My wife and I have a new obsession. It is with Portland, Oregon. We have been suffering from nesting syndrome lately and buying a house in Santa Monica is a hard reality to grasp on to. The houses in our current renting neighborhood start at about a million easy. We were watching a show on HGTV called House Hunters and they just happened to have a Portland week. After falling in love with it on tv we did a crapload of research and discovered that it is voted the city most like Austin, Texas (which is our other favorite city in the US). We’re roughly planning a trip there asap to do some recon work and to check out areas like Lake Oswego and the Pearl District. I am thinking we’ll stay at the swank Ace Hotel because it has custom rooms and great prices. It reminds me of the Hotel San Jose on Congress in Austin. I’ll keep you posted with our new obsession and how our plans on moving there progress. Currently we have a 3 year plan to move there in 2010/2011 or so. I just hope the houses stay at the prices they are now. It seems like a steal.
3 comments:
I moved to PDX from the Bay Area in 2003 and NEVER regretted it. Its a great city. I live in the Pearl and it is a great vibrant neighborhood. Lake Oswege, in my humble opinion, is a bedroom community that likes to think its an enclave for the rich. Its a nice community but a little boring and in reality, a wanabe in terms of neighborhood for the rich (compared to what I'm used to in the Bay Area).
Not to break a blogger ethics about cross posting links in comments, but I run a blog about the Pearl District called neighborhoodnotes.com. If you are serious about moving here, I think it would be a good resource for researching the 'hood. We cover everything, not just the latest bar, store or restaurant.
You should visit during the winter so you get an idea of what the gray days are like up here. If you need sun once a week, you might have an issue with the lack of sun in the winter. On the other hand, the summers are the most glorious and kick butt over anything in CA.
Born(not really) and raised in NE portland. I would look at schools. All the neighborhoods are by far better than the one we live in Santa Monica. Just think about what type of nice lifestyle you want. More biking hiking, or a little more urban and trendy.
Yeah, the Ace is amazing. My friend, Philip Iosca, designed that blanket. Also, be sure to check out the restaurant, Clyde Commons. Another buddy of mine from Wieden designed the menu—super cool.
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