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Portland, OR ATers, How is living there?

CrackRabbit

CrackRabbit

Lifer
The company I work for is opening a new site in the Portland area I am curious about how life is there, what the good areas are to live in fairly inexpensively and whatnot.
I think moving there would be an excelent oportunity to advance within the company and get away from the general stupidity of the site I work at now.
I am most in the research phase at the moment, making sure that Oregon is someplace I want to relocate to.
The site I would be working at is somewhere near the airport, (I don't have an actual address yet) but my girlfriend, if she were to transfer with her job would be working near Wilsonville.

Thanks,

CrackRabbit

Edit: I just realised that its 7 AM there.... D'oh!
 
Fist off.

Rain .. lots of it .. dark overcast skys mostly through winter. Rarely get snow on the valley floor. But winters do get chilly ( damp coldness ) Portland metro areas are in the $220's to $250's avg house price. If you choose closer to the airport then look at Vancouver,Wash to buy or move to. If closer to Wilsonville then check out: Wilsonville / Tigard / Tualatin / Sherwood / Newberg.

Do not live in Multnomah County at all ! They have an additional income tax avg at about $400 to $800 ( or higher ! ! ) per household per year depending on income. This tax is supposed to only be " temporary " ending this year but it's up to the County if they want to extend it without the vote of the people

The winters here have been mild the last couple years I will say and the spring / summer time is beautiful. 1 hour drive west and you're at the Oregon Coast. 1 hour drive east and you're in the mountains. Lots of outdoor stuff to do year round.

Good luck.
 
Originally posted by: MidasKnight
Fist off.

Rain .. lots of it .. dark overcast skys mostly through winter. Rarely get snow on the valley floor. But winters do get chilly ( damp coldness ) Portland metro areas are in the $220's to $250's avg house price. If you choose closer to the airport then look at Vancouver,Wash to buy or move to. If closer to Wilsonville then check out: Wilsonville / Tigard / Tualatin / Sherwood / Newberg.

Do not live in Multnomah County at all ! They have an additional income tax avg at about $400 to $800 ( or higher ! ! ) per household per year depending on income. This tax is supposed to only be " temporary " ending this year but it's up to the County if they want to extend it without the vote of the people

The winters here have been mild the last couple years I will say and the spring / summer time is beautiful. 1 hour drive west and you're at the Oregon Coast. 1 hour drive east and you're in the mountains. Lots of outdoor stuff to do year round.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

And on that oregon coast is the best left hand point break in the continental us 🙂.
 
I lived in Portland for all my life until I moved recently. I love the area, it's absolutely beautiful, and the people are wonderful.

But there's a problem with Portland Metro, and in my opinion its related to the City and State government being asshats. MidasKnight sounded off correctly on the Multnomah county tax just being one of the problems. Multnomah county likes to spend lots of money on BS projects that get them no where and waste millions of dollars of tax payer money, and then they complain there isnt enough money so their create new taxes and close schools and cut school programs and such. But they can pay to rennovate different parts of downtown Portland so they can lease the space out to businesses on the tax payer dime. I also think Portland has become the meth head capital of the U.S., and for some reason there isn't enough money to keep these people in jail. They even built a $58 million jail that they can't seem to open. So it sits there empty, while the Oregon crime problem just continues to escalate. The fvcking house of reps won't even pass Jessica's Law to protect kids from child molesters.. :disgust:

Aside from that Portland is a great place to live. No sales tax, you don't pump your own gas (could be a bad thing if you're impatient like me).
 
Originally posted by: DougK62
Do you like hippies?
Click to expand...

Well first of all you must not be from Oregon. Portland is not a hippie town. You are referring to Eugene, and even at that Eugene has changed a lot over the years. Oregon is a great place to live. Rossman is currently in Ptown so you might be able to get some more direct information from him.
 
Be prepared for a lot of rain, fog, and drizle. And I mean a lot! Average days of precipitation in Oregon is almost 300.

The winters are really gloomy, with temperatures in the upper 30's to low 40's most days. Rarely does it snow, and when it does the enire town shuts down!

City is very liberal so there are ton of heroin addicts, pot smoking hippies, and lots of pan handlers in the city center downtown area.

Best thing about Portland is the nudie bars. With over 100 in the city, yeah over 100, full nude with a full bar! Cheapo cover charges, and most clubs don't even have one with the average pint of beer price in the mid $3 range.

The roads adn the way Portland is set up kinda sucks for the average driver. I would suggest living somewhat close to your work ,ad nif their office will be in downtown I would suggest living close to a rail station so that you can take the light-rail in.

My preference was living in Beaverton, near Raleigh Hills area, but I had a family and wasn't living the night life.


I'm back in California and have been after my 4yrs in Oregon, and let me tell you, I love Cali!



 
Rain, seriously be prepared for lots of rain and gray clouds.

The commute from Portland to Wilsonville will be a bitch, guessing around 45 minutes during rush hour.

Housing is ridiculously overpiced.
 
Originally posted by: ironcrotch
I lived in Portland for all my life until I moved recently. I love the area, it's absolutely beautiful, and the people are wonderful.

