When you're moving from city to city, it can sometimes be difficult to figure out whether you're going to be able to afford to live the same lifestyle you had when you owned Richmond, Virginia real estate. Your new city might not have the same prices for anything from real estate to bread, which means you have to start your whole budget over again. It's always best to know these things before you commit to a move, so this article is all about the cost of living in Bend, Oregon. It should be helpful if you're thinking of moving there.

One of the easiest ways to figure out if your lifestyle is going to be more or less expensive is to look at the statistics on the cost of living index. The Unites States national average is calculated at 10, with cities each receiving a number higher or lower to mark how much more expensive or how much cheaper they are to live in than the average. Find the town your Haliburton cottages are in and compare it to Bend's figure: 9.99, which is nearly average, to see if you'll need to adjust your lifestyle up or down to afford living there.

The biggest cost you'll have to bear no matter where you decide to move to is your home. In Bend, despite the perception that no one lives in Oregon, the prices are actually quite high compared to the national average, although they have been falling due to the recession. When budgeting for a home, plan on spending about $133 per square foot of home that you need in order to match the Riverdale, Toronto real estate you used to have. If you're renting, plan to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $800 to $900 per month.

Another way of finding out how much buying power the people of Bend have is to look at how much they earn. Are their annual salaries more or less than it takes to buy Poughkeepsie, NY homes where you live? In Bend, the middle value for income a little higher than the state average and significantly higher than the national average. If you move there and have to get a new job, you can use $53,000 as your household income, because that's the median average for a family in Bend (including both partners).

Often the most telling indicator of whether life in your new city will be cheap or expensive is how much ordinary things cost. Not lessons for equestrian, London, Ontario plane tickets, or gold jewelry, but things like milk, gasoline, and movie tickets. The Safeway in Bend lists milk as costing around $2 on special and Fandango lists movie tickets for the city as being $9.50 for adults on weekend nights. Gas stations in Bend charge between $3.05 and $3.17 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline.