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West Salem.
A <300k home, fenced, 10-12k sqft, within city growth boundary, suburban, with/out view of valley, 3 new or upgraded grade schools of equal distance, Jrhi & SrHi are same distance as grade schools. Easypeasy.
They could get a 1500 sq foot 3/2 in Wilark Park West for $250ish. It is about an hour and 15 to the airport during non-rush hour times.
I don't really get what is going on with wanting to find friends with that lifestyle? I mean if you have meat-eating friends, will you not go out to lunch with them? We have a lot of meat eaters here because we have an active hunting/fishing/clamming culture here. Most people here, even our conservative folks, tend to prefer local grass-fed beef. Buying half a cow direct from a rancher is very common here.
Salem, Corvallis, and Eugene all have people that live that lifestyle, but Eugene is more hippie/liberal than Corvallis or Eugene. So I guess where is a good fit depends on how you approach meat eaters. If you can't sit and have friends that eat paleo type diets (lots of that here), then probably Eugene is the best. It's the most "alternative" of the cities, but "alternative" is pretty normal here.
If either of you are bilingual Spanish speaking or have special ed certificates you will have no trouble getting jobs as teachers here.
They could get a 1500 sq foot 3/2 in Wilark Park West for $250ish. It is about an hour and 15 to the airport during non-rush hour times.
I don't really get what is going on with wanting to find friends with that lifestyle? I mean if you have meat-eating friends, will you not go out to lunch with them? We have a lot of meat eaters here because we have an active hunting/fishing/clamming culture here. Most people here, even our conservative folks, tend to prefer local grass-fed beef. Buying half a cow direct from a rancher is very common here.
Salem, Corvallis, and Eugene all have people that live that lifestyle, but Eugene is more hippie/liberal than Corvallis or Eugene. So I guess where is a good fit depends on how you approach meat eaters. If you can't sit and have friends that eat paleo type diets (lots of that here), then probably Eugene is the best. It's the most "alternative" of the cities, but "alternative" is pretty normal here.
If either of you are bilingual Spanish speaking or have special ed certificates you will have no trouble getting jobs as teachers here.
I think vegans and non- conservatives that live in “the south” or religious parts of “the midwest” don’t realize that nowhere on the west coast is religion or food lifestyle a big deal. Most people think I am a vegetarian when they meet me which is hilarious because I love a beautiful T-bone, enjoy a burger once a week and eat every kind of seafood. I know people stereotype so many assume certain people must be vegetarian. My point is transplants to the west wil be surprised to find that most of heir friends eat animals. I don’t know any vegans except a few acquaintances in Portland. And yes, we have a Subaru, a dog, and shop at New Seasons.��
Thanks for all the replies. I should have clarified "affordable" in my original post. That is rather subjective, lol.
In a perfect world, we would find a house for under 300K, closer to 250K would be ideal. That $ gets you a lot where we live in GA, but we realize the housing market is much different in the PNW. We also realize that we may need to move with just one salary if there aren't 2 teaching jobs in the same area immediately available or that we are both hired for at the same time. We don't want to be spread too thin with our income.
The airport requirement is relatively flexible. We'll be flying back to Atlanta probably once per year and will likely have friends/family visiting us periodically. We would actually prefer to live somewhere with less traffic congestion than to live close to an airport. I don't feel that Salem, Corvallis, or Eugene would be unreasonable. We live an hour from downtown Atlanta and are perfectly content with the drive when we need to be in the city. We're more interested in the recreation near our home and local community events that we can enjoy throughout the year without going into the city. We even looked into the Ashland area (not necessarily Ashland itself, pricing is high). It would require a connection through Medford, but a lot of the flights from Portland to Atlanta have a connection depending on the price and time you need.
Eugene / Springfield is your only real option. If you wanted to give up the conveniences of shopping and an airport, you could also add any of the smaller towns in the Willamette Valley or even the Coast. But Eugene and Springfield is probably your best bet.
I think vegans and non- conservatives that live in “the south” or religious parts of “the midwest” don’t realize that nowhere on the west coast is religion or food lifestyle a big deal. Most people think I am a vegetarian when they meet me which is hilarious because I love a beautiful T-bone, enjoy a burger once a week and eat every kind of seafood. I know people stereotype so many assume certain people must be vegetarian. My point is transplants to the west wil be surprised to find that most of heir friends eat animals. I don’t know any vegans except a few acquaintances in Portland. And yes, we have a Subaru, a dog, and shop at New Seasons.��
Let me guess, you wear tye dye.
It's really hard to be vegan and stay healthy. You have to really watch what you eat. I know a lot of people that have tried it, but ended up not feeling good so they added eggs and cheese back into their diet. I don't think I could give up dungeness crab and halibut myself.
I do have to add in here that my friend got a fixer upper in a safe quiet street in a neighborhood just a block or two from the Portland metro border in Milwaukie for something like $200,000 (she had to connect and put in a sewer line to the city but there was a program that paid for that) - it is a very spacious 3 bedroom (1 bathroom) on a quarter acre. So look around - if you can put in some sweat equity there are still deals to be found.
