Pacific City, OR--col, housing, quality of life (Portland, Bend: for sale, apartment)

[blklb]

Hi all,

I'm pursuing a job in Pacific City and am wondering what the pros and cons are. Given its relative isolation and seeming reliance on tourism, I suspect that cost of living is probably on the high side.

I'm also curious about housing availability (prefer my own place but willing to have/be a housemate, at least to begin with). I'm willing to pay more to experience a good quality of life (love all things outdoors: hiking, paddling, biking, etc.) Alltrails.com doesn't show tons of hiking trails in the area, which strikes me as odd, given nearby public lands. Any paragliding in the area? I love to sail, but don't own my own boat and not seeing any real marina presence. I suspect that stretch of coast is great, though challenging for sailing.

I lived in Seattle for 4 years, so am familiar with the PNW climate. How would the two areas compare in terms of weather?

Curious what folks think. I'm not someone who needs much night life, just a few good, local restaurants/brew pubs and access to a variety of outdoor activities. Being able to head into Portland every month or two would be enough city life to satisfy me. Thanks!

[oregonwoodsmoke]

There is some mighty fine fishing and crabbing in that area and there are some very nice beaches. That's about the limit of my knowledge.


If you drive up and down the coast from there, you will see a lot of excellent scenery and there are often good little local restaurants to eat at. You should be able to find a place not too far away that makes fish and chips with fresh caught fish.

[blklb]

Thanks, ows!


Sounds good to me. I used to fly-fish, so could see doing some fishing. And would love to try crabbing.

[NW Crow]

Pacific City averages almost 80 inches of rain per year. More than twice what most of immediate Seattle area gets. PC might be a little cooler.

Yelp shows about a dozen restaurants including seafood, Asian, Mexican and bakery.

Hiking opportunities at Cape Lookout and up Mount Hebo. Could walk or ride on endless forest service back roads. Quality of scenery dependent on when last cut and how you react to recovering cut forest. Drive 1-3 hours and traditional hiking opportunities expand in number and type.

Paragliding info: https://www.google.com/search?q=cape...9i57.13846j1j7 At Cape Lookout. Regional club.

[texasdiver]

Housing is going to be your toughest nut to crack. Pretty much all the housing in Pacific City is going to be AirB&B vacation rental stuff, not long-term rentals. You will probably have to drive from Lincoln City or Tillamook if you want to find an ordinary apartment to rent. On the other hand, if you have the resources to buy a beachfront condo or house in Pacific City then you will options as there is a lot of stuff for sale all along the coast.

Otherwise it is a small beach town like many others. The only towns on the coast that are large enough to have a somewhat more diverse economy are Astoria, Newport Coos Bay, and maybe Lincoln City.

Pacific City is actually on the southern end of what is called the Tillamook Coast, which is a long stretch of coastline where the main highway US-101 veers well inland and much smaller local roads run along the coast. This makes it much more remote and less traveled and developed than most of the rest of the coast that lies along the main highway US-101. It is actually one of my favorite stretches of coastline with amazing beaches and bays that tend to get much less traffic than parts further north and south. But don't expect to find a lot of shops and restaurants and other tourist businesses along that stretch of coast. It is pretty undeveloped aside from a few small communities that are mostly just vacation homes.

If you are looking to buy you should know that most if not all of Pacific City is smack in the middle of the tsunami zone. There is little or no high ground. I would personally not buy there for that reason. There are plenty of other coastal communities on much higher ground.

[blklb]

Thanks all!


- NWcrow: definitely more rain than Seattle, which doesn't surprise me that much. Southwest WA and NW Oregon do have the reputation of having more precip than Seattle north. My assumption would be that the majority of that would be winter precip. Forest service back roads are fine by me. Preferable in some ways, as it tends to allow one to avoid trail crowds.



- texasdiver: Good info on housing. Wouldn't have thought about the tsunami aspect. I don't plan on buying any time soon, and a bit of a commute is fine by me as long as the traffic isn't horrendous. It actually may be beneficial to have some separation from work, give PC is such a small town. One of the things I liked about the location is that it's off 101.


Thanks again!

[slowlanes]

Have spent hundreds of days in Pacific City over the past 15 years surfing and fishing on the river (salmon) that goes through town.
Understand PC is not isolated, it is a highly popular with it's multiple motels and AirBnb rentals maxed out much of the year. During summer, the main beach parking lot is full every day, with folks looking for parking places.
And PC has become perhaps the most popular place in all of OR for surfing, attracting surfers from all over OR. And the number of resident surfers has really surged in the past five years, and they are always looking to scoop up availble rentals, which are rare to find.
There is also a new, vast MTB trail system being developed that runs from the north edge of PC over the coastal foothills, expected to draw a signficant MTB crowd once completed.
To deal with all of this, Pacific City recently adopted a new master plan to specifically address the crowd issues, developing bike and walking paths from the beach into the town, remote parking lots with shuttles to and from the beach, even traffic circles to handle the vehicle congestion.
PC is a great place, growing fast, with a rapidly growing younger population.
It is rapidly becoming the coastal Bend of OR.

[blazenjames]

Cold, dark, dank and depressing.

[ejisme]

"Cold, dark, dank and depressing": Well, from mid-October to mid-June most years, with a few weeks of beautiful sunny weather mixed in infrequently. You might get 8-10 days of rain in a row before the sun comes out. Mid-June to Mid-October are generally the sunny weeks. Never very warm, with mid-70's about as warm as it gets. Rare to see the temp get down below freezing either though.

I would assume you can find a friendly bar and restaurant to become a regular at. If you have a job lined up, I'd suggest you call your work contact to get ideas on where your co-workers live and any suggestions for you to search out a new place for yourself.

[E-Twist]

Tillamook is about 24 miles away from pacific city. Google says it's about a 35 minute drive. I haven't been out that way in years so I don't know the road or traffic conditions. Quick research shows rents in Tillamook to average a little under 700 dollars. I don't know how accurate that is. Can you get away to check out the area before commiting to the job?