moving to oregon from utah, need advice! (Portland, Eugene: sales, home)

[lilmamabair]

My family and I may be moving to Oregon for my Husband's job. If he does get this promotion it will happen quickly so I am trying to research areas that we should look into. My husband and I have never been to Oregon. I am not sure where to start, I am hoping to get some advice on some areas we could look into.


What we want...
-charter or private schools or really good (and safe) public schools.
-close to hiking, biking, fishing, camping, and the coast. (Within an hour or 2.)
-close to a major airport. (within 45 min.)
-in the green part of the state.
-small town or small city.
-family oriented community.
-close to a major city. (within an hour)
-close to fun. We won't have family or friends and don't want to stay home all the time



Also, how bad is the rain? I love rain! but I hate driving in bad rain storms.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Where will your husband's job be located?
You can find everything you want in the Portland area, or within 50 miles of the Portland area.

Please don't take this as being snarky, but you can easily find answers to all your questions by searching the Oregon forums or just reading through them.
Those questions are asked all the time, and folks here get tired of answering the same old stuff all the time.
When you have specific questions, ask 'em, that's where we can really help.

We really don't get BAD rainstorms (for example not much thunder and lightning in Portland), it just seems like it's raining all the time from November through July.

[bler144]

Agreed - where the jobs is matters quite a lot.

The green part of the state is the valley - or parts of the coast/coastal range, but relatively few jobs in those places, so I'll presume the valley. From anywhere in the valley you're within 1-2 hours of the coast, and much less than that to hiking. Eugene and Portland both offer hiking within the city limits.

'Major airport' depends on where you're flying to. Pdx is the only major airport, though Eugene is a decent hub for going anywhere west of the rockies, and I think even all the regional airports have flights to Salt Lake and Denver (plus SFO/LAX/PDX/SEA).

Realistically the only major city in Oregon is also Portland, though Eugene and Salem aren't exactly tiny metros. But if within an hour of a 'major city' is a hard rquirement, you probably only want to be in the environs of Salem or Portland, though if you're willing to be a bit farther from Portland (about 1:45 in moderate traffic) Eugene is at least worth a look in terms of what you've described.

[Silverfall]

The only major airport is in Portland so you are talking about being in the metro area. The whole Western half of the state is green and the outdoors is all around with easy access. If you want smaller cities then I'd look at Forest Grove, Sandy, or Canby. If you want good schools you are looking at the southern/west suburbs of Portland like Wilsonville, Beaverton, Sherwood, Lake Oswego, etc.

[lilmamabair]

I am sorry, I thought that I had added that he will mainly be working from home. He will be going out of town 1 or more times a month, so being close to an airport is important.

I have read through some forums and felt like I wasn't finding what I was looking for. I guess I need to read more!


Thank you all for replying, I will look into what you have said!

[bler144]

Originally Posted by leftwinghillbilly

I just wanted to see how long this interpersonal craposis would go on. Moderator?

Would be good to get back on topic at least. As I mentioned, frequency of travel isn't as big a factor as where hubby is traveling to. If NYC/DC/Boston or overseas, PDX will make that travel much more tolerable.

If Denver/SLC, I'd say really any of the regional airports will suffice. In terms of travel to smaller east coast markets, really I don't think anywhere in Oregon is particularly great. Portland is just less bad - you can pay through the nose for a direct flight to Charlotte, or eat a layover and 2-4 hours added travel time to save money.

And personally I'm leery of connections through SFO given the fog delays. I'd much rather risk Denver snow.

[Nell Plotts]

Originally Posted by lilmamabair

I am sorry, I thought that I had added that he will mainly be working from home. He will be going out of town 1 or more times a month, so being close to an airport is important.

I have read through some forums and felt like I wasn't finding what I was looking for. I guess I need to read more!


Thank you all for replying, I will look into what you have said!

In that case you should consider the se portion of Clark County and the sw portion of Skamania County in Washington state - convenient to PDX. Washington has no income tax, it supports itself with sales and excise taxes. There is a Vancouver, WA forum.