Moving to Oregon from CA

[Weldor]

If you could choose any state where would you go?

Any state in the west is spendy right now. Look at real estate prices per square foot and that should give you a good idea which way to head.

 

[IdahoBeav]

It'll be a smooth transition. Oregonians are just like Californians, except they don't know how to pump their own fuel.

 

[Walkstoomuch]

Moved to Bend in 2001. It’s very expensive and has grown substantially. Yes there is traffic but it’s nothing like a major city, you can get anywhere in town within 30 minutes during the busiest times of day. Everyone hates Californians but seem to forget we all came from somewhere else. I always try to hunt out of state on one tag a year as I feel quality big game opportunities are limited here (I don’t enjoy the west side hunting options). Lots of quality bird hunting in the eastern half of the state and plenty of grouse in the cascades. My wife and I always call Bend a “blue square mountain town” as we have every mountain town activity you could want just at a moderate level (skiing, mountain biking, road cycling, trail running, kayaking etc). If you’re coming from a city you’ll love it as there’s so much close by but as we came from central Colorado it took some lowering of expectations. I personally wouldn’t move here now as it’s too large and has a different culture than I’d like but we own a business and a home and therefore have roots for a bit. You couldn’t pay me to live anywhere on the west side of the Cascades. Good luck

Also. Winters are long, not particularly cold, but it’s common for us to have frost through mid June and get snow in May. Fires are a factor everywhere in the west but last 5 summers we’ve had smoke from late July on and this year it’s been smokey since 2nd week of June

 

[Cameron.25]

I was born and raised in portland, in my opinion yes its a shithole nowadays but i think oregon is still slightly better than Washington and california in some ways. Especially the gun laws, they tried to pass a bunch of BS here and its currently being held up in the courts thankfully. Eventually they might pass similar crap to CA/WA but currently WA/CA is WAY worse with gun laws as im sure you know.

I was just in seattle the other day and everything about it is worse, more homeless, more traffic, everything was more expensive and we barely saw any cops. I payed about $1.30 more per gallon for gas while i was there. The housing is cheaper in OR than the other 2 states too. Portland probably isnt too far behind tho honestly, just slightly less worse at the moment. Outside of portland, Oregon is pretty nice. I hunt on the east side and there is some decent opportunities here but its obviously not as much of a hunting destination as other western states east of here. If you really want to live in a big city on the West coast its not the worst in my opinion.

I build floating homes and docks, sell guns/cans on the side. We live in a nice floating home we built ourselves and when you're down on the water, it doesn't feel like we're in a big city and its peaceful. Tons of floating homes here if you're interested in that. Hope this helps, feel free to PM me if you have any questions too

 

[TripleJ]

Whereabouts are you moving? I have lived here most of my life. Even though the politics are dominated by the Willamette Valley population centers and lean way to the left, Oregon has some really nice areas, both west and east side. This is true of all the western states I would say...it's not what it used to be, but there are still some great fishing and hunting opportunities to be had here.

 

[Bachto]

Washington is probably worse than Oregon. I live in Eastern WA. It's not as bad as the west side but our whole state is ruled by King County (kind of ironic name for a county). If my stepson's dad and our good jobs weren't here, we would move. For now we are stuck here.

 

[OregonSteeler]

I live in the Portland suburbs and there's pros/cons to this state along with every other state in the US. It all depends on what's important to you, how you want to live your life, and make your money.

I hate politics and realize that no matter what my opinion is, it won't change anything, so I focus on other things like steelhead/salmon fishing, skiing, rafting trips, hunting, etc.... all within a couple hours (or less) from where I live. I also have my CHL despite the liberal agenda of Oregon.

I wouldn't consider moving to another state just because of the politics and the grass isn't always greener on the other side. I'm happy....enough where I'm at.

 

[DawnPatrol]

Better tags, different fishing, worse weather (general consensus), similar politics, cheaper housing.

 

[180ls1]

Haha I could have bet money I'd get this answer. In all seriousness why not keep these types of answers to yourself it's unnecessary. And I don't mean that rudely.

Just ignore them. The see CA and think you are the enemy regardless of who you vote for, if you hunt, or any of that.

 

[Jon_G]

Just ignore them. The see CA and think you are the enemy regardless of who you vote for, if you hunt, or any of that.

Agreed lol it's just like, don't comment and move on
But it's all good.

