Not immediate more of a five year plan . What are some AFFORDABLE options within an hour of Portland Oregon for living? Open to boarding on basic self care , prefer finding a house on a couple acres for 2 horses to be in the backyard ( fixer upper type houses ok. Smaller homes and mobile type ok)
Basically hubby and I live in New England- born and raised 40+ years. My brother moved to the other side of the country - Portland-15 years ago- at some point we would like to live ( retire?) near him and his family, as he will be really our only family as we age ( and he and his kid are fun!) .
In five years our house will be paid off ( thatâs key to being able to move), will be in our mid 50s so still plan on working.
Financially that part of Oregon looks unaffordable! And SCARY metro lol. But I figure there must be something â? Around 300k or under is house budget. Closer to 200 k would make me cartwheel with glee. For jobs hubby is an exterior interior painter , own business does great where we currently live. I teach little kid lessons, camps, pony club type , 4h open show judge - Iâm good at it but itâs a small niche. So factor in lack of corporate type jobs but rather we are self employed so packing up and starting over is scarier. We need an area that is affordable for us but also neighborhoods that hire painters / general contractors and have the disposable income to send the kids to lessons!
HELP fellow Chron peeps. We could go a bit outside 60 minutes, into Vancouver WA area even , but as family is directly in Portland the closer the better. Again this hope is 5 years we are actively looking and ready to buy , but I donât even know where to start. 
This is likely going to be your biggest problem. 200-300k anywhere within an hour of greater âPortland areaâ (including the suburbs) is most likely only going to get you an empty plot of forest land if you absolutely require a couple acres. Even out in the boonies, which would not be good for your businesses. If youâre willing to forego land, you might be able to find a condo or small house in a town (no promises itâll be in the good part of town).
I am no longer an Oregon resident, we moved out of state in 2022 in large part because land was becoming very unaffordable. Our 2b/1ba on a single acre, about 75 minutes from PDX sold for just under $400k at that time.
300k might not even get you the land around here. Land is being gobbled up as fast as it can be, and housing of some type is being put up. Boarding options are dwindling, and as you noted, things are very expensive. Lots of folks selling out to developers.
Get on Zillow, and just look at what is for sale, where it is located, and how much it is.
Self care board is almost a dinosaur anymore. 99% of places will not allow it. A âcouple acres for 2 horsesâ will equal huge mud pit in no time flat with the rain we get.
How âcloseâ to Portland do you âneedâ to be? Expand your search to roughly an hours driving time in all directions and see whatâs out there.
Right I forgot about all of the rain! Fair point for sure!
I figure thereâs boarding Barns I just donât know if I could afford Board in an area like that?
I donât mind living in a small small house or a townhouse and foregoing the idea of horses at home. I just need to know if itâs realistically possible to have two horses boarded somewhere.
Definitely have been trying to figure out how far out from Portland I can go to make it financially feasible. I donât know the area at all â but yes was actually on Zillow last night. Thank you for the input so far!
Depending on where you board, you are looking (full care) minimum $500/horse, and truthfully more like over $600/horse and that is IF you can find open stalls somewhere in reasonable driving distance. If you live further out, you might find more options but cost-wise is about the same. The closer you are to âtownâ the more itâs going to cost, regardless of amenities.
I would just keep looking at whatâs on Zillow, to give you idea of what prices are, and what youâd be getting for that price. Keep in mind also that Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties have the highest property tax rates.
And then keep working and reworking your budget⊠sigh⊠I get it.
There are some Oregon horse boarding sites on Facebook, search for them and see whatâs been posted, and prices/amenities. I find it useful to âcyber stalkâ these things to get information. You could also post an ISO ad, asking what prices are, what you get for that money, within X driving distance of Portland, etc.
Your hubbyâs job, that might be a hard one to get into here, not because there isnât the construction going on, but because there a LOT of guys hanging their shingle out for that (think Hispanic, we have a lot, and thatâs the kind of work they are always doing).
Sincerely, thank you for the feedback! Itâs all good stuff to know, and to work through to make everything really happen. I tried to find a Facebook group in Oregon, that centered on horses and what the community is like iâm outside of the country, but havenât had much success. I will dig a little deeper.
I donât think I couldâve found a more expensive part of the country to want to live in! It might come down to being able to go if weâre willing to live three or four hours outside Portland â but thatâs better than 4000 miles away I suppose.
Just for the record, Iâm not (truly) trying to be a Debbie Downer. I get wanting to move closer to family!
