Moving - SW or SE Portland??? (Gresham, Tigard: for sale, homes, safe neighborhood)

[missikie]

Hello, my family is relocating from the San Diego area to Portland due to my husband's job. We are looking forward to the move because my family is originally from Oregon (Sisters & Prineville), and we are looking forward to being close to family (at least within a few hours).

We recently relocated from Northern California to San Diego and are being relocated again. We have lived in communities of 180,000 people and suburbs of 26,000. We prefer the community feel of smaller towns. Here is what we are looking for:

Within 1 hour to St Johns.
Rent at first then buy a home on 1+ acre for under $350,000. (3 Bd, 2 ba, 2 car garage a must)
Good schools (Middle and High), preferably within walking distance.
Friendly community feel (I like it when my local vendor recognizes me and knows me by name)
Safe neighborhood (we like to walk our dog in the evening and the boys like to ride their bikes)

I have been researching the area and am looking at Milwaukie, West Linn, Oregon City and Sherwood.

Any other areas I should consider? Your advice is greatly appreciated.

[missikie]

I am also looking at Tigard and Tualatin. So many choices.

[SETabor]

Seeing as St. John's is your destination you may also want to consider Linnton, Scappoose or St. Helen's. The latter two will be the easiest places to get property with land.

[Nell Plotts]

The St. John's bridge is the connector from Portland's west side to the St. John's neighborhood. That bridge is accessed by Hgwy 30 or Germantown Road.

Linnton has the advantage of being in the Skyline/Lincoln enrollment area however it is not particularly kid friendly because of Hgwy 30. One can follow Germantown Road and find properties with land that are in that enrollment area. My grandchildren live in that enrollment area and are not yet of school age. My concern is that Skyline School is now a K-8 on a constrained site (the school has outgrown the facility IMHO). 6-8 isn't bussed to West Sylvan because of transportation issues. The plus is that many of the parents work for INTEL and put a premium on education so they are very involved particularly with math and science.

Germantown and Skyline roads are dicey in sub-freezing weather. Neither have much of a shoulder and Skyline in particular is popular with cyclists (huge community issue).

[missikie]

Thank you. I would like to try and find a town with a population of at least 15,000-30,000, yet close to a larger area due to the entertainment and shopping needs of two teenagers.

I am also considering the Vancouver, WA area, but it is a larger population than I am looking for.
We originally lived in Windsor, CA with a population of 26,000, but 9 miles from Santa Rosa, with a population of 185,000 and within one hour of San Francisco.

My partner is working in St Johns, but I may be working in SE Portland. What is the commute time from the Gresham area to St. Johns? Is it under an hour in commute traffic?

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by missikie

My partner is working in St Johns, but I may be working in SE Portland. What is the commute time from the Gresham area to St. Johns? Is it under an hour in commute traffic?

No... it's not. It's a Saturday Night at 6pm here, according to Google Maps it's 41 minutes in current traffic patterns.

BTW, you're going to be hard pressed to find a one acre piece of property within City Limits, especially at your price mark. Search these forums for Urban Growth Boundary as that topic has been beaten to death. Outside of the UGB, it is only slightly more likely. If there are any that size, then as suggested, Lintton to St. Helens area is where they're going to be.

[missikie]

hamellr,

I have actually located many homes for sale on .75-1 acre for under $350K in Tualatin, Oregon City, Milwaukie, etc.
My problem is narrowing it down to one area.

We will be coming up for a few days next month to visit various areas to see what area we feel we would like to live in.

[Nell Plotts]

Tualitan, Milwaukie and Oregon City are a long way from St. Johns. Just a warning. Try it during the hours your husband will be commuting.

[EnricoV]

The odds of finding a 1 acre property within walking distance of a school, much less schools, is really low.

But I agree with the advice. You'd best look towards Scappoose and St. Helens for the easiest commute to St. Johns. All the towns you've mentioned are about as far as you can get from St. Johns and still be in the Portland area. Not to mention, St. Johns isn't the easiest place to get to. It's a lot of surface driving as opposed to freeway driving.

[missikie]

Nell -

My husband currently commutes 3 hours each way (San Diego to Santa Monica). 1 hour would be a blessing. :-)