St Johns area? (Portland: low income, 2015, apartment)

[laurabf]

Hi All,

My husband and I are looking around Portland. There are pretty few positions open for his work but the city and also van city has an opening (income 55k-65k). And I would also be looking for work. In looking for an 'affordable' area I came across st john. Thoughts on this area? We are in our late 20s no kids yet. Would it be OK for him to commute into Van for work from there? Any info on what the neighborhood is like would be appreciated!

[SETabor]

If you work in Vancouver, WA (which I'm assuming is the Van you mention), live in Washington. It's a ~10% pay raise straight up due to the difference in taxes. Yes, it is commutable but it would suck if he works normal hours.

[pdxh2oman]

From St. Johns he would have a reverse commute that would, on most days, make it pretty nice. Keep in mind that if you live in OR both of you will have to pay OR income tax regardless of where you work. If you live in WA and both work there then you will not have any income tax, but each will have to pay OR tax if your job is there.
St. Johns used to be its own city a hundred or more years ago. It is not what you would call up-scale, and parts are still "ungentrified". That's what makes it more affordable. All that is slowly changing, and many new businesses are making a go of it in the "downtown" area of St. Johns. You would want to find out as much as you can about the specific neighborhood where you might find a home.

[Squidlo]

Originally Posted by pdxh2oman

From St. Johns he would have a reverse commute that would, on most days, make it pretty nice. Keep in mind that if you live in OR both of you will have to pay OR income tax regardless of where you work. If you live in WA and both work there then you will not have any income tax, but each will have to pay OR tax if your job is there.
St. Johns used to be its own city a hundred or more years ago. It is not what you would call up-scale, and parts are still "ungentrified". That's what makes it more affordable. All that is slowly changing, and many new businesses are making a go of it in the "downtown" area of St. Johns. You would want to find out as much as you can about the specific neighborhood where you might find a home.

St Johns roots are working class and somewhat rough around the edges. Its block by block.. choose wisely. general rule is south of Lombard but, even then look closely.

[laurabf]

Originally Posted by pdxh2oman

From St. Johns he would have a reverse commute that would, on most days, make it pretty nice. Keep in mind that if you live in OR both of you will have to pay OR income tax regardless of where you work. If you live in WA and both work there then you will not have any income tax, but each will have to pay OR tax if your job is there.
St. Johns used to be its own city a hundred or more years ago. It is not what you would call up-scale, and parts are still "ungentrified". That's what makes it more affordable. All that is slowly changing, and many new businesses are making a go of it in the "downtown" area of St. Johns. You would want to find out as much as you can about the specific neighborhood where you might find a home.

So if you live in OR but work in WA you pay OR taxes and if you live in WA but work in OR you pay OR taxes? So if someone wanted to avoid that then they'd have to live and work in WA? Still though if you want to be in Portland your going to pay the tax regardless.

OK when we are talking about the areas to stay away from are they dangerous or just run down? There is a house on N.New York Ave near St Johns park. Is that area OK?

[Nell Plotts]

Yes, all Oregon residents pay Oregon income tax regardless of where they work.

St. John's is in the process of gentrification. Portland's low income/blue collar workforce needs somewhere to live and St. John's and N Portland is about all that is left in Portland. If you have school aged children I wouldn't recommend it unless you are a helicopter parent because many of the families have low expectations. Particularly dangerous? Not to my knowledge as few of the shootings that make the news happen in that area.

[bler144]

"There are pretty few positions open for his work but the city and also van city has an opening (income 55k-65k). And I would also be looking for work."

As others have hinted at, St. Johns is a bit of a mix. Some blocks have already gentrified, some are well along the way, and others...I think will have a hard time getting over that hump.

From the block you mention, it's only about 1/4 mile north to the railyards, and on the other side of the railyards is the port and heavy industry. St. Johns has a cute little downtown, nice bakery, a few decent restaurants, a few nice parks, some great views, etc. As the city has grown outward, St. Johns was this nice little niche with a back route into downtown across the bridge and down US-30.

So there is really a decent amount to like about it.

That said, as noted above, the rail/industry limits how much growing/gentrifying it can do. The houses (and to a lesser extent apts) north of St. Louis/Fessenden/Willis start to be close enough for the rail and noise to be a presence. And the more concerned might perhaps wonder about air quality. Though the DEQ estimate - estimate, not actual measurements - is middlin': Oregon DEQ Air Quality: Portland Air Toxics maps, the DEQ has been under a bit of question lately.

Anyway, you also get a significant amount of truck activity going through to/from 30 and via Columbia.

That said, it's not the easiest neighborhood to get in/out of, depending on where you're going. Lombard is slower than dirt because of all the lights and low speed zones east-bound to Greeley/I-5. Columbia is faster, but may be out of the way. US-30 itself is fairly fast, but the bridge can back up, and it's the only way out to the west. A bridge closure or a slide on US-30 and there's no alternative passage.

While I'm sure the area will grow, I'm not sure it's an area that "should."

It's a decent compromise location if you had one partner working in Vanc. and the other in downtown Portland. If one is talking about rent, most of the parts of St. Johns that are still 'affordable' are affordable for a reason, though I suppose that could be said to be true about anyhwere in the metro.

Anyway, personal rambling aside, the bit that concerns me is your note about "pretty few positions" and the implication that neither of you have anything concrete lined up. I definitely would not move here just on hope. Unless one of you has something in the bag and an actual budget...let's just say it's risky to move to Portland in 2016 on a hope and a prayer.

[Nell Plotts]

Not only that but apartment vacancies are such that a landlord can be picky - requiring employment (or documented job offer), good credit score and references.

Again, don't move without a job offer in hand.

[AndyAMG]

St. Johns is the same old dump it was in the 90s. Now Lombard just has a bunch of terrible bars where you can go watch a punk ska irish folk band play banjo versions of Bad Brains and Sex pistols songs. If that sounds terrible, it is. If that sounds cool. Well... yeah. Are you okay paying 350k for a 1100 sq ft 3bd/ 1.5 bath home with no yard. If so st. Johns is for you.

I grew up there and bought a house there in 2012. I sold the house in 2015 for 400k. I really ripped off some idiot Californians willing to pay 50k above market price.

The commute to "Van" (not sure where you got that from) is awful. anything that requires use of that bridge during rush hour is awful. It does not matter if the commute is in reverse.

Live in Van and work in Van. Or just pay a ton of money to live in what was and still is the 3rd worse armpit of Portland.

Rockwood and Boise are the only worse neighborhoods I can think of. I lived there about a year before I had my car broken into and neighbor disputes.