Seattle or Portland..? which is better..?
 

:D Hello friends, i appears i'll be leaving Houston for the NorthWest. From your experiences,which city is better. from what i know....

1.Portland gets less rain than Seattle....Advantage Portland.
2.Portland gets more snow than Seattle...Advantage Portland.
3.Portland real estate is more affordable than Seattle...Advantage Portland.
4.Seattle is "nicer" than Portland...Advantage Seattle.
5.Portland has no sales tax...Advantage Portland.(but are income taxes/property tax high to make up the lack of sales tax..?
6. How about overall crime..?

any other things i forgot about, feel free to bring up..!:thumbup: :thumbup:

Come move to Bend, OR - it's the best of everything (except for real estate value...) 300+ days of sunshine per year, 300+ inches of fresh pow-pow on Mt. Bachelor, almost 30 golf courses, plenty of jobs and basically no crime. Can't really think of all that much bad about this place - i love it!

--hoop

Portland. Note that I haven't lived in either one, just passed through.

Having spent a fair bit of time in all three cities (including Houston), I would say my top choice would be Portland. It's a nice city, not too big and not too small, with a great quality of life. There has been a lot of major redevelopment in the area along the river and former railyards, and it has come around nicely. Some of the new suburbs are worth checking out as well. Orenco Station comes to mind as one (America's Community of the Year in 1999) http://www.costapacific.com/communities/orenco.html

More big city amenities in Seattle (baseball & football, Seafair, cruises), but better quality of life in Portland in my opinion.

Oregon has a State Tax - Washington doesn't.
Traffic sucks in Portland - its bad in Seattle also but I don't think its as bad
Homes are just as expensive depending on where and what type of neighborhood (excluding water front).
Where in Seattle would you be? I would be more than happy to give you idea's of home prices and best locations for commute times.

Probably south of Seattle, maybe as far south as Tacoma.

Vancouver WA seems to be the happy medium, i mean you are across from either state.... i heard Bend OR, and Salem OR are also nice....

IMO Seattle is a much more sophisticated city.

If you choose to live South of Seattle - Pierce County, I think you will be much happier than living North of Portland. The bridge from Portland to WA - wow what a traffic jam. Plus there is not much north of Vancouver so you would need to go back to Portland to do any "big city" type things. If you are south of Seattle - well its like one continuous city all the way south to Olympia with loads of stuff to do, great places to eat and the bay for boating and other water activities - ton's of parks on the waterfront.

If you want specific homes for sale in either area just shoot me an email and let me know what you looking for (beds, bath, size, age, price) and I will email you a list with pics. email - [email protected]

right on, thanks for all the info guys.!