Hey breharb - I have a "free" account so can't private message. If you feel comfortable with it, PM me your e-mail and I'd be happy to continue a discussion.
For now, all I can say is that housing in Portland is cheaper than Seattle, but Seattle has barely felt any fallout from the "housing crisis." Average price of a home in King County is approximately $530,000. Between Amazon.com, Micro$oft, Starbucks, Costco, T-Mobile USA and Paccar being headquartered in this area (as well as Boeing having a huge presence), I think this area could be better for finding IT employment than Portland. But Portland is a pretty city!
Sorry everyone for going off topic. I won't do it again..