As an ex-pat living north of Seattle for the last 24 years, can I offer you this insight, T? Portland [[and Oregon in general) has it's share of woes. My wife and I spent a week in downtown Portland a few months ago and to be honest, we were shocked at the [[literally) crumbling infrastructure of the city. The roads were terrible and there was a significant amount of trash and graff everywhere - in short, a typical large city.

As was pointed out earlier, the housing stock is significantly more expensive than Detroit. Also, check out tax initiatives 66 and 67 that hit businesses causing a percentage of them to move to Washington state just to stay solvent. See: http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.ph/Oregon_Tax_Hike_Vote,_Ballot_Measures_66_and_67_%2 82010%29
Oregon got hit very hard in the "economic downturn", just like a majority of states.

I will give Portland a thumbs up regarding mass transit, though. It's a very expansive, multifaceted approach that is light years ahead of Detroit. The reason I bring these points up is to encourage you to look at all aspects of the community you ultimately choose to be a part of.