where should I live?

May 10, 2005 8:59 PM

I just got a job offer in Portland -- where should I live?

I just interviewed in Portland this weekend, liked it, and I've seen the other posts about what the city has to offer. We've 98% made up our minds that we're going to move there from Austin where we own a decent-sized house. We are in our mid-30s, no kids (or plans for them) and would probably like to rent a house (for now). My work would be in Beaverton, but would prefer to live somewhere in the city (the SO will probably work from home). So, to keep the commute managable, this probably limits us to the southern parts of the city. We'd like to live somewhere where we could walk/bike to local establishments, the grocery store, etc, but do not want to live on a busy street. What areas do you recommend? pros/cons of neighborhoods? Any areas to avoid? Craigslist seems to have some good postings, but anywhere else to look for rentals?

posted by j to home & garden (17 comments total)

I just moved from one part of the southeast (Sunnyside/Mt. Tabor) to another (Woodstock). I can chip in a few impressions of those areas.

In our old neighborhood, right between Belmont and Hawthorne, we had a nice mix: Residential, but with a Fred Meyer (the big local grocery/department store chain) and a drug store, some decent restaurants and a few bars close at hand. It was about a ten minute walk from nothing but houses to a small but useful commercial district.

I think one downside to Sunnyside is probably cost. I don't know about the rest of town, but my subjective impression is that rents tend to be high (though not the worst), and what's available is more in the vein of small apartments or upstairs/downstairs duplexes. When we moved from our 900 sq. foot, 2br duplex to our 1,600 sq. foot 3br house (with yard and a big front porch), our rent went up only $100. A place in our old neighborhood similar to the one we're renting now was renting for $500 more than we pay here.

We're still pretty new to our current neighborhood (Woodstock), but it's quiet and pleasant. A little older (demographically) than Sunnyside, and with less a sense that it's booming commercially. But it's got a Safeway, a few restaurants, a hardware store and a bubble tea shop within walking distance. My wife's a social worker and she tells me it gets a little more rough a little further south.

Regarding travel: You can manage a commute out to Beaverton from parts of the northeast without a lot of hassle, depending on your proximity to the highway, so don't rule it out. I know someone who lives in the near NE, works at Intel and says he doesn't do much worse than when he lived in a riverfront apartment in the southwest.

One tool you might find useful for checking out information on prospective neighborhoods is PortlandMaps.com. It provides all sorts of information on a given address, including locations of nearby parks and crime rates by type. It also tells you which neighborhood a given property is in, which makes it easier for you to communicate with the locals.
posted by mph at 9:46 PM on May 10, 2005

Hmn, if work's in Beaverton (Intel? Nike?) you either want to be in West-side Downtown Portland, or you want to be somewhere in Beaverton or Hillsburrito.

To explain a little more, to get around in Portland, you need to stay on the freeways and pretty much avoid the surface streets. The freeways (26 and 217) that head from other parts of town into and out of Beaverton are pretty much gridlocked during commute times. 26 back over the Sylvan Hills gridlocks from about 3 pm til 8 pm each night (or it did last year when I lived downtown), and 217 is better but not great. I wouldn't live in deep SW (Tigard, Lake Oswego, Sunnyside, etc.) because it looks like they'll tear up 217 within the next few years to add a lane, which is going to make commuting on it a royal pain in the ass; it already slows to stops from about 4-5 pm.

If I were working in Beaverton and wanted a decent commute and a liveable, walkable community, I would live in the Orinco Station community in Beaverton. It's a planned high-density community with shopping and everything within walking distance and an easy jump via the on-site transit hubs to downtown or any of the really big businesses in the Beaverton area.
posted by SpecialK at 10:37 PM on May 10, 2005

Err, that's Orenco Station.
posted by SpecialK at 10:38 PM on May 10, 2005

If you're going to live in the city, I would look at Munjoy Hill first because it's central, but there's some cool places around Monument Square.

But if you don't have to live in the city, think about maybe going a bit south along the coast like to Wells/Ogunquit-- still an easy drive to Portland, but convenient to Portsmouth as well and Boston's just an hour-fifteen.
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:03 AM on May 11, 2005

mph -- thanks for all the info. My friend who just moved there is living in the Woodstock area and it seemed really cute/nice. Looking on Craigslist, however, I didn't see many rental properties available. My friend recruited me for the same company, and he says his commute is ~20 minutes. Which is tolerable. I would prefer not much more than that, however.

