Good Salary in PDX? (Portland: renting, health insurance, credit card)

[ccjarider]

If you live in town surrounding PDX and not PDX proper, $250K can purchase decent home in decent neighborhood near decent school. They do exist, don't let foks scare you off. You have a very good downpayment. more than most I would guess.

[VTHokieFan]

Originally Posted by skiffrace

Incorrect on all counts.

1. Property taxes:

The most meaningful comparison: property taxes as the share of the real home value places
Multnomah County at 1288 and Washington County at 1350 out of ~4000 counties in the US.
Map: Property Taxes in Your County | Brookings Institution

That's what I did. I took a look at Arlington County's housing index and compared it to Portland's index. Per CNN Money's cost of living comparisons, Portland's housing costs are 45% less. This is real home value. For the sake of simplicity, I assumed 50%. For the sake of comparison, I made and adjustment by dividing Portland's property tax rates by two, because we're doubling Portland's housing index to match Arlington's and we want to keep people's cash-out related to property tax consistent for this comparison. Dividing Portland's average tax per $100 of assessed value of $2.32 by 2, we get $1.16. This is obviously a crude method, but, basically I consider Portland to be taxed 10% more on property than one of the most expensive areas in the nation.

And also, where Multnomah and Washington are ranked basically partially supports (since they are only two counties) my view that Oregon isn't really in the first quintile, but in the second.

Originally Posted by skiffrace

Real, not assessed home values should be used-that's what the house is actually worth,
assessed value is an artificial number usually kept low due to various measures.

Which I did in a bit of a different way.

Originally Posted by skiffrace

Furthermore, if you consider the somewhat nebulous measure 'return for the property tax money paid'
Washington County scores very high - super safe, good infrastructure, good schools, high quality of life.
Multnomah County, while overall decent enough can't quite compare with WashCo.

I'm not arguing one way or the other, just demonstrating that without sales tax, Oregon still probably ranks in the second quintile even without a sales tax.

Originally Posted by skiffrace

If the moderate taxes in Oregon bother you, I suggest Bossier Parish, Louisiana.

They don't bother me.

Originally Posted by skiffrace

2. Oregon total tax burden as share of state income.
Oregon ranks 16 here, which is nearer the top of the rankings than the bottom.
However, the Oregon figure of 10.1% is only marginally higher than US average of 9.8%
Annual State-Local Tax Burden Ranking FY 2011 | Tax Foundation

Right. The second quintile.

[VTHokieFan]

Originally Posted by zapped

Sorry to nitpick @VTHokieFan, but you wrote that the property tax rate in Arlington County, VA is around $.0095/$100. That's less than a penny per $100 of valuation - a typo maybe?

Can we assume you meant $0.95/$100 in Arlington County VA, i.e. closer to a dollar per $100 of valuation or about 1%?

EDIT - I now see at the Arlington County budget site: Real estate tax rate rises by 3.5 cents, from $0.971 per $100 of assessed value to $1.006 per $100 of assessed value for calendar year 2013. ... Tax rates for the calendar year 2014 have not yet been set. Guess I wasn't nitpicking since @VTHokieFan was off by a factor of 100x

Yes it was a typo. I meant less than a dollar per $100. And now it's back below one dollar

County Tax Rate to Drop By a Penny | ARLnow.com

[skiffrace]

Oregon isn't really in the first quintile, but in the second.

OK. I think we're ~same page as far as the approximate numbers. The real question is: is Oregon worth it?
IMHO: YES!!!!
Would you rather live in NY or NJ? Astronomical taxes and crime rates. Freezing winters. Suffocating summers. People that bark at each other. Congestion, traffic and human misery for (dozens? hundreds?) of miles in any direction.
How about the South? Nice winters. Suffocating++ summers. Nearest snow-clad mountain 2000 miles away. Crime rate through the roof...(I will stop here)
Midwest? Nice (a bit standoffish though) people. Pleasant (sightly wet) summers. Low house prices. High property taxes (check Nebraska) LOVELY (not!) winters that last half of the year. Still snowing in May. Nearest tree 75 miles away.

