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Hi. My family and I will be doing a bit of a fact finding area to the Portland/Vancouver area the first week of February.

We're looking for houses in the $150,000 range, and I will probable work as medical technologist for one of the local providence hospitals.
I've never been to this area before so I have a lot of questions.

• Does anyone have a realtor to recommend?
• Which neighberhoods should we see/avoid?
• Any good used video game stores (Cheap!) to recommend?

im sorry to say this but unless your looking for a small apartment your not gonna get one for 150,000. a single family home will run you about $500,000. heres a website for you any way. good luck.

He's not looking for info on Vancouver, BC. If you noticed, he said Portland/Vancouver. Portland being in Oregon, and Vancouver being smaller town just over the border into Washington.

I can't give you much info on where to look as I haven't been following the housing market recently, other than to know that prices have gone up a lot especially the metro area. Your best bet would be outside the city, out in the suburbs somwhere. www.realtor.com seems to have decent listings though.

Something to keep in mind: Oregon has income tax (~9.5%) but no sales tax; Washington has no income tax, but does have sales tax (up near 8% now). If you work in Washington, it's a better deal as far as taxes go to live on this side of the border and just drive over to do shopping - only large purchases like cars are monitored. If you work in Washington but live in Oregon, you'll have to pay income tax. If you work in Oregon, well, you'll have to pay it either way.

We have all the major nationwide chains for gaming save for GameRush, Fred Meyers can also have decent deals, but for used stuff, often the best way to go is to monitor Craigslist. Just don't take all the good deals.

Where are you coming from anyway?

Thanks for the advise. We have been looking online and did see some homes/condos for $150-$180, around portland but we don't know anything about the neighberhoods.

We're coming from Anchorage, AK.

No gamerush? Crap. We've got freddies up here too, but I've loved reading about those gamerush deals and dreamt about visiting one.

Originally Posted by Xalaga We have all the major nationwide chains for gaming save for GameRush

Really, what's your source for that?

I have done most of my game shopping at GR the last 2 years. It has sucked lately (the one GR out here has been neglected by corporate with no Wii shipments whatsoever so I had to resort to EB for one), but is still half decent.

Gamecrazy's are like Starbucks out here (on every corner it seems), and they can be OK for finding harder to find games, but they are not good for trade-in deals like GR used to be.

Fred Meyer occasionally has some great clearance prices, and they are overlooked by many gamers so sometimes you can find hard-to-find stuff there as well (older OOP games for example).

Fry's down in Wilsonville is also a good place to game browse, in any case - they have import PSP and DS games and many console games you won't see for sale anywhere else.

But if I had to do it all over again, I would have lived in Vancouver. I work from home (and now pay more in OR state tax than in Federal!) and when I came here from AZ I could have lived anywhere. Because of the tax issues I should have chosen Vancouver. I just couldn't find a proper house up there for the family in the time we set aside for it. But we were in no rush and should have just waited.

The housing market is crashing here though, so you might find a deal now!

Uh, the only Gamerush within 50 miles is in Wilsonville. That's it.

Originally Posted by ForKChop Uh, the only Gamerush within 50 miles is in Wilsonville. That's it.

Yeah, but there IS one - I consider that the "Vancouver/Portland" area.

Xalaga said "We have all the major nationwide chains for gaming save for GameRush". We DO, in fact, have exactly one GR. In Wilsonville. That's about 20 minutes from downtown Portland (if there's no traffic). It may not be available for daily visits if you live in, say, Vancouver, but you can certainly make it down occasionally to take advantage of some of the deals.

I highly recommend Vancouver over Portland for the previously stated tax reasons. We also have the unlikely combination of lower property taxes and better schools (compared to almost any Portland suburb).

I can recommend a realtor team that works with Keller Williams, they are the "Amy Team". Amy Fields and Amy Parkison can be reached at 1-866-693-6200, their website is http://www.amyshometeam.com/

I used to work for Amy Parkison, I would trust her. Her direct phone is (360)513-7530. Tell her Tim B. says "hi"


Any home in the 30 miles around Portland for $150,000 will:

A)be on wheels
B)be in a BAD part of town
C)be in deplorable condition or tiny
D)all of the above

You need to be prepared to START at the 220s for any home worth living in, otherwise you're better off renting.

Originally Posted by chakan I highly recommend Vancouver over Portland for the previously stated tax reasons. We also have the unlikely combination of lower property taxes and better schools (compared to almost any Portland suburb). .

Yes, of course, I realized all of this about a year too late. We were looking at new homes when we moved. It was just bad timing - despite all the new construction in Vancouver there just wasn't much available at the time we were looking (early 2003). It seemed most developments just happened to be in between phases.

I agree on the pricing you mentioned as well.

Anyway, eldergamer - hopefully this snow will be gone when you visit, or it will seem just like Alaska . We're snowed in here, can't leave the house today.

Snowed in=no excuse not to catch up on my game backlog!

Iced in here in the South Willamette valley. Freezing rain for hours in the morning before it turned into snow/mix.

Originally Posted by eau Iced in here in the South Willamette valley. Freezing rain for hours in the morning before it turned into snow/mix.

Man, we've got 4 inches of snow or so and of course it hasn't been cleared one bit since they aren't used to that here. I went out for a bit and it is hard-packed on all the roads and will be some nice ice tomorrow. No school at least (for my 3 kids). They can play WarioWare Smooth Moves instead

My only problem is that I left a sick cat at the vet Monday and I couldn't make it in there today to pick him up. I feel awful about it because I was hesitant to leave him there the one night. The stress of staying there can't be good for him. I called them though and they are at least still taking care of him - was worried about what they would be doing (closed or something). I'm going to have to figure out how to get him Weds and I'm not sure how. I think I have some chains, so I can go that route if needed.

Thanks for the advice. Thinking of maybe living in vancouver and then commuting in to work at the providence in Portland.

Originally Posted by eldergamer Thanks for the advice. Thinking of maybe living in vancouver and then commuting in to work at the providence in Portland.

Of course, the one disadvantage of that is the traffic. I don't go up there too often, but I know they are *always* saying the bridges to/from WA/OR are backed up during commute on traffic reports.

205 bridge is about 4 times better than the I-5 bridge.

I didn't know about GR in Wilsonville either.

Originally Posted by brianmoy I didn't know about GR in Wilsonville either.

Damn, maybe I should have kept that as my little secret .

I know there are some lurkers because I will mention specific things on CAG and they will be gone the next day. And during the big 75% sale on new games this summer someone came down from Washington (according to the employees) and cleared them out. Unless that deal made it to FW or SD, but that seems unlikely.

But there's at least 2 of us CAG's that shop there regularly - but we're both down closer to there than Portland. As of right now they aren't such a great place - they get games in late or never, and they currently have no deals except the extra $5 trade-in deal. That is excellent if you trade the right games . But because of their 75% off clearance on new games (which are all long gone by the way) many trade-in prices were cut down as a result. Some games that trade for $6-$10 at GC or even EB will get you $1 at GR. Now if they ever bring back the preorder deal...

Originally Posted by eldergamer Thanks for the advice. Thinking of maybe living in vancouver and then commuting in to work at the providence in Portland.

FYI, Washington residents tend to get HOSED on Oregon State Income Tax if they work in OR/Live in Wa.

Hosed as in don't expect to get to much, if anything back, none of my coworkers who cross the bridge ever do.

Because I'm feeling generous, CD Game/Exchanges are really sweet for finding used games.