My name is Jacob, I'm 38 and I've lived most of my life in the Willamette Valley between Albany and Portland Oregon. The last few years we've been hearing 1000 people per day are moving to Oregon. About 80% of everything in the state happens between Eugene and Portland. My experience is bias to the area where the most people live. Let's start with the Pro's of the valley area
Pro's
- Summers are awesome in Oregon, not too humid, not too hot. Keep in mind we have coast, mountains, desert, valley, and my opinion is based on the valley.
- Lots of rivers, lakes, creeks, ocean, and mountains any direction you go. Within an hour or two you can be in just about any climate you prefer, except the tropics.
- Oregon Seafood is only second to Alaska. We have dungeoness crab, Yellow Fin Tuna, clams, oysters, Salmon, ling-cod, halibut, shrimp.
- The Portland area has a lot of jobs. I happen to be in the tech field and I've never been unemployed.
- If you love 4 wheeling, riding quads, side by sides, we've got some of the coolest dunes and mountains to explore.
- It might be expensive in Oregon, but it's a lot more in California and the Seattle area.
- I think Portland, Bend, and our coast has some of the best food in the country.
- We have some of the best wineries and breweries in the world. Napa can have their red wine. I prefer white. As far as beer goes, it's world class.
- Lots of snow opportunities in the mountains and I prefer to drive to snow, not live with it every day.
Con's
- We love our beaches, but this isn't California. Once you spend some time there you'll realize why not very many people live there. We go there for the food. Occasionally you'll get an awesome day on the coast, cherish that day. Go fishing, crabbing, clamming, it's awesome. It's a good day trip on the rare 100 degree days.
- There is zero economy in our coastal cities. 80% of our jobs are between Eugene and Portland on I-5. So you'll have to take vacation to see the rest of the state.
- You'll love Bend, Oregon but don't buy a house there. It's a boom or bust economy. If the economy hits a snag, house prices will be hit hard. It's a struggle to live there, but a great place if you don't need the local economy to make a living. Personally I think it's way over priced for the number of job opportunities. So it's a better vacation spot.
- May god help you endure the traffic in the Beaverton area. If you get a job in the area, move really close to it. Avoid hwy 26 and 217 all together.
- It rains a lot in Oregon. September-May is our wet season, it's about a 50/50 chance of rain on memorial weekend. The 4th of July is usually safe. Me personally I have to take a trip somewhere warm and sunny in winter between the rain and it getting dark at 5:00pm it's downright miserable. Bend is the cheap sunny getaway. It might be 30 degrees there in winter but it's sunny like 350 days a year. A lot of retired people live in Arizona in winter, Oregon in the summer.
- Summer is too short!!!
- Cost of living isn't cheap, it's not uncommon to spend 400K + on a family size home in the metro areas. It's all relative. If you are from San Francisco Oregon is cheap. If you are from Texas we're expensive.
Basically Oregon is awesome and it's pretty hard to find a better place to call home. I've pointed out some things I've noticed comparing it to other states. To an outsider some of those things might be a deal breaker, but you adjust and figure it out. This is my opinion of what to watch out for, things to enjoy, maybe it will help a new arrival survive their first year here.
In case you were wondering. The picture is from my house in Beaverton on top of Cooper Mountain looking at Mt Hood off my back deck. I see that every day and it's for sale. I just happen to be lucky enough to have a cabin on a river not too far away.