If you live in town surrounding PDX and not PDX proper, $250K can purchase decent home in decent neighborhood near decent school. They do exist, don't let foks scare you off. You have a very good downpayment. more than most I would guess.

Correct.
Here is the Portland Metro Area:
Portland
Virtually any place you look at is safe, beautiful, filled with friendly people, and often within walking or bicycling distance from key amenities. If you want, you can pay the premium to subscribe to the 'walkable' and 'close-in' fantasy.
If you are single, ready to mingle, and have the $$$$$, it perhaps may even be worth it.
For everybody else, just throw a dart at the map, as long as it steers not far from your work location.
If you are retired, or work from home, just throw a dart at the map.

[lanhvtnymd]

This thread contains some good info. I live in the Baltimore, MD area and had an interview out in Portland. It seems like a nice place to live, but I'm not sure I could make the move as a single woman with significant student loan debt on the 67k the job is offering. As much as I would like to leave the mid-Atlantic, unless there's some crazy Hail Mary change-of-heart salary miracle, oh well. Would have been nice!

[pdxmilw]

Originally Posted by lanhvtnymd

This thread contains some good info. I live in the Baltimore, MD area and had an interview out in Portland. It seems like a nice place to live, but I'm not sure I could make the move as a single woman with significant student loan debt on the 67k the job is offering. As much as I would like to leave the mid-Atlantic, unless there's some crazy Hail Mary change-of-heart salary miracle, oh well. Would have been nice!

really? I haven't read the rest of the thread, but I've lived in Portland and Seattle for the last 20 years and I've never made more than $63,000. The year I made $63,000 I saved a ton, and then I switched to part time the next year. Even on $40,000 I did okay. I live frugally, but I wouldn't really have had to.

[lanhvtnymd]

Perhaps you don't have the level of debt I have. I have a lot of debt related to school (Department of Education and private loans), and I'm trying to pay it off in the next decade. When I say significant, I mean more than $50,000. That coupled with other expenses (housing for me and my dog, utilities and local transportation, food) would make it difficult for me to live on $67,000 and be able to have a social life and enjoy the environment around me. I guess I could not visit family for the next several years, but I'd rather not.

Originally Posted by lanhvtnymd

Perhaps you don't have the level of debt I have. I have a lot of debt related to school (Department of Education and private loans), and I'm trying to pay it off in the next decade. When I say significant, I mean more than $50,000. That coupled with other expenses (housing for me and my dog, utilities and local transportation, food) would make it difficult for me to live on $67,000 and be able to have a social life and enjoy the environment around me. I guess I could not visit family for the next several years, but I'd rather not.

That debt load should work out to what, around $700/month?

You could easily get by in Portland. You just wouldn't be living in a new place in the Pearl District and doing all your shopping at Whole Foods.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by JasonF

That debt load should work out to what, around $700/month?

You could easily get by in Portland. You just wouldn't be living in a new place in the Pearl District and doing all your shopping at Whole Foods.

I always find it funny when people think the cost of living in Portland means living in a new apartment in the Pearl and shopping at Whole Foods. Portland is an affordable city to live in if you want it to be. My wife and I have an affordable big two bedroom and are able to afford to enjoy living here without breaking the bank.

[lanhvtnymd]

I'm going to guess the Pearl District is like Otterbein or Federal Hill in Baltimore....definitely am not willing to pay to live some place like that. It would be 700 a month if I had approximately $50,000 in all subsidized Stafford loans, yes. Unfortunately grad school did not work out that way! I made around $60,000 when I lived in Vermont before grad school, and it was a squeeze. I do not just want to "get by". I'd like to get by plus lagniappe. So unless the job I interviewed for comes through on a better salary (fingers crossed, but not holding my breath), it's less risky to stay where I am and defer a dream of living on the west coast a bit longer. But thanks for the insight.