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My earlier statement about "as close as possible to California" was perhaps garbled. It's a matter of approximation, not duplication.
Suppose that somebody asks, "I want to move to Norway. Where in Norway is the climate closest, to that of coastal California"? Is the question stupid? Depends on interpretation. Everywhere in Norway will have snow. San Diego doesn't have snow. But Bergen, Norway, is a lovely coastal city with comparatively mild climate, warmed by the Gulf Stream ocean-current. So a non-stupid answer to the question would be: "Move to the SW of Norway, especially Bergen. Avoid Oslo, and most certainly avoid the inland mountain regions. And don't even think about Narvik".
The trouble with Oregon, is that income tax is nearly as bad as in California. Might as well pay incrementally more, and stay in California.
We have some vigorous "retire abroad" threads over in the Retirement forum. It's a fine option for the astute and the intelligent. For those of us lacking one (or both) of those attributes, the proposition is a bit fraught. Then there's the old bugaboo about taxes. One has to establish residency somewhere in the US, and thus get taxed based on that residency, correct? So, even if one goes to Chile or Cambodia or Croatia, there's the matter of paying taxes to our home-state, and also, taxation in the country of residence (not to mention federally back in the US). Where's the savings?
I don't know what the taxes, cost-of-living, or residency rules are like,
but Australia could give you California-type weather, without a language problem.
Don't take the bridge. I only cross it about once a month. And I never see traffic because I don't go during rush hour. There is plenty on the Vancouver side.
The Camas and Vancouver area has been growing on me since we moved here in 2016. As time passes I find less and less reason to ever cross the bridge. Especially during peak traffic times. About the only time we ever drive over to Portland is (1) for especially eclectic ethnic cuisine, and (2) specialty shopping that you can't find in Vancouver. Like, for example, sailboat rigging. I recently had to drive over to West Coast Sailing in Portland to find some specific blocks and specialty rigging for my sailboat. My daughter's prom was also in Portland at the Portland Art Museum a couple weekends ago. So I had to drive her over and back. She was just going low-key with another friend to hang out and wasn't doing the full blown prom date thing. Some kid literally brought a tank:
Would have been even better if it was a Sherman and/or if they could drive it but most kids can't even handle stick shift so, that is probably asking a lot!
Well, sadly but (somewhat expected) my plans to relocate there has been shelved for a while.
For the time being, have to go where I am needed by the family.
I am OK since WA and, more so, Portland really needs to clean up and change things around.
The city's current condition looks alarmingly awful!
Would have been even better if it was a Sherman and/or if they could drive it but most kids can't even handle stick shift so, that is probably asking a lot!
Well, sadly but (somewhat expected) my plans to relocate there has been shelved for a while.
For the time being, have to go where I am needed by the family.
I am OK since WA and, more so, Portland really needs to clean up and change things around.
The city's current condition looks alarmingly awful!
I like how the kid was paying about 100-times more attention to the tank than he was his date, who was basically an afterthought in the whole thing! She didn't even get to ride it.
As for the greater Portland area? Don't believe everything you read in conservative media. Yes there are problems and there are gritty parts of the city like there are in every big city in the country. Social media and partisan news tends to amplify that sort of thing to a far greater degree than it used to. I'm frequently out and about in the greater Portland area and life goes on just like it always has and it no different than any other large metro area.
Portland does need to get a grip on the homeless problem and I think the politics are starting to pivot on that issue. But there were vagrants in Portland when I was in college in the early 1980s as well as junkies and crime back then too. The problem today is that it is more out in the open and that is largely a consequence of the housing shortage. 50 years ago junkies could easily find a cheap flop house room and do their shooting up off the sidewalk. Not so today.
The Portland region has at least three major advantages that will always make it more competitive compared to other parts of the country.
1. Pacific Rim location. The axis of economic power in the world is inexorably shifting to the Pacific.
2. Natural resources. Beaches and mountains and open space go a LONG ways
3. Climate refuge. As places like Texas, Florida, and Arizona become increasingly uninhabitable due to heat, sea level rise, and lack of water resources, the Pacific Northwest and upper midwest, great lakes, and northeast Atlantic states will increasingly have climate advantages.
Homelessness is a MUCH more fixable problem than climate driven changes and global economics.
3. Climate refuge. As places like Texas, Florida, and Arizona become increasingly uninhabitable due to heat, sea level rise, and lack of water resources, the Pacific Northwest and upper midwest, great lakes, and northeast Atlantic states will increasingly have climate advantages.
I've wondered about this recently. If enough people continue to not give a crap about climate change, and that particular part of the PNW warms up enough to delete snow from the metro, and if there's a bit less gloom. If it becomes closer to south SF bay area climate, housing prices are going to get way worse, very fast at that point. At the moment, I imagine the climate from Fall through Spring is what keeps more people from overrunning the area completely because it's otherwise amazingly beautiful.
I like how the kid was paying about 100-times more attention to the tank than he was his date, who was basically an afterthought in the whole thing! She didn't even get to ride it.
Hahah, I noticed that too. She was like an accessory.
Quote:
As for the greater Portland area? Don't believe everything you read in conservative media. Yes there are problems and there are gritty parts of the city like there are in every big city in the country. Social media and partisan news tends to amplify that sort of thing to a far greater degree than it used to. I'm frequently out and about in the greater Portland area and life goes on just like it always has and it no different than any other large metro area.
There might be some, and I normally watch/read such news with a grain of salt but there has been just too many to ignore, even on YouTube alone. There are dozens to channels about this. LA has gotten pretty bad too so I know the videos about LA are not an exaggeration. Same goes for San Francisco as well.
It seems most of the metro areas/major cities in the West Coast have been experience this change for the worse in the last 5+ years. I don't want to turn this into a political discussion and I have no affiliation either but I think most anyone is aware which party has been running the shows in those areas. Portland politics, shops in especially downtown area getting broken into, many shops including multiple Walmart locations and an REI store closing down due to slow business and theft...these were all on the news.
You mentioned housing shortage but I wonder if that is so only in certain, desirable parts?
Most of the related news are about high housing prices causing foreclosures and people leaving the city or becoming homeless, etc.
Hahah, I noticed that too. She was like an accessory.
There might be some, and I normally watch/read such news with a grain of salt but there has been just too many to ignore, even on YouTube alone. There are dozens to channels about this. LA has gotten pretty bad too so I know the videos about LA are not an exaggeration. Same goes for San Francisco as well.
It seems most of the metro areas/major cities in the West Coast have been experience this change for the worse in the last 5+ years. I don't want to turn this into a political discussion and I have no affiliation either but I think most anyone is aware which party has been running the shows in those areas. Portland politics, shops in especially downtown area getting broken into, many shops including multiple Walmart locations and an REI store closing down due to slow business and theft...these were all on the news.
You mentioned housing shortage but I wonder if that is so only in certain, desirable parts?
Most of the related news are about high housing prices causing foreclosures and people leaving the city or becoming homeless, etc.
Yeah, don't pay all that much attention to that stuff. There are always stories behind the stories.
The two Wal-Marts within the city limits were in dumb locations but there are still something like 17 wal-marts within the greater Portland metro area. The North Portland location was in a dumb industrial location not near any residential neighborhoods. They were probably expecting traffic from across the bridge in Vancouver but that never materialized because who wants to hassle with bridge traffic for groceries that are not taxed anyway. And the 82 Ave one was always a sketchy area, even when I was in college in the early 1980s. That whole area started to decline when they put in I-205 in the 1970s so it goes back a LONG way. Doesn't surprise me at all that those were low profit locations. Anyone know knows the area could have told them that.
REI was its own worst enemy in some ways, refusing to actually do anything about theft. Their corporate policy is to actually NOT cooperate with local prosecutors to make cases against shoplifters so in a way they are part of the problem. Plus they are in a dispute with the local landord of that building who doesn't want to make upgrades, and there is a unionization drive at that location so people suspect there may be more than what meets the eye. I honestly think they are just playing hardball with the building landlord but who knows. There are still 3 other REI stores in metro Portland if you need your REI fix plus a bazillion better local outdoor stores and bike/ski shops.
If you visit Portland you will find it is just fine aside from the usual sketchy places you probably want to avoid at night. Which have always been there going back decades and decades. And makes Portland no different from any other metro area of 2.5 million anywhere in the country. And Vancouver (since this is a Vancouver forum) is even more ordinary, with mostly middle class suburban sprawl and a few upscale areas scattered about.
Thank you, TXdiver. That put my heart at ease quite a bit.
We are planning on relocating to Phoenix some time in October of this year. If everything works out, A friend and I are planning on visiting one of his old friends who actually live in Vancouver area in the Fall.
I like to see/experience things for myself before judging anyhow. It probably won't be the nicest time of the year but that is OK. A few days should be enough to get a feel for the area (Vancouver).
I was up in Lake Oswego/Tigard area 20 years ago for work. Stayed a week each of the 2 visits a few weeks apart in late April to mid May. I really liked it then.
Thank you, TXdiver. That put my heart at ease quite a bit.
We are planning on relocating to Phoenix some time in October of this year. If everything works out, A friend and I are planning on visiting one of his old friends who actually live in Vancouver area in the Fall.
I like to see/experience things for myself before judging anyhow. It probably won't be the nicest time of the year but that is OK. A few days should be enough to get a feel for the area (Vancouver).
I was up in Lake Oswego/Tigard area 20 years ago for work. Stayed a week each of the 2 visits a few weeks apart in late April to mid May. I really liked it then.
That prom video of the kid arriving by tank was the Camas HS prom (so suburban Vancouver HS) but the prom was being held at the Portland Art Museum which is in the center of downtown Portland. Camas HS had no issues with sending 1000 or so HS students into downtown Portland late on a Saturday night in their own cars for prom. They had the entire street decorated up with hanging lights as the street in front of the art museum is a park plaza. So it was very pretty and half the kids were out hanging out all over. I dropped my daughter and her friend off and picked them back up at 11 pm-ish when it ended.
I let my 17 year old daughter drive back and forth between Camas and West Portland to visit one of her friends who has divorced parents and lives over there on the weekends. The route takes her right through inner-SE and downtown Portland. No big deal. Yes you can sometimes see homeless tents along some of the flat highway median areas. That's about it. There are streets in the old town, skid row area where she should not venture alone, but that has always been the case even back when I was in college in the 1980s. At the moment, violent crime in Portland is probably 1/2 of what it was in the 1990s. But we didn't have social media or fox news back then to endlessly harp on it for political points.
Thanks for the additional info, TXD! Yeah, I can relate to a place having an unfairly bad or exaggerated rep.
When I moved back from AZ back in 2009, I settled in Long Beach due to its close proximity to work.
From what I found, Long Beach was also pretty bad decades earlier (drugs, prostitution, violence, petty crimes) but cleaned up quite a bit years before I moved. Some people would still give me a look when I told him I lived in LB thinking it was much worse than it really was. I am sure much like Phoenix, LA and Portland, Long Beach also had bad patches but overall, not too bad and some of the areas were actually quite nice and vibrant.
I lived in South Orange County prior to moving to AZ and I used to think OC was a nice area. It was nice, clean and safe but it really was not an ideal place for a single young professional which I realized later on.
Long Beach has a much more upbeat urban vibe to it which I think is a more ideal area for a young single pro than OC is.
I am pretty much done with CA, not bitter but as I get closer to retirement age, I feel this is not the best place for someone like me. Traffic, overly populated, crazy housing prices, overall COL...long story short, Cons started to outweigh the few Pros it had (for me).
As I mentioned before, climate-wise PNW is ideal for me but due to family, I had to do a detour and will have to kick it in Phoenix, AZ for a while before giving Vancouver, WA a much waited shot. Not sure how long it will be before I can try out Vancouver, WA but I definitely am planning on paying a short visit there, hopefully before Thanksgiving.
As I mentioned before, climate-wise PNW is ideal for me but due to family, I had to do a detour and will have to kick it in Phoenix, AZ for a while before giving Vancouver, WA a much waited shot. Not sure how long it will be before I can try out Vancouver, WA but I definitely am planning on paying a short visit there, hopefully before Thanksgiving.
Vancouver / Camas is still at the top of our list of places to move. My wife and I have visited a couple of times and loved it. Once in July of last year by ourselves and then a few months later in November with the kids (ages 3 to 9 at the time). Despite the lengthy gloom, we'd still be willing to give it a shot if it was just the two of us (she actually likes that weather) because of how amazing the landscape is. But alas, the kids were absolutely miserable though. Maybe when they get older; but the older they get the harder it is to move them because of school attachments. MtnSurfer really doesn't help the situation with all the beautiful pictures he posts.
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Maybe when they get older; but the older they get the harder it is to move them because of school attachments. MtnSurfer really doesn't help the situation with all the beautiful pictures he posts. 
