Happy to be back in Vancouver. Our returning review. (Washougal: real estate, apartment)

[PNW Couve]

We moved back to the area from Sioux Falls, SD in then end of February after being gone for 20 Years. Some key factors that others may want to consider prior to relocating.

Work
Hard to find work in Vancouver with college degrees, most of the offers came from Portland, OR. I can’t count the times I’ve told recruiters and employers if I wanted to work in Oregon I would be living in Oregon, about 65% of the jobs we considered applying for that say the work is in Vancouver was actually in Portland, they don’t get the concept that it’s in another State other than I live I’m not interested, they always say it’s only across the bridge and it’s a short commute, apparently these individuals have never driven across those bridges during peak travel times. Major employers that we have applied for in Vancouver usually took 2 to 3 Weeks just to respond to our resume and the Washington State work source was zero help and it was very frustrating that they advertise out of state employment opportunities within the Vancouver area searches, the best one we dealt with was the goodwill job center.

Renters
Very hard to find acceptable and affordable places to live on the salaries made in the area, first of all it was very hard to find anything, than harder to find a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom room apartment or home most everything was either 1/1 or 3/1, and there was hardly anything decent for less than $1000 per Month.

Traffic
Within Vancouver only bad during peak work traveling times, everyone seems to be in a hurry all the time, a lot of rear end wrecks due to drivers not paying attention and also using their phone while driving. We were ran into waiting at the red stop light in from of the hospital on Mill Plain Rd, and when we pulled over to the side to exchange info the driver drove off. I still don’t get the fact that the Vancouver police doesn’t usually respond to automobile accidents.

Vancouver
We are very happy to be back in Washington State, but are considering moving a little further north to get out of Clark Country and the “Portland Suburbia” mentality.

[cyberous]

Welcome back!

Traffic and housing will continue to get worse as Portland is the last “affordable” West Coast City.

While California continues to be the place to live for most of the world, the 40 million residents are being pushed out to skyrocketing cost of living. This is simply a trickle effect as the most logical move is Oregon, Washington with their 4 and 7 million people respectively.

I predict Vancouver will see substantial growth as Portland fills up and the surrounding areas. Many people who can work remotely will choose to live in Vancouver due to the double benefit of no income tax and duty free shopping so close.

[509]

Originally Posted by cyberous

Welcome back!

Traffic and housing will continue to get worse as Portland is the last “affordable” West Coast City.

While California continues to be the place to live for most of the world, the 40 million residents are being pushed out to skyrocketing cost of living. This is simply a trickle effect as the most logical move is Oregon, Washington with their 4 and 7 million people respectively.

I predict Vancouver will see substantial growth as Portland fills up and the surrounding areas. Many people who can work remotely will choose to live in Vancouver due to the double benefit of no income tax and duty free shopping so close.

I am not sure why this has not happened already.

I think your absolutely right.

I first saw Grant County, Washington in 1978 and wondered why it wasn't booming. It had ALL the ingredients for substantial economic growth.

It only took over 30 years for everybody else to discover the obvious. I suspect Vancouver is in the same boat.

[backdrifter]

Originally Posted by PNW Couve

We moved back to the area from Sioux Falls, SD in then end of February after being gone for 20 Years. Some key factors that others may want to consider prior to relocating.

Work
Hard to find work in Vancouver with college degrees, most of the offers came from Portland, OR. I can’t count the times I’ve told recruiters and employers if I wanted to work in Oregon I would be living in Oregon, about 65% of the jobs we considered applying for that say the work is in Vancouver was actually in Portland, they don’t get the concept that it’s in another State other than I live I’m not interested, they always say it’s only across the bridge and it’s a short commute, apparently these individuals have never driven across those bridges during peak travel times. Major employers that we have applied for in Vancouver usually took 2 to 3 Weeks just to respond to our resume and the Washington State work source was zero help and it was very frustrating that they advertise out of state employment opportunities within the Vancouver area searches, the best one we dealt with was the goodwill job center.

Renters
Very hard to find acceptable and affordable places to live on the salaries made in the area, first of all it was very hard to find anything, than harder to find a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom room apartment or home most everything was either 1/1 or 3/1, and there was hardly anything decent for less than $1000 per Month.

Traffic
Within Vancouver only bad during peak work traveling times, everyone seems to be in a hurry all the time, a lot of rear end wrecks due to drivers not paying attention and also using their phone while driving. We were ran into waiting at the red stop light in from of the hospital on Mill Plain Rd, and when we pulled over to the side to exchange info the driver drove off. I still don’t get the fact that the Vancouver police doesn’t usually respond to automobile accidents.

Vancouver
We are very happy to be back in Washington State, but are considering moving a little further north to get out of Clark Country and the “Portland Suburbia” mentality.

SW Washington has never had a great economy. Jobs are almost always harder to come by here than in Portland. Most large city police departments have more important things to do than respond to an auto accident. This was a shocker to me, too, after growing up in a small town and having a small fender bender when I lived in Portland. Vancouver has about 170,000 residents so it is no small town anymore.

The rental market here was recently listed as one of the tightest in the entire country with some of the lowest vacancy rates. That's just for Vancouver, not the Portland metro area. The lower end of the housing market is skyrocketing. Our starter home's value has gone up $7,000 in the 6 months we've owned it. It's projected to go up another $10,000 in the next year. The real estate and rental markets are definitely squeezed and only going to get worse before they get any better. It's pretty crazy on that front right now. I was shocked last spring to see that rents in Vancouver were just as high as Beaverton and Milwaukie.

If you want out of the suburbia, you definitely want to head north, but as renters there may not be as much out that way either. Ridgefield is really nice, but there are not a lot of rental options out there that I know of, especially affordable ones. Maybe head east to Washougal? It's not that much farther out, but it feels a world apart from Portland.