Wanting to move to the PNW, looking for advice/recommendations

[noE30]

So basically I'm looking to move out of the Midwest and the PNW is my prime candidate location wise. What I'm wondering is where specifically should I look to live based on your guys experience actually living in the area. Where are jobs available, decently priced housing, booming cities/towns etc.
Some background on myself, 22 years old, currently working as an assistant manager of a Sherwin Williams store (hoping to just transfer locations), love being outside, hate the weather of the Midwest (below zero winters and humid summers), 2year college degree in liberal arts lol. I don't necessarily want to live in a large city like Seattle or Portland, I'm perfectly fine with living hours away from any large cities. My home town is exactly 2hours from Minneapolis, Mn and Des Moines, Ia.

Fyi this move will hopefully be sometime in the next 12 months. And yes the e30 is coming with!

Thanks for any input or advice you guys might have for me.

[Earendil]

I'm not going to detail out the entire NW, but here are some "guidelines".

Both Oregon and Washington are split north to south down the middle by the cascades, causing the east sides to be dessert like. The City of Spokane for example sees 100 degree summers, pops down into the teens frequently during the winter, and has nothing but sun the entire time. Contrast that with the west side, where your typical temperate coastal weather exists.

Seattle is a big city, Portland is a small city, Spokane is a big city but smashed and spread across 100 square miles, every other "city" is rarely admired for anything that cities are admired for. Small towns are aplenty, but be careful you aren't really out the boondocks, especially if the location gets extreme winter weather. Mountains mean that locations are often times further away as the crow flies. This sometime surprises the flat landers.

If you want to hang out with a crap ton of E30 guys, choose Portland or Seattle. If you want to hang out with cool E30 guys, move to Seattle (I just moved there, they make me say that).

Everything I just said is anecdotal, and not sourced from anything but crappy memory.

Source: grew up in White Salmon, Wa pop 3000. Went to school for 5 years in Spokane WA, just moved to Seattle Month ago.

Oh yeah, Bellingham is pretty cool, if not a little fuked up on weed ;-)

[ZoomZoomBoom]

I mostly agree with you except that Portland is not a small city. It's much bigger than Spokane but not as big as Seattle. There's 2.2M people in the Portland metro area.

I'll give the OP tips about Oregon. Generally speaking western Oregon is a little drier and warmer than western Washington (still mild and wet). Eastern/central Oregon is similar to eastern/central Washington. Portland obviously has the largest car scene in Oregon and has a road course and drag strip in the city limits (Portland International Raceway), as well as a real nice drag strip at Woodburn about 45 minutes south, and a fun road course an hour and a half or so east at Oregon Raceway Park. There are also a lot of good performance shops in the Portland area for all makes and models, including a lot of aftermarket manufacturers. As far as other places in Oregon that would be decent to live, I like Hood River (45 minutes east of Portland), Bend/Redmond (2.5 hours southeast of Portland), Corvallis (1.5 hours south of Portland).

[djjerme]

Don't move here.

The grass is never greener on the other side.

We have our own weather issues, and if you grew up in the midwest and are complaining about the weather, then it won't be long before you complain about the weather here.

Valid reason to move to the PNW:

-You like good food not available in the midwest.
-relatives that live here
-business reasons

Other then that, there is not much difference to be found from Minnisota vs the PNW (My wife's family lives in and around the twin cities..)

If I have not convinced you to just enjoy where you are, then here's something to consider when you move here:

Portland is market #23 and Seattle is market #13. That is based on the 12+ population (Spokane is #93..) So that tells you where the population is. Portland is a smaller city than Seattle, but is also a hair lower Cost of Living.

Both cities are expensive to live in.. A Lot more expensive then you will be used to. If you want to live cheaply, then shoot for TriCities (Spokane) or Eugene area. The PNW is very isolationist up here, we travel between cities in the PNW, but everywhere else is considered outside our area.

There is a great car culture up here, but there is also a very large Anti-car movement in both population centers. For Portland, it's all about Bicyclist riders rights, and car's rank behind the homeless in most liberals eyes. Seattle can have similar issues. You should check out some of the threads in this sub forum.

[ZoomZoomBoom]

You can avoid the social liberal hipster fixie bicycle bullshit by not living in the trendy inner city areas at least. The western parts of Oregon/Washington doesn't have the snow that the midwest has.

[AirplaneBuilder]

I live in Edmonds which is about 25 minutes north of Seattle and I like it a lot. I lived in the northern Seattle area for 17 years now and cant complain. Bothell, lynnwood, mill creek, kirkland.... All nice small cities with little crime and all within 20-30 minutes of seattle or bellevue (our bigger nicer cities) there is several sherwin Williams stores in the area as well! If you don't mind lots of rain then you will like it here, lots of nice lakes and mountains near by, several good snowboarding/skiing resorts too. And lots of car enthusiasts!

[Wschnitz]

I moved here two years ago. Totally worth it, much much better then the midwest. (i lived in wisconsin)

[Earendil]

Valid reason to move to the PNW:

-You like good food not available in the midwest.
-relatives that live here
-business reasons

Other then that, there is not much difference to be found from Minnisota vs the PNW (My wife's family lives in and around the twin cities..)

And Beer. Beer beer beer! According too the ever accurate Wikipedia, Portland has more microbreweries than any other city in the world. Seattle has to be close to runner up, at least if my neighborhood is at all representative.

[ZoomZoomBoom]

And if weed is your thing, it's legal now in Washington and decriminalized in Oregon, for personal use of course.

[bkslaughterhouse]

I live in Issaquah and work in Seattle as a painter/apartment maintenence on several buildings, there's a bunch of Sherwin Williams you could transfer to. Also there are endless amounts of Boeing positions to be hired in with no experience. I'm thinking about trying to work there in a few months. ^^^ and the weed is great out here

[ClausE30]

currently working as an assistant manager of a Sherwin Williams store (hoping to just transfer locations)

Move to the north seattle area, I'm always stopping by a Sherwin Williams for my job

[AustinK425]

^ expect we pick up from rodda now!
IMO Seattle is pretty small city but yeah I recommend moving to the north Seattle area as well.

[dball4]

Look at Hillsboro in Oregon. Cost of living isn't terrible, and you are close to Portland but far enough away that it will feel somewhat "small" which is what you are looking for it seems. Growing industry in tech there but not sure how your liberal arts degree would help. I lived in Hillsboro for 16 years. Population around 90k and I believe it to be growing steadily.

[dashboardmonkey]

Do you like rain?

Eugene is ok, it is a big small town. Weather is relatively mild, but it rains 9 months out of the year.

[noE30]

Thanks for the input so far guys.

I guess its not totally the weather that i hate in the Midwest, its more than that really. I've always been one to say that i would move away some day, everyone i know hates it here including my family, its just easier to stay and deal with it as most would say. I am definitely ready for a change in scenery. I should state that i would be looking at the western side of the states, rain doesn't bother me either. Chances are that i will be moving out there with a friend of mine, he's kinda a hipster but neither of us could really afford to live in the cities so i don't think that will be an issue haha.

I really wanna try make a trip to the e30 picnic this year to get a first hand experience of the area. Fingers crossed, gotta start planning.