Considering Oregon (Portland, Beaverton, Hillsboro: rentals, house, job market)

[Crystal mendez]

my partner and I want to possibly move to Oregon and work in portland. I would need to find a new job but my partner will transfer his job over to the area. We want to buy a house but would probably rent at first. What are housing costs in that general area ?
How’s the job market?
I currently manage an oyster bar and have been for 6 years so I have retail and food service experience.
We could probably manage a $2000/month for rent.
We want to find a place an hour or less away from Portland to live in and we would commute for work but we’re not sure which area would be best. We’re open to any area on the west side of the state that’s an hour or less away from Portland
Thanks in advance

[ejisme]

Live close to your partners work location as best you can. Do you know where that will be, or will he WFH?

I'm not a big oyster fan, so I've never been to an oyster bar. Of course, a lot of seafood restaurants have an oyster bar included too. Anyway, here is a listing of some oyster bars in the Portland area and it includes a map.

https://www.yelp.com/search?find_des...Portland%2C+OR

I'd guess in food service and retail you can find quite a few jobs. $15/hour seems to be a fairly common off-the-street starting rate, so with experience I'm guessing you could negotiate more.

IN GENERAL - The west side of the Willamette River is considered nicer and so more expensive, but there are very nice areas on the east side to the river too. Depending on where your spouse will work, out west Hillsboro and Beaverton are very nice and have a lot of rental properties. Tigard and Tualatin are other options. On the east side there can be nice areas and rentals in NE and SE Portland, but you are more likely to run into rougher neighborhoods there. Then outside of Portland proper there are very nice options from Milwaukie all the way down to Canby. Mass transit will reach all these areas. The closer to Portland proper the better the route options and frequency of pickups/drop offs.

So, basically, can you find out where your partner's work would be located? Then I would suggest coming up for a visit so you can have wheels and feet on the ground and see the neighborhoods and potential properties.