SpecialK -- No, not either of those companies! It's a tiny little startup that I'd never heard of until my friend went there. So I hadn't thought of actually living IN Beaverton (everyone seems to think it's suburbia hell). That's really good to know about the traffic patterns.

Mayor Curley -- From looking at the maps, the coast looks pretty far away (for a daily commute)... Oh wait, you said Boston? Did you mean Portland, Maine? My apologies -- I meant Portland, Oregon!
posted by j at 6:21 AM on May 11, 2005

Another Woodstocker here--personally, if I had to commute to Beaverton, there is no way I'd live in this neighborhood. But then I hate long commutes. I would recommend living downtown, though this can be spendy.

But if you really like the neighborhood, there are plenty of rentals despite the lack of Craigslist entries. They are often on main streets, but I've seen quite a few cute houses for rent.
posted by frykitty at 7:26 AM on May 11, 2005

J, on the off chance you'll see this post -

If you live anywhere in downtown, and want to commute to Beaverton, you basicly have 3 choices. One is take surface streets to Highway 26, 'Sunset Highway'. This highway is a major pain in the ass. Anyone who says they can do Portland-Beaverton commute in 20 mins on average is forgetting tanother 20 or so minutes of the commute a good deal of the time. Choice 2 is taking surface streets to the back streets over the West Hills. While this can be a real time saver, expect to buy new brakes about twice as fast as normal (steep hills ending in stoplights). The scenery along the way is quite nice though. Third would be MAX, the lightrail system through (some of) Portland-Metro area. There is limited track in Beaverton, so this might not be viable.

Personally, I'm looking for work, could get work in Beaverton easily, but avoiding it like the plague. When I stopped my last commute to Beaverton, I honestly think my blood pressure permanently dropped back to almost healthy levels. It is not a fun commute, but not nearly as nasty as Seattle or some other large towns.

As for where to live, if possible, I'd go for downtown, any neighborhood. Gentrification is the word around town these days, but it has lead to even the worst neighborhoods being turned into decent and lively places. I would avoid Orenco Station, unless you don't go out much or only to chain restaurants/bars. It's far too clean and orderly, as is most of newer Beaverton, for most Portlanders' tastes. Also, traffic is always hell in Beaverton.

Downtown Westside Portland tends to be more affluent/snobbish in my opinion, though if you have the money, there are some great areas. Inner Eastside (within 40-50 blocks of the river) is exploding right now. Woodstock, Laurelhurst, etc areas are very cool areas if you get out a lot. Great restaurants, bars, art etc. North Portland is on the verge of being what inner East side is currently, if not already. Home prices are skyrocketing in these areas (east and north) and presumably rent prices as well.

Other than that, there are lots of great areas to live, if craigslist isnt panning out, check out the classifieds in The Oregonian (major daily) or the 2 weeklys, The Portland Mercury, and the Willamette Week. I'd provide links, but I'm too tired.

When you get here, get out and see the town and the state. Tons of things to do here - coast, mountains, the Gorge, all kinds of things to keep you occupied. And lastly, try not to overplay the fact that you just moved here from out of state, native Oregonians are fairly displeased at the influx of people driving up housing costs ;)
posted by efalk at 7:32 AM on May 11, 2005

I've lived in SW, NW, and NE all while commuting to Beaverton daily to work for the last 5+ years.

NW is probably the easiest/fastest since you can get directly on 26 without having to put up with the tunnel or 405. On the downside you've got to put up with 10,000 indie rock kids at the grocery store all looking down on you because you're there to buy ice-cream in your sweatpants at 2am. It's also pretty spendy/trendy, and parking sucks.

SW is probably almost as fast, and in certain parts of Beaverton faster. If you live in SW I'd aim for somewhere around Multnomah village, the rest of SW is pretty boring.

NE is manageable. It takes me 20 minutes (really) for my wife and I to commute every morning, and depending on the traffic 30-45 minutes at night (with several opportunities along the way to say 'fuck it, lets go get a beer, traffic sucks tonight', which we probably end up doing 1-2 times a week). We live in Concordia which is pretty far out.

SE I would avoid (sorry everyone else), but not because it's a bad part of town... it's just a royal pain in the ass to get to/from rapidly.

If you're looking to rent a house then I'd aim for somewhere around Hawthorne or Belmont in SE, Alberta in NE, or Multnomah Village in SW.

If you're looking to rent an apartment I'd aim for NW either up near 21st/23rd or down in the Pearl, you'll also be able to find some nice apartment/condo rentals in SW especially near John's Landing (although that's another place that's a pain to commute to/from wrt Beaverton).

