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Wyoming vs Oregon How different are they? Oh, wonderful Wyoming. I am so glad that I get to live here. I recently saw a post about, if you had to move from your state, where would you go and why? Watch below to see the differences.
Oh, wonderful Wyoming. I am so glad that I get to live here. I recently saw a post about, if you had to move from your state, where would you go and why? Got me thinking about my Wyoming versus Montana video, and which state is the best to live in for me. I’m still very partial to Wyoming, but if I had to look at another state, would I look farther than Montana? Then coincidentally, I had someone asked me how Wyoming compares to Oregon. Of course, my first thought is it doesn’t. But it got me thinking, and so here’s a video for you.
Hi, I’m Alisha Collins with RE/MAX The Group, and the Alisha Collins Real Estate Team. Let’s see just how different or not Oregon is from Wyoming.
Let’s start with the basics. Wyoming is just under 98,000 square miles, and Oregon is just over 98,000 square miles. So pretty darn close, at least as far as area goes. Now, if you remember, Wyoming has a pretty small population. The lowest in all 50 states. So Oregon definitely has more people than Wyoming’s roughly 579,000 people. But how many more? Oregon has over 4.2 million people living in roughly the same space as Wyoming. Wow, that is a lot of people. Definitely higher population density in Oregon. So depending on how you feel about lots of people, you’d have to decide the winner on this one. I’m pretty sure you can figure out where I stand. Okay, so more people, similar space. What else do we have to consider?
How about median income and median home price? According to home snacks.com, Wyoming wins the comparison. No opinion needed. Wyoming has a median income of just over $64,000 which is really not much higher than Oregon’s median income of $62,018. But when you look at the median home price in Oregon, Wyoming pulls even for their head. Oregon’s median price is a whopping $312,200 when you take that and compare it to Wyoming’s $220,500. You can definitely buy more home with your money in Wyoming.
All right, while we’re on the numbers, let’s look at taxes. If you remember, one of the advantages of living in Wyoming is that there isn’t a state income tax here. So another win for Wyoming, since Oregon’s state income tax ranges from 4.75 to 9.9%, depending on income level. But then again, Oregon is another state that doesn’t have sales tax. So who wins on this one? I have to say, I think the win has to go to Wyoming, being taxed 4.75% on your income versus only taxed on what you spend, I think you would have less than taxes in Wyoming since our sales tax is still fairly low compared to many other states.
So what about property tax? According to taxfoundation.org, Wyoming gets another win in the column on this one. At an average of 0.51%, it is almost not quite half of Oregon’s 0.91%, then if you look at the higher property costs as a whole, you definitely will spend more in property tax in Oregon than in Wyoming.
Since we’re talking about taxes and numbers, we probably should touch on the fact that Wyoming is one of the best states for businesses. According to taxfoundation.org, it is actually the number one state when it comes to business tax climate or Oregon comes in at number 15. But then according to fool.com, Oregon comes in at number eight, just above Wyoming at number nine. Best places to start your small business. As usual, it depends on which source, and what measure to see which is better for business. Number one versus 15 and number eight versus nine, I have to say Wyoming wins this one as well. I suppose, depending on what your business is, if you need more customers locally, Oregon would come out ahead on this one by sheer number of people as their population is higher. One advantage of a larger population. Well, Wyoming appears to come out ahead when it comes to numbers on paper, but living somewhere is more than just numbers.
I can’t speak for Oregon, but Wyoming is full. Okay, maybe not exactly full, low population and all, of friendly helpful people. So since I don’t live in Oregon, I had to go to the internet to see about people in Oregon. According to bigseventravel.com, Wyoming definitely wins over Oregon when it comes to friendly. We come in fifth versus Oregon’s 24th. I did check with a Wyoming native who actually lives in Oregon, and the verdict is that Portland and the larger cities are pretty friendly for a larger city, but not as friendly as Wyoming. The smaller cities and more rural areas of Oregon are definitely more friendly and helpful than the cities.
Okay, so speaking of cities, you know that Wyoming has a couple of larger cities, and definitely some small towns, does Oregon? We know that Portland has a population of over 645,000 people which is higher than the entire state of Wyoming. So you really can’t compare when it comes to a large city. If a large city is what you want, Oregon would win that one. Portland is Oregon’s biggest city by a lot. The next largest is Salem with just over 177,000 people. Nine out of the top 10 largest cities in Oregon are all larger than Cheyenne, Wyoming’s largest city. So if you want a big city, you would definitely want Oregon over Wyoming. Oregon has several mid-sized cities as well with similar population sizes to Cheyenne, and Wyoming’s top cities.
But what about the smaller cities? So I’m not sure who would win this one. Simply looking at the list of cities by population, you will see that both states have a mix of small and medium cities. Again, the biggest difference is the overall size of the population in Oregon which then leads to larger cities and more of them.
Okay, so what about the climate? Does all of Oregon rain all the time or is it just Portland or just an exaggeration? Okay, not an exaggeration. Parts of Oregon get upwards of 200 inches of precipitation annually, but it isn’t all of Oregon. Other areas see a mere eight inches, comparatively Wyoming is a dry state with only 10 inches of average precipitation. Apparently, Portland sees 142 sunny days per year which leaves over 200 non-sunny days. Yikes, Oregon’s temperatures vary depending on where the state you are. Summer is from 68 degrees to 94 degrees, and winter is from 18 to 37 degrees where Wyoming summers range from 75 to 90 degrees, and winters from zero to 18 degrees. So Oregon is more of a temperate state, even if it is a wetter one.
So what about the political climate? Wyoming is definitely known as a conservative state as a whole with pockets of more liberal areas. Oregon on the other hand is known as a more liberal state, predominantly concentrated in the more populated regions like Portland. However, the more rural areas tend to lean a little more conservative. So depending on which way you lean, you have to decide which area is more suited for your political views.
So the last comparison I can think of is all about the great outdoors and I’m not sure there is a winner there. Both states have amazing mountains, lakes, rivers for camping, hunting, fishing, wildlife viewing, skiing and more. Apparently, Oregon has five national parks which does trump Wyoming’s two. Oregon also has the coast and access to the ocean which of course, landlocked Wyoming does not have. Wyoming has some great beaches, but they’re all around a several of our amazing lakes. If there’s an act or activity you want to try, you can probably do it in either Oregon or Wyoming. Well, with the ocean and the extra national parks, maybe Oregon wins this one. However, since there are so many people, you do have to share the great outdoors a bit more in Oregon than Wyoming.
While it has been interesting to compare these two, and they have lots of similarities, I would have to say the differences are large enough that it should help you make a decision, if you’re trying to decide between the two states. Good luck with your decision. And remember, if you decide on Wyoming, I happen to know a great realtor. Thanks for watching. And remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel.