had it with my state
 

born and raised in california and have had enough. looking to get up to washington or oregon. what city's might you recommend?

i have an employment application from klamath falls, that way i could still be close enough to dump on california.

you northern guys what towns are growing fast up there? i am in the construction field

You want to see something amazing, I was at the elpasotimes.com website checking out where I'm going tomorrow and they have a tax calculator for property taxes. I put in $250,000 just for an example, and the friggin property taxes were about $7,800. BTW, in El Paso, that gets you a new two story 4 bedroom 2-1/2 bath tract house. About half of soCal prices for an "average" home. you'd pay about the same taxes on a $500k home here 1.25%. You ever been to El Paso?, right across from Juarez, Mexico!!

Newsnight with Aaron Brown has been in the PNW this week. Last night, their broadcast was from Portland, OR. Supposedly, Portland is the new-new place to relocate as it's not as developed as Seattle. It's supposed to be brimming over with under 35-year-olds. Oh, and intensely liberal, if that matters.

Eugene, OR.

Great food, college town, a 15 minute commute means you live out on a farm, perfect weather 5 outta 12 months. I'll have a summer cottage on a healthy plot of land up there one day.

P-town is also a very wise choice.

Eugene and Portland are excellent picks. Eugene is "wildly" liberal, where as Portland is only "predominantly" liberal, if that makes sense.

Portland is great if you like an urban city that isn't very congested. I really like it there. Great food. Great beer. Housing is much cheaper then in California. My brother lives in the city, and he loves it after growing up in so cal. If you want something more rural you should look into Bend. It's near Mt. Bachelor, a great ski resort, and is still not that big a town. It is growing like crazy though so I'm sure anyone in construction will do well. Bend was rated in the top ten cities places to live five or so years ago by someone or another. It's also on the eastern edge of the Cascades so there is much less rain then the more coastal areas. The main thing I don't like about Portland and Seattle is how many rainy days you get. Bend doesn't have that problem.

I stick down here in so Cal mostly due to family (mine and my wife's). Otherwise I'd move too.

Same home in most parts of OH, taxes would be about $3000. Cost of living in much lower as well.

hugh, i would kill to be in el paso to show you around the town that i grew up in. houses are huge, beautiful and cheap. but you better friggen love it, because you are going to spend alot of damn time in it. nothing to do there. hot, dusty, poor. it was a blast growing up there, IF you had a 4x4 and dirtbike. the ladies are smokin hot. LOTS of "chickas fresca" there, (strawberry girls, i have no idea why they are called that) they are the ladies that end up there coming up from mexico. SMOKIN HOT! but they are jealous as hell, and materialistic to the eyeballs. be ready to pay for the dating forever. but no where will you find better mexican food. what hotel are you staying at? if it is near downtown, head toward the university. you will find, "kingsX" a bar that serves the best damn tacos on the planet. be careful in juarez.

now back to the pacific northwest, i also want to move. spent time in portland while my sister was at lewis and clark. decent town. i am thinking seattle. rolling my equity up there my get me some decent digs.

sell me your house Toby?
how about a trade?
I have a fiberglass hood, some 16x7 Fuchs....

From California to the NW? Wow...what a move! Jumping from the fying pan into the fire...

Hugh,

What's the state income tax in Texas? Oh, I forgot, we don't have one.... If the cost of living weren't so expensive in CA, I'd be back in a sec.

Sorry PWD moving from CA to Las Vegas is jumping from the fire into He11.....

Property values jumped 52.4%* in LV in the past year...the median priced home is now 280K.....and it's still moving up...

I bought this house 16 months ago for $94 a sq ft, now the houses in my development go for $182 sq ft to $195 sq ft....









* Biggest jump in the nation

Since I slept through all my social studies classes (being an artsy-fartsy designer and all...), could you elaborate on this? Julie and I are headed out for an Oregon vacation (tomorrow, in fact!) with overtones of "checking out the area" for a possible relocation. We hate Cincinnasti.

For the record, we have friends who just up and moved to Portland (from the Cinci, OH area) and just love it. They're trying to "lure" us out. From what we've learned so far, it probably won't take much!

SmileWavy

Actually, El Paso is quite nice these days. As far as Taxes are concerned, I just moved to Houston. I'm paying about $10K/yr in local property taxes. In San Diego, I paid about $4500. Assessed values were about the same. This delta is more than offset by the removal of state income tax. If I add in my wife's, it's even better.

I'm in one of the best Neighborhoods in Houston and 3400 sq feet vs 1400 for 1/2 of what I sold my townhouse. I'm in a gated community, so I won't have to worry about some jack-off smearing Dog-poop on my 911.

Where I am in NC- 3000 sq ft, 1.25 acres- $150k, taxes- $1200/year (yes, that's the right number of zeros). But the downside for you left coasters, we're highly conservative, own guns, and are mainly Republicans. Then again, you could always live in a liberal haven like SF, but don't whine about taxes.

Doug, I'm not sure how I can add to that, particularly since it's just a coarse observation. But Eugene is smaller, home of a liberal university, and packed with Birkenstock-wearing, bearded, Utilikilted guys and ladies whose beauty does not come from a jar. Portland on the other hand, probably also has the same hippie contingent, but they are buried within a metropolitan crowd. Doctors, lawyers, etc. Both places are fairly liberal, but Eugene is smaller and more concentrated, whereas Portland is larger and more metropolitan. Good luck, both are great choices. Our quality of life out here is tremendous, particularly if you like playing outside, coffee, beer or literature.

Sounds like heaven, where do I sign?

I'm not so sure that the cost of living & property values in Seattle are going to be much cheaper than Cali, I know the traffic & conjestion are about the same. I love Tacoma, $250k will buy you a nice home & for the most part the traffic isn't real bad. Seems there is plenty of construction going on, including a new bridge.
http://www.tacomanarrowsbridgebusiness.com/pages/4/index.htm

$250k will get you a really nice spread up here with no earthquakes or volcanos to deal with, just the odd hurricane every few years that make it this far inland.

A picture taken from my wife's grandfather's backyard on San Juan Island. Not much in the way of construction and it's expensive but very nice. . .


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