You should also be able to find some nice apartment/condo rentals in Irvington in NE, and in terms of a nice blend of everything that's probably your best bet. In Irvington you're close to the Max (the Lloyd Center mall is the last stop in fareless square, so you can walk over there and hop on for a free trip downtown), two movie theaters, plenty of bars and restaurants, I-5 and I-405, the Rose Garden, and downtown. For nice a two bedroom in that part of town you're probably looking at $750/month.

Feel free to email me if you've got questions, email is in the profile.
posted by togdon at 7:56 AM on May 11, 2005

I have nothing new to add. I've lived in the Portland area for all thirty-six years of my life. I spent a decade making sales calls in and around the city. I won't claim to be an expert at it, but I do know it fairly well. That being said:

Togdon's advice is spot-on, and efalk's got the right idea, too.

(And frykitty's right: I would never want to commute from Woodstock to Beaverton, either. I have a friend who does it everyday, though. He doesn't enjoy it. He beats the morning commute or it wouldn't be an option.)
posted by jdroth at 8:31 AM on May 11, 2005

You said you plan to rent - one thing you might want to consider is that if you sell your house and then you don't use the money to buy a new house within a certain amount of time, you could end up paying capital gains tax on the sale. You probably already know this, but thought I would mention it just in case.
posted by clarissajoy at 10:50 AM on May 11, 2005

My two cents:

Commuting on 26 is a pain, and I think it's only going to get worse. Depending on the location of your employer, I would aim for something on or near the Max line downtown. Goose Hollow might be an option. Or even Hollywood (though that might be a long Max trip). And there are still some nice areas of NW that avoid the spendy/trendy issue that togdon mentioned (you'd probably have to go as north as Savior or Thurmond (they go alphabetical in NW)) - you can get around on the new Trolly.

I've lived in all four quadrants of Portland, and I would prefer to live in a location where public transportation was my primary method of transportation - Trimet and cycling are too easy in Portland to ignore.

And another vote for mph's PortlandMaps.com - an unbelievable amount of information there.
posted by monkeystronghold at 10:56 AM on May 11, 2005

Mayor, this used to point to the Portland, Maine Press Herald webpages. The newspaper was sold to Blethen, of the Seattle Times, and the webpage now points to that other Portland. I'm still bitter, and I appreciate your loyalty, even though you choose to live in The South.
posted by theora55 at 11:08 AM on May 11, 2005

I live in Woodstock and commute to Wilsonville!. It's no biggie, the bus takes about 65 minutes which isn't much longer than the drive and I'm pretty sure that the max goes out to Beaverton, that's usually even quicker. So to sum it up, I guess anywhere in the inner city would work especially if you plan on using the excellent public transportation system.
posted by yodelingisfun at 11:25 AM on May 11, 2005

Hillsdale might be just the place for you. It's a short trip to downtown on Terwilliger or (if you must) I-5 and, well, Hwy 10 ain't called the Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway for nothing.
posted by willpie at 12:28 PM on May 11, 2005

Theora55-- the original is still the best! Cumberland County 4 LIFE!
posted by Mayor Curley at 2:03 PM on May 11, 2005

If I were you, I'd 1) stick to the near-in-eastside no further than 28th or so; 2) not go further south than Sellwood; 3) not go further north than a block or two past Broadway; or 1) try the Goose Hallow area or anything near PSU across the 405 from downtown; 2) stick close to the river on the west side, near Lewis and Clark College or down towards Johns Landing closer to downtown; or 1) try NW portland, somewhere between 14th and 25th, and between Burnside, and Thurman. Check out this map, I've circled the areas I'd suggest.

I think the Goose Hallow neighborhood is great. Close to downtown, on the Max line, lots of rentals for the PSU students, etc. I also like the Johns Landing area, but that's a little pricier, as too is the area near Lewis and Clark College, and it's a little bit of a ways from the city, you'll not really feel like you're living in Portland up there... Anywhere on the east side that I laid out too is fine. The further south you go the less expensive it is. Sellwood is nice but too, it feels like your in another city when you live down there.
posted by pwb503 at 2:40 PM on May 11, 2005

Wow, this has all been great information -- I really appreciate all the info regarding neighborhoods and traffic patterns (that I hadn't thought about).
pwb503 -- the map with the boxes is really great to help visualize what you're talking about.
I'm going to plan another trip probably some time mid-June to try to find something starting mid-July (my start date is July 18th). After that, we'll have to have a Portland mefi get-together!
Thanks for all the info, folks!
posted by j at 3:56 PM on May 11, 2005