Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Oregon > Portland
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 06-25-2015, 10:34 AM
 
311 posts, read 345,919 times
Reputation: 562

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by DaNuGuy View Post
Moving up from Silicon Valley (to Californicate), and as an Asian, Happy Valley seemed to have a lot to be desired. New homes, clean neighborhoods, diverse population, houses on top of hills, good schools, very centrally located near freeways and also backroads, and very affordable (coming from a 1500sq home costing 2x of typical 3000sq luxury home in HV). What I couldn't stand though, was those beautiful homes on top of the hill, had a full view of all the million roofs of other homes in the valley. It was downright depressing. HV is just too overbuilt. We ended up in Damascus where we can enjoy country living with some acreage to stretch our legs. Everytime I drive up 172nd to Sunnyside and look at the HV hillside full of Monopoly homes, I'm just so glad we didn't settle there...
I am intrigued by Damascus and I'll see if my husband is interested in checking it out. It seems like it would make his work commute (to the west side) even longer than if we were in HV.

I understand people's dislike of the squished-in feeling in HV, but it's all perspective I suppose. We are much, much more squished in and cozy with our neighbors right now in our small inner SE home than we would be in HV. We have a considerable amount of loud foot traffic outside our bedroom windows due to nearby bars and food carts. The traffic noise, sirens, car alarms and garbage and recycling trucks are also very close to our house and very loud. One of our neighbors is a chain smoker and the smoke comes out of his kitchen window and right into ours. Every few months our property gets tagged. It's just normal city life stuff, nothing unusual about it. When we bought this place in our twenties pre-children those were non-issues, but life changes. But that is just our situation, so for us HV would provide more space and be quieter for much less than we'd spend to upgrade in our current neighborhood.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 06-25-2015, 11:31 AM
 
Location: Just outside of Portland
4,828 posts, read 7,408,542 times
Reputation: 5115
If a person is looking for quiet "suburban country living", dreaming of raising their kids on 1.5 acres with a bunch of chickens, a big garden, and a few goats or a little pony, that person would be well advised to do their due diligence before they got too excited about Damascus.

Within a few years, Damascus will soon be full of high density housing tracts, just like Happy Valley.
.

Here's a peek into the future:
http://www.oregonlive.com/happy-vall..._limbo_ha.html

Last edited by pdxMIKEpdx; 06-25-2015 at 11:43 AM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-25-2015, 11:42 AM
 
892 posts, read 1,585,061 times
Reputation: 648
Traffic will only get worse and I'm thinking trying to get from HV or Damascus to the west side on a daily basis would drive me up the wall.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-25-2015, 11:47 AM
 
4,059 posts, read 5,585,423 times
Reputation: 2892
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaNuGuy View Post
Moving up from Silicon Valley (to Californicate), and as an Asian, Happy Valley seemed to have a lot to be desired...
What I couldn't stand though, was those beautiful homes on top of the hill, had a full view of all the million roofs of other homes in the valley. It was downright depressing. HV is just too overbuilt...

There's a deep irony here but I just can't quite put my finger on it...

No wait, there it is!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-25-2015, 12:08 PM
 
1,376 posts, read 1,304,186 times
Reputation: 1469
Quote:
Originally Posted by pdxMIKEpdx View Post

Within a few years, Damascus will soon be full of high density housing tracts, just like Happy Valley.
I don't think 1,679.1/sq mi is really considered high density. It's typical low-density single family residential.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-25-2015, 03:14 PM
 
Location: Just outside of Portland
4,828 posts, read 7,408,542 times
Reputation: 5115
I guess neighborhoods full of huge houses on tiny lots isn't really "high density", but it sure does feel like it.

At least you will be able to enjoy the "full view of all the million roofs" of your neighbors.

I predict that within ten years, Happy Valley and present day Damascus will be seamless and indistinguishable from each other, except for the slightly different strip malls and fast food places.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-25-2015, 06:09 PM
 
Location: Portland, Oregon
2,514 posts, read 4,997,179 times
Reputation: 2924
If your work is on the west side of the Willamette, living on the west side is usually the better option.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-26-2015, 11:17 AM
 
1,054 posts, read 1,415,737 times
Reputation: 2442
Quote:
Originally Posted by VelouriaPDX View Post
I am intrigued by Damascus and I'll see if my husband is interested in checking it out. It seems like it would make his work commute (to the west side) even longer than if we were in HV.

I understand people's dislike of the squished-in feeling in HV, but it's all perspective I suppose. We are much, much more squished in and cozy with our neighbors right now in our small inner SE home than we would be in HV. We have a considerable amount of loud foot traffic outside our bedroom windows due to nearby bars and food carts. The traffic noise, sirens, car alarms and garbage and recycling trucks are also very close to our house and very loud. One of our neighbors is a chain smoker and the smoke comes out of his kitchen window and right into ours. Every few months our property gets tagged. It's just normal city life stuff, nothing unusual about it. When we bought this place in our twenties pre-children those were non-issues, but life changes. But that is just our situation, so for us HV would provide more space and be quieter for much less than we'd spend to upgrade in our current neighborhood.
Damascus is going to be way too far away for your husband to commute to the West side every day unless he wants to spend 3 hours a day commuting. Happy Valley would be slightly better but realistically also too far out on the East side to be a reasonable distance for a West side commute (would probably be 2.5 hours a day RT commute). When we drive from Beaverton to Happy Valley on the weekends, with light traffic it takes 50 minutes door to door so with traffic you'd be looking more at 1.25 - 1.5 hours RT. For Damascus, with zero traffic assume it would take bare minimum 1 hour each way; with traffic more like 1.5 - 1.75 hours each way.

If you really want to be in the country, there are lots of nice places to look on the West side although they will cost a bit more than similar East side properties.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-26-2015, 06:29 PM
 
311 posts, read 345,919 times
Reputation: 562
For commute reasons, west side would definitely be ideal. We are considering West Linn but that commute looks longer than the commute from Happy Valley. A close-in Portland neighborhood would be great, but we want the good schools and sidewalks, so our options are limited in our price range. I suppose we could look at Beaverton.

Several of my husband's co-workers live in HV and they say the commute is a bummer, but the location makes up for it. He may be starting to work from home several days a week as well which would make a huge difference.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-26-2015, 07:36 PM
 
1,054 posts, read 1,415,737 times
Reputation: 2442
Quote:
Originally Posted by VelouriaPDX View Post
For commute reasons, west side would definitely be ideal. We are considering West Linn but that commute looks longer than the commute from Happy Valley. A close-in Portland neighborhood would be great, but we want the good schools and sidewalks, so our options are limited in our price range. I suppose we could look at Beaverton.

Several of my husband's co-workers live in HV and they say the commute is a bummer, but the location makes up for it. He may be starting to work from home several days a week as well which would make a huge difference.
West Linn would be quite a bit better than HV for a West side commute. There are a lot of great areas with good schools on the West side; would suggest you look at them instead of East side locations if your husband is going to continue to work on the West side.

Unless someone is already living in HV before they get a job on the West side, there's really no reason to live in HV. HV doesn't have anything unique about it that makes it any better of a place to live than many West side locations. For the best schools outside of Lake Oswego and West Linn, look at Sherwood, the areas around the South, North and East borders of Beaverton, the Northern border of Tigard or any house that has a Portland address on the West side of the West Hills. Your husband will probably have less than half the commute time he has now if you were to move to any of the West side areas mentioned. Besides having good schools, all these areas have sidewalks, have access to nice parks, green spaces and trail systems; as a bonus the majority of the houses in these areas have usable backyards, unlike many homes in HV.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Oregon > Portland

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top