Itâs just so darn expensive here. Rent is over the moon, land is⊠I just have no words for what the economy here is doing. If we hadnât purchased our home well over 20 years ago, there is no way we could afford it today.
I would just hate to see you move here and get blindsided by the COL.
Yes, maybe, if you move a half-days drive away, you MIGHT find something. But then you may be looking at an area with no job prospects. Or nobody able to afford what you offer skill-wise.
But who knows? If this move is a â5-year planâ, well, a lot can change in 5 years.
I moved to Portland a few years ago to be closer to family. When I bought a house, I didnât even try buying within an hour of Portland â there was nothing I could afford in an area I wanted to live in. It was peak COVID pricing, which didnât help, and I had some dealbreakers (large yard for the dog, trying to stay within a certain area in Portland) that complicated things. Still â nothing in the $300-400K range. Youâd have to check Zillow and other sites to see where things are at now.
I ended up buying out in the middle of nowhere WA. Even there, my budget didnât get me near what I was hoping for. Prices seem to have stabilized since then, but not really gone down.
You may want to think about renting for a year or two. Rent is also exorbitant in Portland, but it would give you the time to figure out the area and what you really do/donât want to compromise on.
For all of that, the PNW is beautiful and has a lot going for it. Itâs just not cheap, no matter how you do it.
Get a mapâŠ.a real one, on paper so you can mark it up. Look at FB and Insti for any horse activity, clubs, shows, trail rides etc. Mark those locations on the map. Same with other services you would like nearby. It helps you get a better picture of the area. And plan a vacation spending at least a week investigating the target areaâŠincluding drive times at peak and non peak hours. That can be quite revealing and rule what look like perfect areas out. Also could be terrain issues, steep grades, flood/mud/ash and debris plains, stuff that doesnât show on maps, oh, theres that pesky chain of volcanos, one in your backyard.
Coming from even the more rural parts of the northeast, it can be difficult to grasp out west distances. Some counties are half the size of some small states. You mentioned something like âeven out to Vancouver Wa.â? Locals consider that to be right across river. And it is booming with defectors from the Oregon side who still commute to work there.
Take your time and do your research in person as much as you can.
Have friends with horses who left Portland and ended up way out in Spokane, which is no bargain anymore either. But maybe you can go out there without being within a few hours of Portland ? Still be way closer then you are now.
I relocated to Portland from New England a little over 10 years ago.
I echo @findeight. I would add that thereâs likely a geographical difference between being within an hour of Portland and being within an hour of the specific area in Portland where your brother lives. If youâre looking to be closer to your brother, specifically, make sure you factor his location in when youâre mapping out housing and equestrian activities. Even if you end up going more than an hour out, traffic and going through the city can really make a difference in travel times.
My daughter, SIL, and grandkids live about an hour from PDX in the Cascade foothills of WA east of Ridgefield. Because we might want to move closer to them when we retire, Iâve been keeping a bit of an eye on the real estate market in their area. You have been given a lot of good info so far. Iâd say if you can consider going further north into WA such that you might be more like an hour and a half to two hours from where your brother is in Portland, you might can find a workable situation given the budget and requirements youâve shared. Along the I-5 corridor from Centralia down through Ridgefield, real estate prices and boarding seem to generally be less expensive than in the metroplexes. I feel like a good, reliable painter/general contractor can probably do well anywhere though might take a while to get established. Fairly active 4-H, Pony Club, high school equestrian scene up and down I-5 in WA (although not what they were 15 years ago). Clark County particularly has had strong 4-H horse programs.
We are currently about three hours from daughter & co in the Puget Sound area, and although we get tired of making the slog up and down the interstate (or occasionally along the back roads), we usually go visit for a weekend once a month or so. Being within an easily doable driving distance is much better than than having to fly somewhere.
That is hugely helpful and specific. Thank you so much!
I just did the same move but in reverse; used to live in Snohomish County in WA and now in upstate NY. to give you an idea what homes on acreage are going for, I had just a skosh under 5 acres of overgrown pasture, electric fences, large shop building with RV height doors and three run in shed row stalls in the back with mud free paddocks, small house ~ 1200 sf on a gravel road so very dusty in the summer. Sold it for $750,000.
Wow, these prices are astounding. I just never want to spend that much to live. My husbands brother and his wife want to move back to WI from Seattle because their rent for a one bedroom apartment is $2400. Iâm sorry, but no place is worth that. I just donât understand it.
