My wife and I are spending time looking at various areas in the US we may want to settle down in retirement in the next year or so (we are in our 50

 

Lots of places to chose from in that price range on the north side of the Columbia, so that shouldn't be a difficult search.

Lots of advantages to living on the Washington side of the river - no income tax, no capital gains tax, and you can always drive over to Portland for sales tax free shopping

My wife and I wandered up to this area about 9 years ago on a vacation and decided to relocate up here by the end of the trip.

 

Everyone is flocking to the PDX area!!

 

Thanks your responses. Here are some questions I posted on a relocation board if any of you can take the time to answer.

Doing some searches online it does appear I can find housing that suits us in Washougal / Camas. I do have a number of questions that come up because of the environment here. I sure don

 

Wow, that's a lot of information. Much of that would only be known by a resident.

As far as I know, we don't have any members who live in either Camas or Washougal. Maybe the Vancouver members could chime in with what they know.

As far as I am concerned, there are no racial issues here. We all get along nicely!

Homes here don't get the blistering heat that the South gets, but we do have a damp climate in the winter. I think one offsets the other. You have to paint every 5 to 6 years. We have AC and use it regularly in the summer months. Usually a heat-pump will provide cooling as well as heating and is probably sufficient here.

We are looking forward to seeing you up here!

Larry

 

I think that the whole Pacific Northwest, especially the Portland area, is very tolerant and accepting of other races and ethnicities. Of course there are still areas like Chinatown, but everyone mixes well and I haven't heard of many race issues around here. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

I appreciate the feedback... the area looks like a good option for us so we are planning a winter visit to look a bit more closely.

 

Portland in the winter is going to be a LOT more gloomy than Dallas, I'm sure. But don't get too discouraged, the rest of the year it's fairly mild and comfortable.

 

Camas/Washougal area is pretty nice. I worked in Camas for about 7 years while living in Vancouver. The only downside I see to that area is the commute to Vancouver or Portland. Other then that it is a very nice place to live. It has that small town feel to it. Actually I just thought of one more down to Camas. There is a papermill there that smells up pretty much the whole city. I don't know if you have ever caught a wiff of a papermill, but I will tell you it does not smell like roses

If you want to be North of the river I would suggest looking in the Hockinson area or the Ridgefield area. Ridgefield has very good freeway access and is not over populated. I lived in Battle Ground for three years and loved it there as well. I am a country boy though

Are you more of a city slicker or a country lover? If you are more into outdoors and don't need to be to close to a big city(2.5 hours away) I would highly recommend Central Oregon. Bend or Redmond in particular. It is one of the best places to retire to in the Pacific Northwest or the nation in my opinion. That is if you like perfect weather with two seasons. We have snow in the winter and sun in the summer.

Just my .02 cents

Brandon

 

+1, I've been all over the country, and Bend is still one of my absolute favorite places, especially now that it's grown up enough to have plenty of good jobs.