Oregon and Washington advice

Hi Matt,

I have lived in both Oregon (where I grew up) and Washington. There are many considerations. What type of work do you do will determine the area best suited for finding employment. Do you want the desert terrain or mountainous or coastal areas? Do you like "ALOT" of rain or do you prefer sunny or snowy climated.

Both states offer such diverse living conditions.

Fill us in on more details about your preferences then we can better suggest a location for you both.

 

Also know that if you live in WA, but are employed in OR, you are still required to pay OR state income taxes (yet are not allowed to vote or send your children to school there). WA has no state income tax.

 

Thanks RAC,

I forgot all about that too. Its a good point to ponder!!

 

Big city (Portland) paper, http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/

Smaller City (Salem) paper, http://news.statesmanjournal.com/home.cfm

My kind of town paper, http://www.newsregister.com/

 

If your looking for the more professional obs then stick with the big cities like portland, salem, seattle. Colville is a "VERY" small rancher type town with limited shopping for the women folks...heheheh...

If your tired of snow then might I suggest the coastal area. mid year around temps but it rains a bunch there. I will say this though, you have not lived until you spend a bunch of time on the coast. It is so beautiful and peacful too.

 

I think it will be nearly impossible to rent anything within 1/2 hour of seattle for $500 a month other than a studio or 1 bedroom apartment. Of course traffic is pretty bad, so 1/2 hour drive could be only 10 miles away.

If you're tired of snow, forget Colville! It's real pretty up there, real pretty, but it does get some snow. http://www.colville.com/

I don't know about the coastal areas of Washington & Oregon. I lived in Redmond (few miles east of Seattle) for 14 years, and just moved to Central Washington. I'd never go back. Too many people. Now, are you talking about saltwater beaches coastal, or just living near the water? Puget Sound being so big, there are a lot of smaller communities within 100 miles or so of Seattle/Tacoma Metro area that you might be able to find work and a cheaper place to live. Good luck!

 

Clark County, WA, is Oregon's 4th HIGHEST tax-paying county. How wrong is that???

I don't understand why ordinarily intelligent people would deliberately choose to live where they have to pay taxes yet have no say in how they are spent. Especially after you figure in commute costs and time spent commuting back and forth.....

Both states have their good and bad points--it is hard to say one state is "better" in any way.

Most of the coast in both WA and OR is small-town, and property prices, with the exception of some places like Cannon Beach OR, which seems to fancy itself as a "Carmel, CA" artist's colony, are cheap if you are used to prices on the CA or FL coast. Problem is, because they are small towns, most of the work there is seasonal/tourist/service-type. They are great places to live if you are retired or on other fixed income such as welfare.

If you are a good "handyman" type, charge fair rates, and are RELIABLE (keep appointments, have regular hours, etc.) you could do well at the coast. We have friends with some rental properties who find it very difficult to get reliable handyman work done--you run into a lot of people who say they are in business, but close up shop when it is a nice day to go fishing...most annoying. You also might want to look at real estate and property management--many of these places are vacation properties, and might let you rent cheap in order to keep the place up, and keep it occupied.

If weather is an issue, I think the Brookings/Gold Beach area has weather closer to CA than OR. And remember about the rain and windstorms--more upkeep at a house on the coast.

 

Hi Matt. We are in Drain. 45 miles from Eugene and Roseburg for work. We are moving out of the place we are in now. It's a 3 bdrm 2 bath mobile with a good sized yard-$550. There's loads of summer stuff to do here with rivers and lakes all around. If you want more info, let me know, and you can look up work in the Eugene Register Guard and the Roseburg News Review.

 

Colville???

You mean Cultville dont you...

oooo the family stories I have to tell... sheesh. I would be caught dead close to cultville lest the church deem me not fit to parent cause I dont agree with thier.... oh man. never mind.
Suffice to say my brother in law and his family finally escaped from there and the church is still hunting them down.

The coast is nice and relitively inexpensive.

gimpy

 

Given your employment background you might consider southern Oregon. Although housing prices have been going up for stuff close in, if you are willing to have a short rural commute prices are still reasonable.

Lots of outdoor recreation, as well as more sophisticated entertainment too. Weather is sunny most of the time, and winter temps rarely get below freezing. Lots of lakes and rivers in the area for boating and fishing. The "banana belt" of the coast - Brookings - is a relatively short scenic drive away.

Local Medford paper - http://www.mailtribune.com/ (classifieds, and also links to community web sites within Jackson County)

State Employment Dept - http://www.emp.state.or.us/jobs/ (search by location or occupation)

Good Luck!

