Recommend a neighborhood for a future Oregonian

[Missmeamea]

I second/third some of the previous suggestions. If you are comfortable with a 2BR then Sellwood may be your area. It is quiet and the houses have character, small years, community, and it is slightly removed from the downtown area while still being accessible. It is also a big antiquing area and has some nice restaurants.

Also check out East and Westmoreland, