So You Want To Move To Portland? LOL! (Gresham, Beaverton: earthquakes, income)

Originally Posted by Raisinet

I'll pose the same question to you that I posed to the other deflectors that didn't answer it: what does the homeless rates in other cities have to do with MY quality of life RIGHT HERE in Portland?

I don't live in Cleveland. The homeless in Cleveland aren't sitting outside my building or sleeping on the sidewalk, or begging in front of my building. The homeless in Portland are.

True, but they will be outside your building begging and sleeping if you move to another city and make the same poor housing decisions.

That's the point that you don't seem to get. It doesn't matter if you're in Portland or Seattle or Omaha. If you continue to choose neighborhoods poorly you're going to continue to be unhappy.

Originally Posted by patches403

Car insurance isn't any higher here than any other major metro area and probably lower than many of them. Your insurance is probably high because you're young and have claims on your record (or bad credit), not because you live in Portland.

True. No idea where the notion that Portland has high insurance rates came from. My rates literally cut in half when I moved to Oregon from the east coast and changed by a few dollars per month (as in under 5) when I moved from Corvallis to Portland.

Oregon's insurance rates actually come in below the national average.

[Raisinet]

Originally Posted by JasonF

True, but they will be outside your building begging and sleeping if you move to another city and make the same poor housing decisions.

That's the point that you don't seem to get. It doesn't matter if you're in Portland or Seattle or Omaha. If you continue to choose neighborhoods poorly you're going to continue to be unhappy.
True. No idea where the notion that Portland has high insurance rates came from. My rates literally cut in half when I moved to Oregon from the east coast and changed by a few dollars per month (as in under 5) when I moved from Corvallis to Portland.

Oregon's insurance rates actually come in below the national average.

My car insurance rates to insure a new luxury increased moving here. I guess you missed the article scoring Portland at like 187 out of 200 for crashes that I posted at the beginning of this thread. That doesn't get you low insurance rates.

Do you really have the nerve to compare the whole of mostly RURAL Oregon to Portland, and then proclaim, "'hey Oregon's cheaper?"

But, we do agree that downtown Portland is a poor moving choice for anyone that decides to do so.

[CanuckInPortland]

Originally Posted by Raisinet

Here, I saved this for your return.

10 places where renting a home beats buying - Page 7 - CBS News

It's actually cheaper to rent in Portland than it is to buy. And I can bank the difference.

Since a mortgage payment can vary greatly on when you bought in the market and how much money one put down initially(and what kind of interest rate you got), it's kind of a misnomer to say that renting is always much cheaper than to buy in Portland--especially with the huge increases in rent over the last year.

For example, the house I bought just last year would be hard to find for rent today at the same price as our monthly mortgage payment(even including taxes and home insurance). The few homes in our neighborhood actually for rent and of a similar size and style would be upwards of $500 more in what we pay in monthly costs.

Now cheaper apartments are often going to be less usually than buying a more affordable condo of similar size--though usually the cheapest apartments aren't as nice as the cheapest condos--they usually renovate and retrofit the older cheaper apartments if they convert them to condos. Even those cheap garden apartments from the 60s and 70s that used to be bargains in Portland have gone up a lot recently though.

[urbanlife78]

I enjoyed my years living on the south end of downtown, I also enjoyed not paying luxury apartment rates. As much as I love where I live now for various reasons, I still miss my old place and how easy it was to get around.

[Raisinet]

Originally Posted by CanuckInPortland

Since a mortgage payment can vary greatly on when you bought in the market and how much money one put down initially(and what kind of interest rate you got), it's kind of a misnomer to say that renting is always much cheaper than to buy in Portland--especially with the huge increases in rent over the last year.

For example, the house I bought just last year would be hard to find for rent today at the same price as our monthly mortgage payment(even including taxes and home insurance). The few homes in our neighborhood actually for rent and of a similar size and style would be upwards of $500 more in what we pay in monthly costs.

Now cheaper apartments are often going to be less usually than buying a more affordable condo of similar size--though usually the cheapest apartments aren't as nice as the cheapest condos--they usually renovate and retrofit the older cheaper apartments if they convert them to condos. Even those cheap garden apartments from the 60s and 70s that used to be bargains in Portland have gone up a lot recently though.

What exactly is the obsession with proving whether it's better to rent or buy?

Which, oh by the way, has nothing to do with this thread.

So fine, you real estate owners win. We hereby declare you the winners (in your own minds).

[CanuckInPortland]

Originally Posted by Raisinet

What exactly is the obsession with proving whether it's better to rent or buy?

Which, oh by the way, has nothing to do with this thread.

Well let's see, you're the one who posted a link and made that claim that it's cheaper to rent than buy in Portland in your own post. I was just responding.

So fine, you real estate owners win. We hereby declare you the winners (in your own minds).

Okay, lighten up. I've been a renter most of my life, but I was just pointing out that it's not always a clear-cut case of one option being cheaper for everyone. For short-term living in one city, renting is probably a safer option, especially if one is a sort of easily discontented type who is going to probably move.

Originally Posted by Raisinet

Do you really have the nerve to compare the whole of mostly RURAL Oregon to Portland, and then proclaim, "'hey Oregon's cheaper?"

Except, of course, as I said, my rates in Corvallis (not a big city by any stretch of the imagination) were nearly the same as my rates in Portland. Portland is a little more expensive than more rural areas but not dramatically so. If my insurance company hadn't told me the rate was changing I doubt I'd have even noticed the difference.

But, we do agree that downtown Portland is a poor moving choice for anyone that decides to do so.

No we don't. Downtown Portland is a poor moving choice for anyone who doesn't like living downtown in urban centers. I live downtown and quite like it, but I accept that living downtown means higher prices, worse traffic, more homeless people, more noise, etc. If I moved to a different city I'd still choose to live downtown and still have to face exactly the same downsides as living in downtown Portland.

[Raisinet]

This homeless problem is ALL OVER Portland, not just downtown.

Hales discussing homeless camp with state officials

This Mayor needs to be helped out of office.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by Raisinet

This homeless problem is ALL OVER Portland, not just downtown.

Hales discussing homeless camp with state officials

This Mayor needs to be helped out of office.

It is about time Hales is dealing with this issue, though I imagine the effort will be too late for him and he will probably be voted out of office this election season.

No one was really into Hales being mayor even when he was elected.

[sloyd]

Originally Posted by Raisinet

My car insurance rates to insure a new luxury increased moving here. I guess you missed the article scoring Portland at like 187 out of 200 for crashes that I posted at the beginning of this thread. That doesn't get you low insurance rates.

Do you really have the nerve to compare the whole of mostly RURAL Oregon to Portland, and then proclaim, "'hey Oregon's cheaper?"

But, we do agree that downtown Portland is a poor moving choice for anyone that decides to do so.

Downtown Portland is a poor choice for an Moderator cut: snip that doesn't want to see or deal with homeless people. You can't make being homeless illegal, just ruled on by the supreme court. There are 4,000 homeless people that live in and around downtown Portland, nobody has any idea what to do about it. One thing you can do is leave, nobody here thinks like you do and that must be hard for you. When I walk out of my overpriced house on my way to work I don't look at the homeless like they are a eye soar or an annoyance. Just move on...