You said you live in New England now with a home thatâs almost paid off. Idk if Iâd honestly mess with that situation. Rent a VRBO a few times a year and visit is my suggestion 
Aside from cost, Portland has a huge problem with crime⊠not sure Iâd want to be too close to thatâŠ
The PNW is beautiful but very expensive, you need more than just a couple of acres for multiple horses or it will turn to mud quickly⊠if you want to ride year round you need to either plan on building an indoor or invest in an allweather $$$ outdoor, or have a place nearby that allows hauling in. Board is not cheap either and in a lot of places does not include grain, and sometimes only a few scoops of sawdust in a back corner of the stall (is this a WA thing? Had never seen that beforeâŠ)
For FB groups try searching for PNW groups thereâs a few
OK so weâve established that COL is insane .
What are wages like? Are they proportionate to the cost-of-living?
In other words, do most people (professionals, who own homes )
have enough money to hire and pay contractors?
If you work in the Equine industry can you find a barn management or an instructor type (or a combo) position enough to not just make ends meet have some kind of quality of life with savings, Horses (do those words go together in the same sentence?), Out to eat things like that.
I live in Connecticut. Our home value probably increased over $80,000 the last few years just because of the ridiculous prices of everything. Groceries gas animal care all of it â itâs all up there. I know itâs like that throughout a lot of the country. Somehow people are still working on home improvement projects, and paying for riding lessons. Donât want to rock the boat or put us in a position where the last 10 to 15 years of our working years( where we plan to make a bigger dent on retirement savings )we actually have to spend that on month-to-month survival.
so I appreciate all of the replies even the ones that tell me things I donât want to hear!
Oh lord but then you get the 37 âIâm a local realtor, PM me, Iâd love to help!!!â 
FWIW, I did a Zillow search (I love Zillow) and drew a biiiiig circle around Portland, from basically Olympia, WA, to south of Eugene, OR, and I inputted $350k as a max price, 2+ bedrooms, and there were not a small amount of non-fixers that popped up. But a lot were fixers. So it isnât impossible and you will need to do some phone/text/facebook research to decide if an area will work for the below options.
Generally, yes. I live farther north but still a spendy area. I am I guess âlower middle classâ based on recent articles Iâve read, but still six figures and have a farm that I run and keep horses at home. BUT. Horses are my only expense. I donât do any other hobbies, I work a lot, my other âhobbiesâ (garden, chickens) are hobbies that feed me to offset grocery and that I sell for a little profit. If I needed something I canât get my Dad to help with (because he was a contractor) then yes Iâd be hiring. It would be tight depending on the project, but yes I have and would for jobs I canât or donât want to do (roof on my equipment shed, pounding in fence posts, putting in a french drain).
Hmmmm⊠Maybe. Depends on where you wind up. Itâs possible, yes. But you might be driving a fair distance to get to that unicorn barn that operates year round, has a healthy group of lesson horses and lesson students. Most places Iâve seen are either richy-rich and the owner is absent and âdry rentsâ to a trainer, so getting a BM position is unlikely, or they are owner-operated to keep costs down. As an instructor, you might have better luck.
Good info from TheJenners came in as I was crafting this reply. I second everything she said.
I offered some encouragement in my reply yesterday, but as I thought more about it, the conundrum is that if you get out far enough in the hinterlands to make a 300K real estate budget plausible, the lower population density really will impact opportunities for you - moreso than for your husband, I think. I think the home improvement market exists in the hinterlands, but it will be more limited. Again, not impossible, but a real challenge to align your ârequiredâ checkboxes. 300K is really not going to go far anywhere on the westside of the mountains in WA or OR and within striking distance of Portland.
FWIW, I know a primarily âup-downâ single mom trainer who found a barn with double wide housing on site to dry rent in a dense population location in the lower Puget Sound. She charges what I consider to be an exorbitant amount for what she provides, but she seems to be making it work and doing fairly well. But I think part of the key is that she is in an area that is easily accessible to a lot of families that might be in the market for up-down lessons, school and summer camp experiences, etc.
As someone with an 89 year old mother who is firmly planted in the city of her birth 2000 miles away from me, I am much more aware these days of how important it can be to be close to those who matter to you most as you get into your later years. Iâm thinking Iâm going to make it easier on my daughter than it has been on me by keeping myself and my husband close to her. 
Does the up down instructor want to retire in five years? Bc the pony club badge , 4h , camp , learn to ride is my niche 
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This is so true. It still surprises me after living in WA for over a decade (coming from New England).
