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. . .


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1096562020.jpg

It is true that Seattle has a terrible and worsening transportation infrastructure. Joe Taxpayer in Washington State has swallowed, hook line and sinker, the fantasy that they should be getting tax cuts at the same time as government services are increased. So, it's going to get much worse before it gets better. And it's not very fun now. Some days I spend, no kidding, fifty miles in first gear with my foot on the clutch. If I don't get out of here until mid-afternoon on Friday, it's probably going to take me three hours to get home. That's about seventy miles.

But yeah, the PNW is a bit like Heaven, and I can confidently recommend Portland or Eugene. There are many many happy people in both those cities. But Eugene is quite small comparatively. You cannot buy a bad cup of Jo here, and you have to look hard for a weak beer. And more liberal free rags than you can shake a stick at. Five national parks, many national forests, volcanos, thousands of fresh water lakes and streams, thousands of miles of hiking trails including the revered Pacific Crest Trail and many many many others, hundreds of miles of rugged coastline, much of which is totally undeveloped and inaccessible except by foot (Olympic National Park coastal trail), the nation's busiest seafood port (there's a lot of critters in our waters and especially North near Alaska), the finest oysters on the planet by far and away (Hood Canal).....the list goes on. PM me for a beer meeting and discussion, if you wish.

I recently bailed on Seattle as I could not stomach the ridiculous housing prices(*), traffic congestion and general urban density. I now live in Bellingham, a place much like Eugene. Small college town an hour to Seattle or Vancouver, lots of hippies, brew pubs, coffee houses, mt biking trails, mountains and water. Jobs are hard to come by but it worked out for me. Got a four bedroom, two garage, half acre house in the woods and a 15 minute commute for $300K.

While I cannot recommend Seattle, I would Portland.

(*) Bought a house in a decent 'hood for $230K in 1998 and sold it this year for $400K

Thanks Superman (how many times have we heard that phrase?!?). To be honest, I'm not really political, so when people ask me if I'm liberal or conservative...I'm never sure what to say. And I'm never just one way on everything. Although it sounds like this is my kind of crowd.

Being a designer, I think if I want to continue a successful career, I need to stay around more of a metropolitan area. As much as we're more smaller town people, it's harder for me to find a good job in smaller areas. We've heard a lot of the same things about Seattle (traffic, escelating costs, etc.) so that's why we're focusing on Portland. We can't wait to get out there and see!

SmileWavy

I need to remember this if people chastize me for trading my Boxster in on a C4 TIPTRONIC. ...because that might happen. (But only if I still have an early 911!)

Last I heard the fastest growing area in WA is the tri-cities area. Richland, Kennewick, and Pasco. lots of oppourtunity spurred by the 20+ year projected clean up of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

the Tri-cities is the only metropolitian area in the northwest with a cost of living below the national average acording to the ACCRA cost of living index.

average new home price is about $150K and there is lots of inventory. new developments are filling up every day and they sell about as fast as they go up.

I'm considering moving my office there.

PWS, i had hoped for more from you on this topic....

matt, would probally have to rent my house out for a few months after a move until i could find a place and sell. i am currently (not this moment but) at home with a map open hitting city web sites looking for employment oppertunities. as i said klamath falls has a job opening but it pays about 2/3 of what im making now. i do have nearly 300k equity in my house so cashing out will give me a nice start for a home purchase, and a low payment. that would have to be the key if i was to take a cut in pay as described above. the fact that i have no wife and kids it would allow for a place with some property and a junk house that i could rehab. i will need to be near a major city for employment but commuting is no issue.

the only down side is at 3500 a month and the cost of living just slightly less as described i would still have to pay the same for porsche parts. is there a cost decrease wayane offers for out of state purchases?

thanks for the input by the locals by the way. and the el paso thing?? cliff you know me well enough to know my act would not work in texas....

http://bluebook.state.or.us/local/cities/bycounty.htm

No sales taxes on parts from CA. That will save you 8.25%

Yeah, but I bet I can't get overnight shipping for UPS ground prices...

[QUOTE]Originally posted by k911sc
[B]PWS, i had hoped for more from you on this topic....

Turn your California clock back a few years, and you pretty much have Oregon & Washington, politically and economically...Portland currently has 2 candidates for Mayor, since the incumbent has announced she'll not be running again. The campaign seems to be each candidate trying to outliberal the other. So, plan on taxes and regulation going up. Avoid Multnomah county..it has an additional income tax over and above the punative 9% State income tax. As much as Eugene pretends to be a city, the Portland area is Oregon's only city of real size. I avoid going to either area as much as possible...but hey, I'm a country boy conservative. You may be a liberal government worker.
The job picture in Oregon seems to be improving, but not as well as in Washington. This because of Oregon's unfriendly biz climate. If I'm not mistaken, Oregon is still among the top 5 in UNemployment rankings. On the plus side, your $300K equity could buy a nice home in parts of Oregon. Oh, and it does rain a lot up here...that part is true.
A legal brush burning day here...and I have a LOT of trimmings to burn...bring your hot dogs & buns! ;) outahere!


SmileWavy

can anybody tell me about the klamath falls area? i hear white trash (not that it is a bad thing), and the climate can be compared to northern central (redding/red bluff) california.

i have to this point concentrated my search/feelers to oregon. i think thats the speed of life i am looking to have. when i think washington i think starbuck and curt kobain.... i am looking for a place that i can find employment and live out where i can not see street lights at night, where the end of my driveway is a 911 type road, and i can kill my dinner.

and have a burn pile once or twice a winter, sitting around a burn pile is like being on vacation at my folks' rural cabin. forget the hot dogs, im thinking a flask of some ten-high whiskey, for warming purposes only.. i know that logic seems flawed being there is a fire burning but you gotta keep the innards all warm too.

thanks for the climate insite pws, politically and weather wise.

Actually alcohol lowers your body temperature.... ;) (Doesn't stop the flask from being tucked away at the slopes though..lol)

BTW, I find this thread very interesting as I knew just about zero about these two states.

K-falls used to be (literally) cowboys and indians...but I haven't been there for decades, so things have probably changed. Still, a booming metropolis, it ain't. If you're into boating...Klamath lake is just North of town...fishing, water skiing, sailing, whatever floats your boat. K-falls climate? "High desert"...hot & dusty summers, cold winters...like below freezing, with snow cold winters.

Your absolutely right about the state income taxes. I also know that your schools in the poorer counties absolutely suck, but they certainly can't be worse that the Los Angeles Unified School District (my kids don't attend there, were in another school district). Your right, for what I pay in taxes, I don't get much. On the other hand, I have the priviledge of paying to put someone else's kids through school, who can't afford to pay to feed, clothe and educate their own progeny. Hmmm? any major motion picture and television studios in Texas where I can get a job doing what I do now?

Neilk:

I was down in El Paso yesterday and today, boy, what a 3rd world country that is!!! I walked over to Juarez, MX and that's a REAL 3rd world country!!! I decided I should get out of Dodge (Juarez) before the sun went down. There's something like 750,000 people in El Paso, and 2.5 million in Juarez just a few blocks over the border. Not my cup of tea, or beer or whatever