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Thread: Moving to Portland

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    Moderator charlie61's Avatar
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    Smiley Moving to Portland

    My partner and I have decided to take the plunge and move to Portland! I've had my eye on Portland ever since I visited there for business a few years ago. We'll be moving March-April 2015.

    We're trying to figure out how to go about moving there - specifically, how to find a place. To minimize expenses (flying up there for visits gets costly very quickly), we're planning on finding a mediocre apartment remotely, only signing a 1-3 month lease, and then using those 1-3 months to find where we actually want to live. We've been doing a ton of research on neighborhoods (portlandbridges.com has been helpful) and trying to get a sense of apartment availability, but it's really difficult to do that remotely (especially since many available apartments aren't posted online).

    We'd love to live in a unique, microcosmic neighborhood that isn't downtown. It's important that we live somewhere with nearby parks sprinkled with cafes / coffee shops / human activity, as we love being able to walk around and explore during our evening walks. We're looking to spend $900-1200/month for a decent two-bedroom (he works from home). We prefer living in rented house spaces rather than in large apartment complexes.

    Basically I'm looking for any advice you might have. Neighborhoods that you'd recommend, pitfalls to avoid when first moving to Portland, where we definitely shouldn't rent, anything we should know about Portland that you didn't learn until you lived there, if you think we'll struggle to find a nice apartment for our price range, etc. Help meh!!

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    Moderator charlie61's Avatar
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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    I'm going to shamelessly keep bumping this thread until the responses start comin' in.

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    God/dess whirlerz's Avatar
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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    Well, good luck! Are you planning on dancing there?


    MANY MEN WANTED TO LAY ME DOWN, BUT FEW WANTED TO LIFT ME UP

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    I'd recommend arranging a rental on airbnb rather than CL, based on the experiences of people I know who have moved cross country. I actually have a friend in Ptown who rents her 1BR house out on airbnb, I can put you in touch with her if you like.

    I hear that the East side of town is more hipsterish/alternative, while the west side is more yuppie. Things to know in advance: Oregon is one of 2 states in the whole country where gas station attendants pump your gas for you. No sales tax but there is an 8% state income tax.

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    I live in Portland! But I'm in a more ghetto neighborhood because the rent is cheaper at the complex I'm at, lol.

    Not sure if you're going to be dancing here, but when I first moved here I could BELIEVE how many strip joints there are...and lots of topless clubs too, just FYI

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    To clarify...I'm not moving to PDX to dance, but I may dance while I'm there. I live in high-contact-$10-dance-land right now, so honestly, living in a place where dances are $20 and contact tends to be lower sounds like paradise...even if it means leaving with far less money (I know Portland isn't a high-money city).

    We're both just at a bit of a loss when it comes to moving straight from one city to another city across the country. We've done it before, but we had family in the destination city, so we had a month of rent-free time to check the city out and find an apartment. We're trying to minimize expenses, too. We're frugal people, and rent is about $400/month higher in Portland than it is in our current city. We're not looking forward to PDX's high state tax - that won't be pretty on my partner's six-figure income.

    We've looked into airbnb, but that gets expensive quickly depending on the quality of the place...

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    God/dess lynn2009's Avatar
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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    Look into getting a realtor. Wherever you end up renting will pay the realtor fee, you don't have to.
    "There are different kinds of darkness. There is darkness that frightens, the darkness that soothes, the darkness that is restful. There is the darkness of lovers, and the darkness of assassins. It becomes what the bearer wishes it to be, needs it to be. It is not wholly bad or good."
    - The Court of Mist and Fury

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    It does add up when you're doing short-term rentals, but I think it's a better option than hotels-- you'll save tons of money on food, not having to eat out all the time. I would recommend making the investment and going somewhere central so it's easy for you to explore the city on your own and see what areas you like. That was what I did when I moved to London and it was a great way to learn how the city is set up, public transport, and find a place to live.

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    If your husband works from home & you can travel to dance...why not live in Salem or a suburb of Portland?

    My boyfriend is from PDX & he still has relatives there. I can forward questions to those relatives...also city data dot com is a pretty awesome diverse source of info about American cities...

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    Quote Originally Posted by SnuffleUffleGrass View Post
    If your husband works from home & you can travel to dance...why not live in Salem or a suburb of Portland?

    My boyfriend is from PDX & he still has relatives there. I can forward questions to those relatives...also city data dot com is a pretty awesome diverse source of info about American cities...
    Is there a suburb you'd recommend? Is there a specific reason you recommended Salem? We definitely want to get the "Portland experience" since we're moving all the way across the country to be within reasonable distance of the city. I've lived in the Midwest for most of my life and don't want to move somewhere that feels like it could be just anywhere. Salem looks more affordable than Portland, for sure, but it also looks fairly generic, as far as cities go..

    I'm not sure I'll be dancing since I'm still very wary of the industry after burning out hard a few years ago. If I were to dance, I can't imagine making the one-hour commute from Salem into PDX to only make $100-200/night (which seems to be the normal earnings range there).

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    How about Vancouver WA? It's just over the river so still close to PDX, and there's no state income tax in WA.

