One of the first questions is: Are you going to be working in Oregon?
You may find it's cheaper to live across the river in Vancouver. You only lose 9% of your check to Oregon for their income taxes, and the school system is better. Right now the property taxes in/around Portland have gotten to usurious levels, and a lot of people are bailing.
However if you enjoy city life, Portland's a pretty good place to live. Thanks to one of the former mayors, parking downtown has been severely curtailed, and your best bet to get around is their unusually good mass-transit system, which combines buses with rail. There are some "artsy" neighborhoods like Sellwood where I get looked at funny with my Titan and tennis shoes instead of driving a Prius and wearing Birkenstocks.
Portland's situation is pretty ideal for a 'big' city: you're about three hours from great skiing in the mountains, and about the same distance from the Pacific coast. Canon Beach is the Carmel of Oregon. Drive SW from Portland about 25 miles, and you're in the heart of Willamette Valley wine country. Drive E about 100 miles or so, and you enter the Columbia Valley wine country.
People here tend to be genuine, authentic, and honest, respecting of privacy. There are a few snobby exceptions in some areas, but you get that anywhere. Some folks comment on the "coldness" of Northwesterners, but that's because we don't have time for the "two-second friendship" as found in some cities; but if you're willing to stand and chat for a couple minutes, you'll find we warm up.
Drawbacks? Yeah, it rains. We have lots of dark, cloudy days during the winter. Figure on three weeks at a time without seeing the sun. We don't get tons of rain, instead it's just spread over a longer period of time. It's no wonder that Starbucks started in this part of the country.
Hope this helps you. :cheers:
