Hi. Portland,OR is like CA in many ways but cheaper. Its by lots of water, many flowing rivers,mountains, on the WA border. I was there for 2 weeks last Fall. It felt a lot like the Bay Area/SonomaMarin where I live. Very pretty, a little cold but manageable. There is a new tiny house village there . East Oregon and Northern Idaho are some other favs.
PS You can get water from the air! Check into a simple technology called "Air Wells". Its all about collecting water that is present in the air (even in the driest places) via dew and fog forming at night and morning, etc. The way you 'take' the water from the air can vary...It can be made from plastic netting stretched out, put up (kinda like a plastic net fence in the air) with a gutter at a slant connected to the bottom of the net. The dew/fog/water hits the netting and drips down into the gutter, into your pipe/collection container/underground cistern. You will be amazed at the amount of water people are collecting in one day only! Also Ive seen another method using a big plastic sheet or glass, positioned at a slant and they use a squeegie type thing to pull the water down into the collection containers at the bottom in the morning. Check on Youtube and Pinterest! Some methods are fancier, some are more simple, they are all getting water from the air! Take care