It's really hard to be vegan and stay healthy. You have to really watch what you eat. I know a lot of people that have tried it, but ended up not feeling good so they added eggs and cheese back into their diet. I don't think I could give up dungeness crab and halibut myself.
Yes to everything except the tie dye. Thank God for that! Growing up in SF we would enjoy Dungeness but man, our Oregon Dungeness is even better and halibut is a favorite fish... getting hungry. I am pretty healthy and I eat a variety of foods so I have no plans of going veg or vegan. I was gluten free for a while which is easy to do in Portland area because of all our options but whatever your diet I don’t think most people here choose their friends or withhold kids’ play dates because there is poultry or beef in the house! And quality of meats, cheeses, seafood, fish, veggies in Oregon is amazing and probably the best thing about living here.
Eugene / Springfield is your only real option. If you wanted to give up the conveniences of shopping and an airport, you could also add any of the smaller towns in the Willamette Valley or even the Coast. But Eugene and Springfield is probably your best bet.
You will not find teaching jobs in Eugene. The U of O pumps out hundreds of education majors and there are probably more unemployed or underemployed teachers in Eugene who are working as baristas or bike mechanics as any place on the west coast.
Having moved back to the northwest from Texas as a teacher 2 years ago I went through all of this. My advice is the following:
1. Start NOW to get your teaching credentials transferred over to both Oregon and Washington. Washington was a little bit less paperwork but neither required me to do any additional coursework, just some tests that I was able to do at a Kaplan Test Center in TX.
2. Start looking online for jobs in early spring. The districts that are most on the ball will start posting openings as early as Feb but usually they don't show until March or April. I was able to do skype interviews for 3 of the 4 jobs I applied for. I had to fly out for the Vancouver school district job fair but nothing came of that.
3. Your most fertile hunting ground will probably be the greater Vancouver area just north of Portland. Washington schools are better funded than Oregon schools which means more jobs and better conditions (smaller class sizes etc). The greater Vancouver area is growing fast and most of the surrounding districts have recently passed bonds which means new schools. Camas school district is currently constructing a new elementary and a new alternative HS. Ridgefield is building a new middle school. And so forth. Plus from Vancouver you have an easy reverse direction commute out to various smaller rural districts in SW Washington that have more difficulty finding teachers. Longview, for example, has a harder time finding teachers and there are those who live in north Vancouver and commute daily to Longview. It's about a 35 minute drive give or take.
If you have both OR and WA credentials you can expand your hunt to the Portland area and Willamette Valley.
Thanks for all the replies. I should have clarified "affordable" in my original post. That is rather subjective, lol.
In a perfect world, we would find a house for under 300K, closer to 250K would be ideal. That $ gets you a lot where we live in GA, but we realize the housing market is much different in the PNW. We also realize that we may need to move with just one salary if there aren't 2 teaching jobs in the same area immediately available or that we are both hired for at the same time. We don't want to be spread too thin with our income.
The airport requirement is relatively flexible. We'll be flying back to Atlanta probably once per year and will likely have friends/family visiting us periodically. We would actually prefer to live somewhere with less traffic congestion than to live close to an airport. I don't feel that Salem, Corvallis, or Eugene would be unreasonable. We live an hour from downtown Atlanta and are perfectly content with the drive when we need to be in the city. We're more interested in the recreation near our home and local community events that we can enjoy throughout the year without going into the city. We even looked into the Ashland area (not necessarily Ashland itself, pricing is high). It would require a connection through Medford, but a lot of the flights from Portland to Atlanta have a connection depending on the price and time you need.
250k would be hard, but 300k opens some options. 350k opens more. You get more housing bang for your buck in the south, I hate to say it but very true. It costs more to live in a beautiful state.
I agree with searching the entire Willamette Valley area, starting south in Springfield/Eugene and up through the Portland suburbs to Vancouver WA, with associated communities east and west. Bend in central Oregon is also an option, about an hour further removed from Portland than Eugene is but offers closer access to outdoor recreation and is rapidly developing the hippy-dippiness you're looking for. A bit pricey though.
Salem, Vancouver WA, and maybe somewhere like Corvallis, Albany, Lebanon, or Springfield probably offer your best bets for your price point.
I don't recommend Medford/Ashland. Ashland is great, but Medford isn't. Your distance to major airports is even longer and southern Oregon is arguably more conservative than the eastern part. There is a lot of cool recreation in southern Oregon, but unless you're really in love with it I recommend visiting, not living.
Out east you have "don't tread on me" rancher types in the majority and nature lovers who hike or ride in the outback in the minority. Down south you have a lot of "make America great again" with the island of Ashland in all that, not to mention the economic difficulties and opioid issues that a lot of MAGA communities struggle with. I will take the former over the latter any day. You said you want to move to a political culture that's different than what you've got in Georgia. In southern Oregon there would be more similarities than differences culturally, confederate flags and all.
I'd start looking at what you and your husband are going to need to get certified to teach in Oregon. Once that's determined, then just apply for jobs and see what happens.
Last edited by redguard57; 01-22-2018 at 12:41 PM..
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