COL differences between Oakland, CA and Portland, Oregon

Sharon, I don't have an answer--I'm interested in other's advice as well.

But another factor is that Portland is so close to the border.  If you can live in WA and work in OR, can you take advantage of the fact that WA has no income tax and OR has no sales tax? I assume it is not that easy, and I know the commute from Vancouver WA to Portland can be difficult.  So I wonder how property taxes compare.

Have you seen Numbeo? I've checked it out while doing my own escape-from-the-Bay research. :) You can select different criteria to compare; maybe it'll be helpful.  

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Portland (sorry, embedded link not working on mobile)

Hello.
I've done that and came back home to Oakland. (Just recently)
Weather was just awful - rainy almost every day, cold, so you are locked in the house with a kid - it was killing me. Than suddenly VERY VERY hot in the summer (just some days though, but 105 and no air conditioner).
Farmers markets their are much more expensive. And fruits don't taste as good as here, I missed Oakland farmers markets a lot. I believe, that veggies and fruits were more expensive in general in Portland. 
I was paying about the same in utilities.
Property taxes are pretty heigh up their
Toddlers classes were cheaper in Portland
Traffic just awful their. 
Air quality was incredible. 
PDX - hard to fly internationally, almost no direct flights to Europe and other parts of the world. Tickets were more expensive to fly to/from Portland
Many families with kids. 

I was so bored and didn't like it. It feels very much like a suburban city and I need a dynamic place. No ocean close by made me sad too. There are some mountains close by (with some snow and winter activities, but I like the beach). 

Portland was not for me and my family. I am back in Oakland and just LOVE LOVE and LOVE it. People, weather, ocean, friends, farmers markets, nature, SF, life style - can't imagine anything better than Oakland.

But many people really like it up their.
Good luck!

Some context, we lived in the east bay for 10 years, moved to Portland 4 years ago and this summer are moving back to the east bay.  We have a 9month old.  

COL changes in Portland:

• State of OR doesn't have sales tax - this actually did end up adding up to a good amount of saved money over the years.  We've purchased a car and other big items - all without sales tax and have saved a ton of money because of it! 
• Child care is less expensive here for the most part.  Portland has expensive child care downtown and at OHSU (one of the hospitals you may work for). Outside of those areas, it's more reasonable.  We pay $1200/mo for full time care at a daycare in the SE of Portland.  Places we looked at downtown and at OHSU ran ~ $1600-1800/month. I've heard its even better further from Portland (Hillsboro, Beaverton, Lake Oswego, etc).
• Food is just as expensive here - in my opinion. We love to eat out at all the fun restaurants and go to the cool bars, so we've spent some dough checking that out.  
• There are better farmers markets in Portland and in general better farmer's market prices than east bay.
• Public transit options here are great.  Depending on who your employer is you may receive a substantial discount.  As an OHSU employee, I pay $70 for a whole year of access to the entire public transit system (aerial tram, MAX train, Streetcar, & Bus).  Trimet has all the prices and monthly pass info listed online (generally, it's $5/day for most transit). 
• Traffic sucks here- we spend more time in stop and go traffic (to commute ~10 miles) and spend more on gas (~$2.25/gallon here on average for the last year) now than we did when we lived in the east bay (commuting from albany to berkeley).
• Work-life balance is much better in Portland.  Prepare yourselves for the long-dark winter days though, it's rough. 
• Housing: depends on where you want to live frankly.  You can spend just as much as you would in east bay housing if you want to live in fancy parts of Pearl District or NW Portland.  Craigslist is a great way to survey housing for rentals in Portland. Redfin is great if you're looking to buy.  In broadstrokes: SE you're looking at $5000/month - $2500/month in a rental for a house that can comfortably fit 4 people (3bd 2bath). 
• Net COL for portland is cheaper than east bay, but I wouldn't put it at any more than 10% better.  
• OR state income taxes for us have been in the range of ~10%

You can find the difference in cost of living between both cities using the CNN Money Calculator: http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/

Or Google search keywords: cost of living calculator.

Best,

L

I found restaurants to be quite a bit cheaper than in the Bay Area. I had a high-end dinner for 50-60% of what it would have been in SF and casual dining places that seemed 20-25% cheaper. I was so surprised at that difference. I'm considering Oregon as a place to retire as it's cheaper than SF, but am concerned with some of the negative things I've heard about the weather, etc.