any affordable safe west coast cities for families?

[LeX]

I was wondering if there are any such thing is affordable west coast cities with decent public schools. I would like to leave east coast but my salary a bit under 50 k. I like datsuns and the outdoors and I just want to find somewhere with fordable cost of living and also decent public schools. Any ideas on my budget? :)

[Npdavies.]

You could try Arizona. Cheap to live there, if you can stand the heat.

[nismo dr]

no, gotta pay to play :lol:

[Z chopper]

if you were in Canada I could give you a few ideas but as far as the USA...................................

[nismo dr]

[Skib]

smaller PDX suburbs/towns like Tualitan/Wilsonville/Canby

 

usually alot cheaper and within 15-25 min of downtown.

[nismo dr]

smaller PDX suburbs/towns like Tualitan/Wilsonville/Canby

 

usually alot cheaper and within 15-25 min of downtown.

 

he said decent schools :lol:

[DanielC]

I believe the West Linn Wilsonville school district is one of the best in the state.

[izzo]

oregon coast isn't so bad.

 

Not sure about affordable housing, unless you get outside the city about 4 minutes.. Then prices just drop off, but still nice. Schools are decent too.

[bananahamuck]

what you do for a living makes a big difference ,, do you have to live very near a big city ??

[bananahamuck]

oregon coast isn't so bad.

 

 

 

 

But is wandering around collecting sand dollars a good long term career choice??

 

 

 

[izzo]

But is wandering around collecting sand dollars a good long term career choice??

 

 

i gave that up last week, yo!

 

and I was so busy thinking about sand dollars. i spaced out sending your shit in the mail :poke:

[nismo dr]

I believe the West Linn Wilsonville school district is one of the best in the state.

 

your story checks out, but as they say, the west side is the best side

 

http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/or/schools/

[nismo dr]

I guess I should mention, I live in Tigard and love the community, the schools, the parks. It's a great place to live and raise a family, my kids are 12, 7 going on 8 (june), and 3 going on 4 (april).

[djlotus]

Visit scenic Fresno! There's land! The occasional hill here and there. There's an underground forest! There's Pelco! There's Gallo winery! There's the Fresno Air Terminal (FAT)!

 

I haven't lived there in almost 5 years so I don't know what the cost of living is like there anymore. We actually lived in Clovis which is more or less the whiter part of Fresno on the outskirts. Clovis has some really good schools. Not so sure about Fresno though. If you're into agriculture it's the place to be.

 

Other pros of that part of the Central calley include: The Island Waterpark. A 45 min drive to Millerton lake. I think just under 2 hours to get to Sierra Summit for skiing. About 2 to 2 1/2 hours to get to Pismo Beach. 3-4 hours north of Bakersfield (HA!) and then a little more driving will get you into the L.A. Basin. If you head north from Fresno you can be in San Francisco in about 4 hours.

 

I'm sure there's other stuff worth noting but that there's a pretty good idea of the area there.

[flatcat19]

Tri-Cities, WA

 

Fastest growing metropolitan in the nation.

Great schools. Good community.

 

Portland, Seattle, Boise, Spokane not far away.

 

 

The caravan to CanDy rolls through yearly!

 

 

;)

 

A $200,000 house in PDX is in the $140-160K range here.

[DRIVEN]

Buy my house. I'm ready to move east. I'm an hour to the beach, hour to the desert, hour to the slopes and surrounded by dipshits. I'd prefer to live in an area with a lower concentration of dipshits.

 

Actually the Portland adjacent towns are pretty tough to beat. Portland itself is ok to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. I guess it's cool if you like San Francisco.

[nismo dr]

there are $200k house in PDX? Maybe with wheels :lol:

[flatcat19]

there are $200k house in PDX? Maybe with wheels :lol:

 

:lol:

[datsunaholic]

Depends on what you do for a living. A $50,000/yr job in Atlanta may pay more on the West Coast, but you would have to change employers. Simply changing cities with the same employer might not increase the pay, and Atlanta is fairly high priced for Georgia since it's a big city with a lot of Yankee influx. If you're self employed or a work-from-home contractor, that won't come with a pay increase.

 

$50K a year with a family won't cut it in California or Western Washington. For a family of 4 that's poverty level here. It's almost to the level that having a minimum combined income over $90,000 is needed to live out here for a family of 4. It varies, of course. California costs more, Oregon less, and it can vary by the mile. Every city has good and bad spots. In Washington the close-in Suburbs are getting worse as the cities clean up, but every big city has serious bad spots.

 

From what I've heard from my friends in Atlanta, Atlanta schools are worse than anything on the West Coast, and Cobb County makes Atlanta schools shine.

[LeX]

Yeah if I'm forced to stay here then ill be looking to Cobb county or Decatur schools. East coast I was thinking Florida or upstate new York... but I want to head out west. Just haven't hit the big time yet

[Hardwyre]

Tri-cities Washington is decent. Also, smaller cities around Vancouver WASHINGTON are quiet secrets. And Portland's "city life" is less than an hour away when you feel like dealing with hipsters.

[LeX]

I work for geico and there's some openings in Portland so I could live outside the city. I would prefer Vancouver area but no luck on that yet. We also have Seattle area postings

[Skib]

I work for geico and there's some openings in Portland so I could live outside the city. I would prefer Vancouver area but no luck on that yet. We also have Seattle area postings

 

driving into PDX is pretty easy.

 

just gotta get used to all the one way streets in the city.

fucking annoying at first, but you get used to it.

[flatcat19]

When you say Vancouver, do you mean BC or WA State?

 

Vancouver, WA is just a very short drive over 1 of 2 bridges into Portland.