this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2026
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I'm feeling a bit stifled in my city and want to move. My priorities are $1500-2000/mo rent and a path to an affordable house (see: picture), a unionised city workforce, good greenspace with an extensive parks system, good biking infrastructure, a good public university, and a good political scene. That leaves Portland, Minneapolis, Chicago, and maybe an East Coast city I haven't researched yet. Of those, Portland is at the top of my list because I'm getting an ocean for Great Lakes prices.

What's bad about the city that makes people move away? Is there a better option in Oregon, especially one that would let me commute into Portland without whatever problems it has?

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[–] TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Tbf so is mine, but in the opposite direction. My current home is a 2 bedroom 1 bath a bit larger than the house op posted. When I got it it was probably in a bit worse condition, but I bought it from the bank for a little less than 40k.

The downside of course is that I live in one of the poorer states in the US.

[–] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Trying to do the math on how much less I would get paid there compared to buying a house for a dollar.

I would live in one of those premade starter shacks that you get in a survival crafting game if I owned it and didnt have a landlord

[–] TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah..... I'm a transplant here and it definitely makes it hard to move back out of the state. I've gotten offers for jobs that pay quite a bit more in nicer places, but it'd be hard to have a mortgage again.

I usually just use the offers to wrangle a pay increase and now make a bit more than my nation wide average. Depending on your field the starting pay here is usually pretty bad, but most companies are willing to do large increases in salaries because they know everyone with an education is looking to move away.

[–] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm Canadian so I'd rather not be 'accidentally' sent to CECOT either way but I'm a journeyperson trades-doer

Yeah...... unless you are a connoisseur of small batch methamphetamine, it's probably best for you to steer clear of this shit hole. The trades here are all contract work with no benefits, shit pay, and literally no work place safety.

But to be fair, that's quickly becoming all of America unless you actually own your own business that contracts out all their work.