Portland question

Hey I have a second phone interview with a company in Portland and I have some questions about the area. Wife and I are doing research on the area and we have a few questions: the office is on the north side of Portland, is there any advantage to living in vancouver Washington? I know there is no state income tax but car registration fees look pretty crazy.

I have no desire to live in the city of Portland and would prefer to live on the outskirts, maybe get some acherage, what are some towns I should be looking in? I know traffic sucks, but I live in the greater Chicagoland area and it can't be any worse than here, so I don't mind commuting.

I have a fairly modified truck, is there any weird safety inspections outside of emissions?

Thank you!

 

We've lived in Vancouver since 2001. Pretty nice area. Not as "weird" as Portland. And yes, you really don't want to live in Portland (JMO). Vehicle regs. not bad. DEQ every other year, but I believe that might be going away. Lots of places to wheel in a 1 hour radius. You will still need to pay Oregon income tax, but will get most of it refunded. (long "taxation without representation" fight going on). Pretty much within 2+/- hours of coast, mountains, Seattle. Minutes from pretty decent fishing, Summer & Winter Steelhead (awesome!) Pretty good Salmon fishing. Beautiful Summers, Nice Falls, Winters can be dismal, wet, dark, and long.........Spring is ok, can be pretty wet and cool. By April/May, folks are itching to get outside!! If you like skiing or snowboarding, this is the place. Quite a few Taco's & Runners here.
How far North Portland is the company? Commute can be bad, depending.

 

Thanks for the feedback. It's at ne Sandy Blvd and i-84, so ne side of Portland? It's a regional type job so I still know if I'll have a home office per se.

I view living in Portland like living in chicago, fine place to visit and work, do not want to live there lol.

 

Yeah, Vancouver offers a reprieve from PDX (Portland). East Vancouver would probably be your best bet. Bunch of new homes being build. I-205 to 84 best route. I-5 can get very sticky... No sales tax in Oregon, so you can pop over the bridge(s) for your higher ticket items, and save the 8.4% WA sales tax.
Good Luck!!

 

8.4%, that's it, lol!! We have counties here pushing 10%+ coupled with a 5% income tax and they wonder why everyone wants to leave this Utopia.....

 

I live in Tualatin (the burbs) and drive into Portland for work. 25 minutes in the am but 1hr home in the pm. I would never want to do the Vancouver to Portland work commute. That's gotta be the worst. Sandy or Clackamas would get you outta Portland just enough but you're still in for a commute.
I'm the same as you, I love to work in and for Portland but would never want to live there.

 

It's by location. Seattle itself is 10.1% But yeah, no income tax so that helps. Vancouver is kinda meh in terms of a city. It's really a big surburb that exists solely because of portland's income tax. It's not too bad if you go east of portland, you can find some nice plots of land and their housing costs haven't caught up to WA's just yet.

 

That's a fact! Pretty boring as far as cities go.

 

FIFY, it's coming...

 

Take a look at Happy Valley, that could be a good option.

 

I grew up in Happy Valley/Mt. Scott as a kid before we moved to WA. Still have family there, good place.

 

Ha! Come live in the western burbs of Chicago if you want to see boring!

 

Interstate traffic has been getting progressively worse here; ive been doing thr vancouver to portland drive using the 205 for years, and even changed my shift to try and beat traffic.
If you lived in vancouver, you'd be taking the 84 to the 205, which can take you between 30 minutes to well over an hour depending on which part of vancouver you live.
Unless you work in washington, living in washington state would not give you the state tax exemption . with that said, the benefits of living in vancouver would be;
-relatively more reasonable rent prices
-lower real estate property taxes compared to portland (if you plan on owning a home)
-less tourist congestion

Good luck with your 2nd interview!

 

Note: There's current talk about a possible toll on the bridge(s) between Portland/Vancouver. I've heard some things on NPR about it but haven't paid enough attention to be able to give more details.

 

NE Portland is the worst part of Portland. Dad works on signal poles as an electrician in that area, and he's seen things... I'd give you details, but I'm at work right now and it's not work appropriate.
Get yourself east, young man, where the traffic thins and the area smells less of urine. I-84 is a mess, but Gresham remains livable still. HWY 30 has less traffic, but the Gorge has high winds ALL the time and it gets annoying (at least for me). Vancouver seems attractive at first, but the bridges are hell - if you do that, get a night shift so you can go the opposite direction of traffic.