mind that often the schools with the highest scores are those with well educated parents. Well educated parents typically have well paying jobs. Well paying job holders pay more for housing to live in strong school enrollment areas.

Then look for employment opportunities. Many of the hospital RNs are members of a Union so learning the going rate shouldn't be difficult.

[Larry Caldwell]

Oregon consistently ranks in the bottom 25% for education nationally. Here's a report from 2008, and things have only gotten worse since then.

Oregon Education Among Very Worst in the Nation | The Oregon Catalyst

Here's this year's report.

Oregon ranked No. 43 for education policies and results | OregonLive.com

People moving to Oregon are dismayed to find their children at least a year ahead of their Oregon classmates in all subjects. This is not the place to move if you want your children to get a decent education.

[Minervah]

I think as a rule, the wealthiest places will have the best schools which can price some out of the market when it comes to housing. Beaverton is a suburb where you probably could afford a home on your budget and which as always had an excellent reputation for its schools. I would proceed with caution even there since a friend of mine who has taught in that school system for many years has told me about a large number of layoffs and cutbacks. She said just last year that funding for one simple school outing for her class had to be begged from local sponsors and volunteers so the teachers have to be good negotiators as well as educators.

So having said all of this, since education for your kids should be the highest of priorities as well as jobs, I would look at school ratings of various cities and make comparisons. That would probably be the most helpful criteria.

Regarding COL that might depend upon where you land in Oregon. A smaller town might be less, a larger city like Portland will be more. But you will need a fairly good size town for an RN job. I would check online to see who is hiring. There have been layoffs of medical staff all over but periodically, as hospitals open new wings and medical centers, I would imagine new staff might be needed. Where you land will probably going to be where the jobs would be.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Oregon hospitals are among the few that don't have a constant shortage of nurses. So get your job secured before you move.

Rule of thumb is that a nurse can get a job anywhere, but that doesn't apply so much to Oregon. Lots of professionals want to live in Oregon and are willing to take a pay cut in order to do it.

$225K for a 2500 square foot house is possible, but not in the large cities. You will probably end up with a much smaller house. You can access the multiple listing service on-line to look and see what is for sale and what the asking prices are. As of early this spring, real esate is selling well, so plan on paying very close to the listing price.

[skiffrace]

Oregon consistently ranks in the bottom 25% for education nationally. Here's a report from 2008, and things have only gotten worse since then.

Maybe, but this is like the joke about the statistician who had his head in the oven, feet in the fridge, and on average he was fine.

Oregon has a lot of low-score schools, most of them in poor, rural or semi-rural area. Those area are places where the OP is not likely to move to due to lack of serious employment opportunities.
OTOH, the major cities : Portland and Eugene, have many areas in or near them with good or really good schools.
It is true that the best schools are in the wealthiest areas, but there are quite a few that combine reasonable house prices AND good schools. Again, Beaverton and Tigard-Tualatin in PDX metro are the first ones that come to mind.

[pnwmdk]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

I wouldn't be moving to Oregon for a child's education. The school system here is still losing staff and closing schools. Pick a state that funds it's education system, if you can find one.

Nonsense. Just don't move to the liberal centers and things will be fine.

the "underfunded" eastern Or schools often have excellent academic results.

It's culture, not money, that creates good education.

[pnwmdk]

Originally Posted by skiffrace

Maybe, but this is like the joke about the statistician who had his head in the oven, feet in the fridge, and on average he was fine.

Oregon has a lot of low-score schools, most of them in poor, rural or semi-rural area. Those area are places where the OP is not likely to move to due to lack of serious employment opportunities.
OTOH, the major cities : Portland and Eugene, have many areas in or near them with good or really good schools.
It is true that the best schools are in the wealthiest areas, but there are quite a few that combine reasonable house prices AND good schools. Again, Beaverton and Tigard-Tualatin in PDX metro are the first ones that come to mind.

You can't generalize. My kids all went to "underfunded" schools in those "rural" areas. And consistently outperformed most of Oregon. It's NOT money that matters. It's parental involvement, its a culture of education mattering, and it's excluding politically correct nonsense and political dogma from the curriculum that brings about education excellence.

People need to stop blaming "schools" and "school funding" for what is a cultural problem. If Oregon would return control back to the local school district, instead of centralized control being ramrodded at us, it would be obvious what works and what doesn't.