I live in Portland, but have spent many, many weeks in Bend and have dear LIBERAL friends and family who live there. Deschutes County is a real mix of cons and libs, but the libs live in town, which is beautiful. You could probably find a demographic map of which areas voted for Romney vs Obama.
If you love beautiful, pristine and interesting geology, ski, hike, boat, climb or cave exploration, etc, etc, it's your town, but it's been hit pretty hard by the recession which is why property is very easy to buy now. MANY foreclosures on people who bought at the peak when Bend was growing rapidly. It's close to Smith Rock, one of the most spectacular places in the State, it's 3 hours from Portland, and within a comfortable drive/return to so many beautiful places.
Winters are cold, lots of snow and ice for months, but if you have good snow tires you can get pretty much anywhere w/o chains. There's a fairly large group of Hollywood people there, or at least there were a few years ago. Probably not a great job market, but my good friend who lost his job there in '09, was just rehired and moved back and bought a foreclosed house for a ridiculously low price.
Can only imagine Houston is a nightmare for you.
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