[J.James]

Hey all,

I'm considering relocating. If you could move to Montana, Washington, Oregon, or Florida and work wasn't an issue, where would you prefer to live and why?

Consider I'm single, in my 30s, and I have a 6 year old full time so good schools are important. Housing would be no higher than say $350k if I were to buy.

Thanks

 

[Back Eddy]

Oregon

Quality of Life and opportunities

 

[Yeti]

I have lived and worked in Montana, Florida and Oregon.

Florida: The work I did there was very rewarding. I met some nice people and eat some great Cuban food. BUT, the lifestyle was so crappy it was painful. You go from AC to AC to avoid the heat June through Sept. At the time I was there the bigotry was rampant. My wife was born and raised in Miami. When we decided to move to Oregon we couldn't get out of FL fast enough. Her car broke down in Gainesville and we towed it to Mobile just to get out of the state. You could not pay me enough to live there again.

Montana: I was born there. I love it there. I would love to live there April-October. I am not a fan of the winters up there.

Oregon: Probably the best balance of culture, outdoor activities and quality of lifestyle. It is a great place to raise my kids. I love it here and likely will not move again. That is if they quit writing completely idiotic laws here. If they do I may look into Idaho just to escape the idiots.

Washington: I have very little knowledge other than the normal inter web drivel we all read. I have been to Seattle 6 times and have never been rained on. I think it is all a hoax to keep people away!

 

[J.James]

Great insights!

Can you elaborate more on Oregon as far as the drawbacks? How is the water supply? Is the weather often grey/gloomy? Property taxes high or low? Are the rivers healthy or sustainable?

Mind you, I've lived on Hilton Head Is,and, Savannah GA, Austin TX, Boston, Asheville NC, and Vermont. What you said about bigotry down south hit home, I had the same experience.

I'd like this to be my last move. Or I could stay here and just travel a lot but there are some significant things that are motivating my desire to move

Thank you for sharing

 

[ifsteve]

I am from MT originally and still have lots of family there. As already stated its an awesome place to live spring thru fall. Winter sucks unless you are big into skiing or snowmachininng.

Lived in Portland for one year. I think I saw the sun once or twice. Great city. GREAT city. But I would NEVER live there again in a 100 years. Just couldn't stand the continually dreary gray skies. If I was to live in Oregon I think I would look hard at Bend. Its pretty yuppie but its pretty and lots of fishing around and not far from the coast. The other issue with OR is it is very left and swinging more and more that way. I hate the law that I can't pump my own gas. Nothing but a jobs program.

FL has LOTS of places to live that are not near as bad as say south FL. I would live in FL in a heartbeat and in fact am spending next week there chasing tarpon. I think the area from Pensacola to Placida is very nice. Super fishing, nice clean water and beaches, and if you want a "big city" you can live in Tallahassee. But be forewarned if you live there you better be a Noles fan.....lol.

The bottom line is that there isn't just one perfect place at least as far as I can tell. I think a guy needs two homes. One in the west so you can trout fish and hunt spring - fall. And one in the south where you can fish and hunt fall thru winter.

Good luck!

 

[aaron s.]

If they do I may look into Idaho just to escape the idiots.

Plenty of Idiots here too

350 would go a long ways most places in MT, you can have incredible trout fishing, winter sports and still be a reasonable drive to the Salmon for fall fishing.

Southern Oregon or Bend wouldn't be bad spots either.

WA leaves a lot to be desired IMO.

 

[underachiever]

I don't have any children so I can't offer first hand experience, but it seems Oregon schools don't generally rank well nationally.

This year being a recent exception, water here (especially NW oregon) is usually not a problem for our rivers. That comes at the cost of a lot grey winters and springs. This years winter and spring was quite nice weather wise and subsequently our rivers are already below September levels. Are the rivers healthy and sustainable... some are better than others for sure and as far as steelhead are concerned they're probably doing as well or better than Cali and Washington. For trout, I think it's pretty clear that none of the states are as good as Montana.

No place is perfect, there are "idiots" everywhere. If I was a father I'd just look long and hard at the respective school systems as the deciding factor.

 

[coug]

I suggest avoiding the OR vs ID vs WA vs MT comparison. I have lived in WWA, EWA, E OR, N ID, and W MT and the biggest differences are between coastal and inland. I did not notice a whole lot of difference between living in different parts of the the "inland empire" of the northern Rockies of E WA, N ID, and W MT (and E OR). The people all seemed to be cut from the same cloth so to speak. But I also spent 7 years along the I-5 corridor in W. WA and could not wait to get out. Too many people and too crowded in my favorite spots.

 

[Matthew LeBret]

If I could go back in time and do it all over again I would have picked Kansas.. Ahh think of all the money I would have saved

 

[Alchemist]

Schools should be your driver...

Look for communities with good schools for your kid. Sadly, you'd have to spend way more than $350K to buy a home in a good school district in WA. Same for Oregon these days.

I have lived all over the US and the world and there is no place I'd rather be than the Pacific Northwest - Western Oregon and Washington in particular. I ended up putting my daughter in private schools and paying tuition each year for her to get an education equivalent to what I got for free in the public schools in the 70's here in WA. I live between Seattle and Tacoma.

GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community is a good resource on finding good schools in areas in which you want to live.

Mark

 

[Yeti]

Great insights!

Can you elaborate more on Oregon as far as the drawbacks? How is the water supply? Is the weather often grey/gloomy? Property taxes high or low? Are the rivers healthy or sustainable?

Mind you, I've lived on Hilton Head Is,and, Savannah GA, Austin TX, Boston, Asheville NC, and Vermont. What you said about bigotry down south hit home, I had the same experience.

I'd like this to be my last move. Or I could stay here and just travel a lot but there are some significant things that are motivating my desire to move

Thank you for sharing

The last two years water has been an issue. There is still plenty of water to support the local fisheries but I quit watering my lawns. Where we live weather is more like Santa Barbara than Portland. We get 18" rain/year and snow is rare. My house is at 2,000' and snow level averages @3,500'. Schools in Ashland are excellent and the private schools, st Mary's and sacred heart in Medford, are excellent. Outside of those the schools are what your kids make of them. My daughter is in special ed in Ashland and my son is at Sacred Heart in Medford. I could not ask for better schools for my children. We have a community of outstanding families and friends. We camp almost every weekend usually with 1-5 other families.

The craziness comes from Salem. The laws being passed are mind boggling. Two recent ones: Outlawing ivory to prevent funding of the [email protected]& Including fossilized ivory!? Another short sited law forced municipalities to use biofuel in all diesel equipment. Works fine, if you live in the Salem/Portland corridor where temps rarely get below freezing. Unfortunately, everywhere East of the cascades freezes. School busses in Eastern Oregon often could not make their runs because the biodiesel jells at those temps. Great law!

Remember, there are 4 million people in Oregon, 3 million of which live between Salem and Portland. What they choose to pass as law is shoved down the throats of the rest of Oregonians... Jmho...

I still love it here!

 

[Stumpy]

I like it here in the Beaver state (not the Duck state!). We've lived in a variety of places west of the Mississippi since jungle-time, and enjoy being in the southeast corner of the state. We've averaged 8" precip (40 yr mean)per year, but the past couple have been pretty dry. It used to be, my neighbor says, we have four months of winter and eight months of piss-poor sledding.

You'll likely get along great here as long as you got along well the last place you lived.

Fishing is great; steelhead are at least 2.5 hours away, but well worth it.