I’m so excited to announce that we are MOVING TO NASHVILLE! Schyler and I have lived in Portland, OR for about 4 years, two of which my sister Rocio lived with us. Recently, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of becoming an actress! We had been going back and forth for awhile now on whether or not we should stay in Portland or if we should move. Portland is such a cool city and there is so much we love about it but unfortunately for us, the cons outweighed the pros.

In the past 5-7 years, Portland has become very expensive especially when it comes to renting apartments or buying a house. The cost of living is now 29% higher than the national average. We were living in a remodeled 2 bedroom apartment in the worst area of Portland for $1250 a month. To live in an updated 1 bedroom apartment in a better area of Portland we would be looking at about $1,500-$1,700 which is a lot more than most cities in the United States.

One of the houses in the bad area we lived in was selling for $400,000. To live in a nice enough house in the kinds of areas we would want to live in would be minimum $600,000. It would take us over 6 years to save for a down payment on a house like that! We really want to buy a home and start a family within the next couple of years, so for those reasons we decided Portland couldn’t be our forever home.

We started researching the cost of living in other major cities in the United States that we thought would be interesting for content and landed on Nashville, TN! The cost of living in Nashville was much more aligned with our budget and it would only take us a few years to save for a down payment on a home there. PLUS, Nashville is so close to so many other major cities that we could road trip to for more content! In Portland, we really only had Seattle (a 2-6 hour drive depending on traffic) and San Francisco which is a 9 hour drive.

Moving to Nashville just made sense! It’s pretty crazy because both Schyler and I have lived in the PNW our whole lives so this is a huge step for us. I will miss some of the great friends I made in Portland, but I can’t wait for them to visit me in my new stomping grounds! We are moving across the country (a four day road trip) with only the essentials that we can fit in our car (it would have been WAY expensive to rent a moving truck), so we will be buying a whole new apartment of furniture when we get there! I can’t wait to start slowly buying amazing pieces that will last. No more IKEA furniture for me 😉

Be sure to check back for updates on our new apartment, furniture shopping, and more travel content!

XOXO