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    Quote Originally Posted by lurkingtitties View Post
    How about Vancouver WA? It's just over the river so still close to PDX, and there's no state income tax in WA.
    That's what we were looking into doing at first, but the city of Vancouver looks pretty...underwhelming. Obviously the no-income-tax thing is extremely tempting; however, I read a lot about how "white trash" it is, and streetviews make it look like it's basically a Midwest transplant. I've read that the commute into Portland is pretty intense, too, and I'd be going into the city for school regularly. One of our fears is that we'll move to Portland and be too far away from the city to actually experience it / benefit from it.

    We go on walks every day, so the area immediately around us is fairly important: parks, little cafes, etc. We really want to live in an area where we can have fun exploring, jump on the lightrail to see downtown Portland, etc.

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    I'd be willing to reconsider Vancouver. I just don't know much about it, and it looked very bland on streetview...

    But it would save us ~$6,000+ in taxes every year! Fuck, I just don't know. >_<

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    My boyfriend suggested Gresham or Sandy. There are also little resort towns on the coast that might be affordable due to not much going on there.....

    I personally like Salem a whole lot and one of my high school acquaintances lives there...

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    Quote Originally Posted by SnuffleUffleGrass View Post
    My boyfriend suggested Gresham or Sandy. There are also little resort towns on the coast that might be affordable due to not much going on there.....

    I personally like Salem a whole lot and one of my high school acquaintances lives there...
    I'd love to hear more about Salem! I do need to be in an area that has a community college, as I'm working towards applying to grad school, so smaller coastal towns are probably ruled out.

    We're partly operating under the theory that if we don't live close to downtown Portland, then we may as well live in WA (e.g. Vancouver, which is a quick drive from the city) and avoid the 8-9% OR tax.

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    I work in Salem and if you are pretty and a good hustler you can leave with much more than $1-200.

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    Quote Originally Posted by Taylor_luvv View Post
    I work in Salem and if you are pretty and a good hustler you can leave with much more than $1-200.
    That's very good to know - perhaps I could commute from Portland to Salem if I get back into dancing.

    Dancing is definitely not the primary motive for moving, so I wouldn't want to decide on a city simply based on earning potential...

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    There is a community college in Gresham (Mount Hood College) & another one called Clackamas.

    Re- dancing- you can commute to Montana to work at a few of the clubs in Western Montana- they are good during the summer.

    edit to add- or take trips to Alaska in the summer, better returns at the big clubs

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    I'm surprised there aren't more people piping up in this thread...I thought we had lots of ladies in PDX on SW!


    Right now we're back to seriously considering Vancouver. The $9k+ tax break is just too significant to ignore...

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    ^ Isn't rent in Washington state ridiculously inexpensive as well?

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    Quote Originally Posted by MyButter View Post
    ^ Isn't rent in Washington state ridiculously inexpensive as well?
    It's similar to neighborhoods in the Portland area, though slightly less expensive. In Vancouver, a 2-bedroom is ~$1k/month. We were looking in SE Portland, where rent was about $1200/month.

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    Vancouver is a great option. I'm sure your income will allow for one or two vehicles...you can always drive to PDX or Seattle if you wish to experience the cities.

    BTW I hope no Portland people take this the wrong way but that city strikes me as so grimy....I feel the same way about a lot of Seattle too. PDX is full of neat things but it's just as nice to live nearby and have a quiet life, & get the city life in small doses.

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    I live in Portland. It's not worth living in Vancouver or any other suburb, in my opinion, if you want the "Portland Experience" of walkable neighborhoods. Check out North Portland and St. Johns for the cheapest rent you're going to find these days. Be aware that most landlords require first month, last month, and security deposit, plus a pet deposit IF you can find one that takes pets. Places go FAST too, like same-day. I'm trying to find something myself and it's hard.

    SE Portland is probably the second most difficult place in the entire country to rent an affordable house or apartment, because everyone wants to live here. Just saying...be prepared for a long search.
    Last edited by space_cowgirl; 10-05-2014 at 09:11 PM. Reason: added

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    I lived in PDX about 10 years ago and my best friend still lives in Milwaukie. My old hood was the Clinton Street district. Ghetto fabulous ( meaning it's the kind of ghetto where people are poor and quirky, rather than dangerous,) and the rent was more than reasonable for the dump we rented. It was also very walkable, as it was close to Hawthorne and some other cool areas. Not sure how much this has changed in 10 years, but it was cool as hell.

    I know dancers from Seattle would head down to PDX on weekends, because it was a lot easier to make money because they didn't have to deal with all of the ridiculous regulations. I stayed down there for about a week, trying to escape Seattle and almost worked at a topless club downtown. I think it was Spyce. Seemed nice and the manager who hired me was cool but never danced a shift there or met any of the girls.

    My best friend still lives there and might have some ideas for you if you'd like me to ask.

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    Default Re: Moving to Portland

    Quote Originally Posted by charlie61 View Post
    I'd love to hear more about Salem! I do need to be in an area that has a community college, as I'm working towards applying to grad school, so smaller coastal towns are probably ruled out.

    We're partly operating under the theory that if we don't live close to downtown Portland, then we may as well live in WA (e.g. Vancouver, which is a quick drive from the city) and avoid the 8-9% OR tax.
    OR has no sales tax. They do have state tax, but everything you buy is tax-free.

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