 

[nphunter]

Hunting is good for residents if you like to bow hunt. Cost of living is ridiculous, I've been in Oregon my whole life and like it for the most part. I wouldn't move here from out of state unless I had a job that paid so much that cost of living was irrelevant. Cost on most everything is similar to CA, go fill up a shopping cart up 1/4 of the way and it's $250.

I'd go to Montana over OR any day, I have family there and have been several times and it's crazy how much further your dollars go in the grocery store. Idaho is similar. I took a travel ball team to ID earlier this summer, ordered Dominos and it was like $12 for a couple of large pizzas, a couple weeks ago I ordered dominos online and forgot to change my location back to OR, my total came to like $14, I noticed I forgot to change my location so with the order still in the cart I switched it back to OR. Order came to $23 for the exact same items 2hrs away down the interstate. It's pretty frustrating to be paying almost double for essentials just because we live in OR.

I live out of city limits in Eastern Oregon and have a couple acres, I really love the area but once my boys graduate in a few years I will be pulling up roots and putting it in the rear view. No way am I retiring in Oregon, it just doesn't make financial sense. I'll be able to sell my place here for enough to go buy something very nice in ID, WY, MT, AZ, etc. and have plenty left over for fun. I'll still come back to Oregon to hunt every year as long as they still give out NR Archery tags that I can draw.

 

[Jimmy]

Oregon doesn't have good Mexican food.

 

[wapitibob]

It'll be a smooth transition. Oregonians are just like Californians, except they don't know how to pump their own fuel.

been pumping my own fuel for a cpl years

 

[Dirtscoots]

What do you do for work? I will say that in my line of work the money on the west coast if far superior which is the main reason I’m still here. My plan is to move but still most likely chase jobs here a few months out of the year. Wyoming Arizona or Montana are a few on my list that I would feel a better place to have a resident hunting license.

 

[Pdzoller]

One more can’t hurt I guess…

Just kidding… sort of…
If you decide to move here, Welcome. Oregon is beautiful just like most western states. Please don’t share beautiful places that you find on the internet and please tell everyone how much it sucks here.

 

[Ehunter]

There is nothing good about Oregon any more it's hunting is going down hill fast. We have about half the mule deer we had 10 years ago. It's high taxes and politics suck it's getting as liberal as CA. I am a true green Orgonian been here 67 years. I am leaving this state next year. Homeless drugs liberals idiots and ex California running this great state into the ground. They come here after screwing up their state and screwed up our state. We had a good governor once who's motto was come visit oregon but don't stay.

 

[Dirtscoots]

Tax’s are a good point if you work from home this place sucks. I travel for work depending on where in the Portland area I’m working there are extra transit tax’s and a bunch of added crap taken out of my check. Being from cali tho you would be used to outrageous tax’s. They definitely have both hands out down there. The wildlife is managed for predators to thrive from the east to the west.

 

[GoneFullTrad]

If you are in the trades or medical you are good to go with jobs but everything else is a crap shoot.

It's very much a left wing hellscape in Eugene, Portland and Salem but even the coastal cities tend to be right of center and every where else is usually center or right of center.

However the bulk of the jobs are in the larger cities like any other place so if you want to be comfortable here you have to be comfortable commuting. Live in a lower tax City and commute to the hellscape for work is the way to go.

Gun rights are always on the edge, we almost lost many and still probably eventually will.

Knife laws are weirdly non restrictive.

Taxes are high but you also don't have sales tax but Democrats have sales taxes on almost every election cycle and we get closer and closer to adding them.

Let's get to the bulk of hunting...

West of the Cascades there is very little "back country" and it is dominated by road hunters in public land and paid leases for timber properties.

East of the Cascades it's open country but everything is a tag draw now.

We get a lot of fires. Forests are mismanaged at the state and federal level.

They shut forests down during fire season unilaterally through entire systems regardless of how close they are to the fire. It can ruin your hunting seasons.

 

[IdahoBeav]

West of the Cascades there is very little "back country" and it is dominated by road hunters in public land and paid leases for timber properties.

That's only in the NW. There is a ton of backcountry from Eugene south to the CA border, both on the coast range and the west slope of the Cascades, but there isn't much elk. However, there are a lot of blacktail and bears.

 

[GoneFullTrad]

That's only in the NW. There is a ton of backcountry from Eugene south to the CA border, both on the coast range and the west slope of the Cascades, but there isn't much elk. However, there are a lot of blacktail and bears.

Yeah, I wouldn't call it back country ... Most areas south of Eugene or South of Florence are still road accessible. I would agree it's more back country than NW and inland West is but there are still some pretty consistent road systems.