I live south of Portland and I think I live in one of the best areas in the world. My boyfriend took this photo of me yesterday, we went riding after work. It took less than 10 minutes to get to the base of these trails. We're 45 minutes from the ocean and 1 hour from snow covered mountains. Obviously an active lifestyle is one of my highest priorities and I have to say I'm one happy chick.



I'm not a city person so I can't tell you a lot about Portland but I can't say enough good things about the quality of life in Oregon.

i lived there 87-91.
liked it at first, then got bored... in some ways, it's not quite a city. hard to explain.

lots of nice people, great bike lanes, very active people, though.

oh... do you like it when it drizzles? or when it's overcast with a light rain?

I'm not a city guy, but I live just SW of Portland (Sherwood). It's a great area, everything you want from a larger city without being too big.

If you like Beer, Coffee or Wine you'll be in heaven. I'm about 15 miles outside of the city, and I bet there are 12 or more wineries within 30 minutes of my house.

It doesn't rain as much as everyone seems to think. Yes the fall/winter has a lot of overcast days with many days of drizzle, but June-August doesn't get much rain at all and averages around 80degrees. Very mild year round, you can exercise outside almost all year (if you don't mind getting damp in winter). It snows once or twice a year, but rarely more than an inch or two. In fact, quite nice today, I'm wearing shorts & Tevas and am loving it. If you ever get tired of the rain, drive over the mountains to Bend or someplace. It's colder and more snow in the winter, but 300+ days of sunshine per year and even more outdoor stuff.

Bicycling magazine just said Portland is the best overall cycling city. Road cycling, mountain biking, etc. you can have it all. Cyclocross is huge here. Lots of tris, bike races, running races, etc. in the region.

If you like the outdoors, you are close to everything. From Portland you can be on the beach or at a ski resort within 60-90 minutes. Columbia Gorge is close-by and is a huge windsurfing destination. Great camping, hiking, climbing, fishing, etc. all can be had pretty close-by.

If you travel a lot, the airport is easy to get to and through I fly every week and I generally go from the parking garage to my gate in less than 10 minutes.

You're less than 3 hour drive to Seattle.

Real Estate: Has gone out of control. My modest home has appreciated by six figures in less than two years. I believe salaries tend to be lower here compared to the cost of housing, etc. Luckily I am a remote employee for an East Coast company so it works well for me but I think it's hard for many people moving into the area unless you're willing to (or want) to live well out of the urban area where it's more affordable.

Overall people are pretty friendly although Oregonians can be hostile to Californians, so if you're moving from CA don't advertise that fact right away :-)

I was born and raised here. My parents were born and raised here. My mother's parents were born and raised here. We are true webfoots. Yes it does rain in Portland. You don't get massive forests w/o some precip. However, a few important things about the climate. It rarely gets real cold. We have very nice warm and very dry summers w/o killer humidity. It rains here far less than the Midwest, South or East from June through October. Really, check the weather stats. The tough months mentally are Nov.-March. It can be gray and dreary with light rain for weeks on end. I'll freely admit this gets old. How do I deal with it? First, we take at least a couple sun breaks each winter to either Arizona or Hawaii or both. We ski. Something about getting on the white stuff that brightens your day and gives meaning to rain (turned to snow). And, we workout together in groups either for winter nighttime runs or Masters swim workouts, spin classes or whatever. Next important point for non Oregonians to realize is that Oregon is a very diverse state geographically. Portland lies in the Western part of the state, to the West of the Cascade range. 2/3 of the state lies to the East of these mountains act as a weather dam. The Eastern part of the state is a High Desert by definition and has a completely different feel to it. Bend, Ore. for example gets a total of about 10-12 '' of rain annually. The Eastern part of the state is just an hour and half drive away. Bend is about three from Portland. Conversely, you can go to the Oregon Coast which is quite spectacular. It rains a ton down there, but usually in squalls. The coast can be a wonderful option at times, even in winter.

If you are an active person, you will find Portland very accomodating on every level. PDX was ranked the number one city in America for cycling. I'm not sure I totally agree with the criteria for this ranking, but it won nonetheless. Bottom line. Most people, especially those from other parts of the country really like it here. We do have some wacko politics, and some kooky tax structures, and it's not cheap (thanks Californians), but all in, it's a good quality of life. PS: Best micro brews on earth bar none. And, you'll never be more than a block away form a Coffee house.

I live in Lake Oswego (a suburb 8 miles south of Portland). My wife was born and raised here. I've lived here (intermittently due to college/Navy/grad school) since 1976.

Great outdoor activities (skiing, hiking, windsurfing, biking, running), expensive housing (it really has gone crazy in the past 10 years), marginal economy, and disastrous local politics (both at the State and Local government levels).

If I were moving somewhere that's gonna be the "next Portland," I'd move to Boise or Spokane which have significantly lower housing costs.

PDX is great, but I wouldn't move here if I had to pay today's housing costs.

Cheers,

Jonathan C. Puskas

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http://wattieink.com/elite-team/
Raising funds to help wounded veterans and racing RAAM 2013 with http://team4mil.org/
"If you are gonna charge... CHARGE HARD!"

Portland...true heaven on earth. I live in the Nor Cal wine country but would move up there in a heartbeat. I have been spending summers in the Gorge for the last 15 years or so and always hate to leave. Life doesn't get any better than summers in the PNW.

And. . .Portland has an awesome bike scene.

http://www.bikeportland.org/

Not much else to add. Rains frequently in the fall, winter, spring, but not neccesarily a lot. Mostly drizzle and overcast. Central and Eastern Oregon have a lot of sun, and a lot of snow in the winter.

Rarely is the weather bad enough that you can't ride or run outside. You just learn to deal with it.

I live in the city and enjoy the fact that it's urban without being too large. The urban growth boundaries mean you can be out of the city quickly. There's not an endless amount of sprawl.

I agree that housing prices are out of control in comparison to what the economy seems to be able to sustain.

Strong arts community for a city it's size.

scott

I've been here for several years and so far I love it.

The weather is mild, but yes it does rain in the winter season, some of the endless weeks do get old. However, it is always possible to run and ride outside if you dress right.

Great places to ride and run that are easy to get to from your doorstep.

Community is super friendly and helpful. It's sometimes a bit scary, I found it common that complete strangers would go out of there way to help me out with something. There is a bumper sticker that says "keep Portland weird" that rings true with the community as well.

Job market is competitive but networking is fairly easy, as I already mentioned people here are oddly nice. I does seem to take awhile for people to find the "right" jobs. It took me about 8months.

Housing is getting to be more expensive quickly, but I don't think it's gotten to be as out of control as some places like Seattle. It seems that it is well on it's way.

& Lots of athletic minded people.

I live in seattle but go down to portland to visit friends or race. It's a nice town. it's funny how everyone goes on for a paragraph about how great it is except for the housing being expensive. it's been my experience that there's a cause and effect there. sooner or later a nice place to live=expensive housing. if you want the housing to go down start talking some trash about your fine city. as far as rain goes my daughter says it's not really raining unless it's hard enough to make you squint. this is her reason for never wearing a rain jacket in the winter.