 

Wags, you wrote (about Medford, I presume):

"Lots of outdoor recreation, as well as more sophisticated entertainment too."

You mean they have opera and ballet there now? Just throwing those out as examples, btw. *grin*

 

Well, I would like to put a tagline in for the eastern side of Washingotn state and that's the Spokane area! It's a lovely area with little crime, four pleasant seasons with plenty of outdoor activities. Fishing, water skiing, mountain trails, snow mobiling and many other sports year round in this area. Our winters are not like the Chicago area, but we do get a fair amount of snow, mostly in the mountains that surround us.

Visit Spokane at: http://www.visitspokane.com/

 

Well about Jackson County really, but its all within a 1/2 hours drive of Medford. And they do have opera and ballet occasionally, but the area is is world famous for the "Oregon Shakespeare Festival, (located in Ashland) the nation’s oldest and largest theatre in rotating repertory. OSF presents an eight-month season, from February through November, of 11 plays—five by Shakespeare and six
by classic and contemporary playwrights—in rotating repertory in three theatres." Time magazine listed it in the top 5 regional theaters in the USA. http://www.orshakes.org/home.html

Also the Britt Festival located in Jacksonville is well known on the west coast with people traveling from both San Francisco and Seattle for shows. "Now in its 42nd year, Britt Festivals is the Pacific Northwest's premiere outdoor summer performing arts festival. Located in the historic 1850s gold rush town of Jacksonville, Oregon (USA), Britt presents dozens of summer concerts, featuring world-class artists in classical music, dance, jazz, blues, folk, bluegrass, world, pop and country music. Britt's performance venue is a naturally formed amphitheater set among majestic ponderosa pines and native madrones on the beautiful hillside estate of 19th century photographer Peter Britt." http://www.brittfest.org/

Oh and Ashland is also home to Southren Oregon University (http://www.sou.edu/) which could be a source of employment in the audio/video line of work Matt mentioned.

 

Hi Wags,

I was familiar with the Ashland Festival, but not the Britt Festival--thanks for the links. Every so often we visit in Cave Junction (the Caves National Monument and the Lodge there are pretty cool), and drive out to the grist mill in Medford to buy some of their products.

Grants Pass is a cute town, but it is getting very crowded. But there is a community college there (Rogue Valley?) that Matt could look at too.

 

I live in Medford, actually Central Point now. Medford sucks. It is horribly hot during the late months of summer, although there is hardly a winter, so that time of the year isn't bad. If you have kids, expect them to be bored, bored, bored. There is not much for them to do. Plus, this area is filled with lots of Californians who messed up the area. It's more like a wannabe California.

There are hardly any jobs, especially ones that pay enough to do more than 'get by.' And rent and property is wildly expensive. Overall, as I said, Medford and the whole area sucks.

If you are sick of snow, stay closer to the coast, but then you'll find more rain. It all depends, like someone said, what you like. There is lots of variety in the two states.

 

Medford use to have the gold cup pf Paintball. Played many tournies there. nice place - wouldnt want to live there.

I went to school in Bellingham. Lived a few years in Belleview, Redmond, Everett, Ocean Shores, Pacific Beach, Hoquiam and Aberdeen.

Bellingham. great place, very expensive.

I spend 17 years in Grays Harbor. West of Olympia.
I never had a hard time finding jobs that payed well although others would tell you different. I firmly believe it depends entirely on your motivation factor whether you find a decent job or not.

The harbor was always good to me. Owned a hobby shop there for many years - sold it off. Owned a child care Center there for many years - sold it. Worked a few jobs there. Bought a house for 17K sold it for 110K. People are good and the fishing is THE best kept secret for that area. ie: King and Silver salmon tipping the 60lb scales. Sturgeon 13 ft long. Caught hundreds of them at 6ft. Crabbing in the harbor is good to. Westport "The fishing capitol of the world" is 20 min away. Charter a boat and slay the Tuna, Salmon, Bottom fish (cod and snapper), Whale watching etc etc.

The only problem I ever had really was the weather. dreary, dank, dark, and wet most fo the year. 'Course the rain forrest IS at your back door
oh yea, and the Floods and the earthquakes where not fun either.

Land is rising FAST in the whole area though as the rest of the country is realizing what a beautifull place it is so if your going go now and buy what you can afford.



Gimpy

 

Hey Matt. I'll have husband help me with that a little later.....I can take the pics and download them, but I don't know how to post them!

Anyway, it is a really nice area.