Moving to Portland next month... (to rent, houses, find a job)

[Disembodied]

Hello,

I'm Brian. I'm somewhat new to this board. I'll be moving to the Portland area next month and wanted some advice from the locals. I want to rent a room in a house but was wondering what some of the better neighborhoods around Portland are? I don't mind a small commute. Also, if anyone knows of anyone who needs a roommate let me know. I am very clean and respectful, probably the best roommate you could find.

[Nell Plotts]

Will you be attending school? If so, they often have a bb for just that purpose. Also major employers such as NIKE have an in-house bb for employees where you could post your request.

[sayulita]

If you'll scroll through a few pages of recent Portland threads, you will find a huge amount of information about Portland neighborhoods. Also about employment, schools,diversity, weather and many other subjects. And Craigslist.com is great source for shared housing listings.

[Disembodied]

Thanks for the help. I looked through some of the ads on craigslist. It seems like there are A LOT of people who need to fill some rooms. This is a good thing!

[Minervah]

Brian in reference to your thread and some posts you made on others, please consider this:

It might be difficult for you to find a room if you do not have a job. Many people are renting out rooms in their houses to help supplement income lost from their own job losses. I know someone who is doing this. $30k may last for about a year. Do yourself a favor and hold some of that out to get yourself back home if it comes to that.

Don't count on your joblessness to be only a couple of months. You didn't mention your field but unless you are in the medical profession or in a highly specialized field in demand, you will have tons of competition. Your confidence in yourself is admirable but you will still be competing with many more people in the same boat. It would be a better idea for you to wait awhile and then look into moving here.

I think you mentioned something about being stressed out in your present job (if that wasn't you, sorry) but not having a job no matter where you may live is really a greater stress.

[subsound]

Be careful as well, many scammers post things on Craigslist where they demand an upfront payment and run with it or demand your SSN. Take a look at The Consumerist for good tips about filtering out those who wish to do it.

Also, there are ~207,000 people out of work in the area, many with years of experiance. Confidence is good, but it's a numbers game. Without a very specilized area of knowledge or "In" somewhere, it is most likely going to be a very long job search.

[Disembodied]

The more and more research I do, my gut tells me to stay where I am. But I am very unhappy in South Florida. I don't know what to do. I don't want to go all the way out there and then not be able to find a job, and blow through all my savings. That would really suck.

[philwithbeard]

Disembodied:

I found this link about Portland Neighborhoods, I hope you find it useful:
Portland Oregon Guide to Neighborhoods

From a Google on Portland Neighborhoods, an Official web site:
Portland Oregon Guide to Neighborhoods

Cannot find it now, but there is a site that is very detailed on crime, population density, age-group distribution, income groups, and diversity for each of the 'official' neighborhoods.

Don't forget:
Housing Authority of Portland (again, official) for help with housing:
HAP - Housing Options Menu (http://www.hapdx.org/about/options.html - broken link)
and the housing conneciton:
Housing Connections

A Portland Newspaper on Line with classified pages:
Oregon Local News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather - OregonLive.com
--- Great place to check out current Heat Wave and how Portland'ers are copping.

Oregon State Employment office On-Line (JobsUSA?)
Employment Department Job Listings

Do learn neighborhoods and Light Rail, and Bus routes before using Craigslist.com for employment offers. Off the beaten path and long walks to from public transportation may not be such a good thing during January if you need to use Public Trans.

Bus, street cars, light rail:
TriMet: Public Transportation for the Portland, Oregon, Metro Area

Phil