But there's a problem with Portland Metro, and in my opinion its related to the City and State government being asshats. MidasKnight sounded off correctly on the Multnomah county tax just being one of the problems. Multnomah county likes to spend lots of money on BS projects that get them no where and waste millions of dollars of tax payer money, and then they complain there isnt enough money so their create new taxes and close schools and cut school programs and such. But they can pay to rennovate different parts of downtown Portland so they can lease the space out to businesses on the tax payer dime. I also think Portland has become the meth head capital of the U.S., and for some reason there isn't enough money to keep these people in jail. They even built a $58 million jail that they can't seem to open. So it sits there empty, while the Oregon crime problem just continues to escalate. The fvcking house of reps won't even pass Jessica's Law to protect kids from child molesters.. :disgust:

Aside from that Portland is a great place to live. No sales tax, you don't pump your own gas (could be a bad thing if you're impatient like me).
Click to expand...

Actually the problem is state gov't. Portland schools have no money because it all gets sent to subsidize rural schools. Never understood people who bitch about paying for schools anyway. It's an investment, folks. Do you think businesses are going to flock anywhere with a retarded work force and shoddy infrastructure?

Traffic sucks, but public transport is pretty good as well as a large system of bike lanes. Housing prices suck, but there's not alot you can do about that (other than kick out all the Californians).
 
Originally posted by: Fmr12B
Be prepared for a lot of rain, fog, and drizle. And I mean a lot! Average days of precipitation in Oregon is almost 300.
Click to expand...

While we do get a lot of rain, Portland only gets HALF of what you state in terms of days of rain per year (I read 151 days of precipitation on some site that showed stats.) Now, if you're talking how many cloudy days per year, we get an average of 68 days of clear, sunny skies, the rest with at least a fair amount of clouds, so we do get close to 300 days of cloudy skies. We actually get less rain than many places in the country, it's just that we get days of drizzle instead of short, discrete rainstorms. It's what makes Oregon so green. The Coast Range is categorized as a Temperate Rainforest.
 
Thanks for all the info guys, I personaly dont mind the rain and gloom at all. Its kind of a trade off, you deal with 100+ very very humid days in Houston and Central Texas all summer interupted by random thunderstorms and/or hurricanes and then it goes back to hot and humid.
Cool and Misty > Hot and Muggy
I would probably be renting an apartment or house for a while, at least until I get my credit straightened back out and a good downpayment put together.
I am pretty much set to turn in my resume to HR and say let me at it... the real problem is my GF I don't know if she will be able to take being a couple thousand miles from her family.
So I should look at things in Washington County opposed to Multnomah County due to the income tax things right?
That looks like Beaverton, Tigard and Tualatin if I am reading the maps right. Are those areas good neighborhoods with a minimal amount of random crime?
Also Traffic isn't too big of a deal, traffic here in Houston is plain awful.
Please keep the input coming.
 
So I should look at things in Washington County opposed to Multnomah County due to the income tax things right?
Click to expand...

Right. But also consider Vancouver,Wa as well ... there is state sales tax there but you can shop right in Portland to save $$'s there as well.

That looks like Beaverton, Tigard and Tualatin if I am reading the maps right. Are those areas good neighborhoods with a minimal amount of random crime?
Click to expand...

Yes. I live in the Tigard area and most 2 bedroom duplexes run about $600 to $900 a month depending. I rent a 3 bedroom townhouse at $795 here.
 
Washington county is the west side which is better than where I live, the east side (Multonomah county).

I'm not sure what county Tigard and Tualatin are in but Washington county does have Beaverton, Aloha, Hillsboro, etc.

You'll probably take the S L O W and constantly congested Highway US-26 to go from Beaverton to PDX (Portland International Airport).

Cool & misty >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>&gt
>>>>>>> hot & humid
 
Originally posted by: MidasKnight
So I should look at things in Washington County opposed to Multnomah County due to the income tax things right?
Click to expand...

Right. But also consider Vancouver,Wa as well ... there is state sales tax there but you can shop right in Portland to save $$'s there as well.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, the commute from Vancouver to Portland is invariably heinous.

 
Tigard / Tualatin are in Washington County ... From those locations you just take I-5 north. Or go a short distants I-5 south to I-205 north to the airport area. Probably a 40 min drive without thick traffic. At rush hour times probable 1 hour typical. This is again, coming from Tigard / Tualatin.
 
Originally posted by: Bryophyte
Originally posted by: Fmr12B
Be prepared for a lot of rain, fog, and drizle. And I mean a lot! Average days of precipitation in Oregon is almost 300.
Click to expand...

While we do get a lot of rain, Portland only gets HALF of what you state in terms of days of rain per year (I read 151 days of precipitation on some site that showed stats.)
Click to expand...
Yeah, 300 days is a huge exagerration.


You'll never hear me say that this place is perfect, as nowhere on earth is... But you'll also never hear me say that I plan on ever moving. 🙂

I've always lived on the west side (Beaverton and Tigard), and I really do like living here.

(Btw, I was born in Detroit, MI and went to school in Phoenix, AZ.)
 
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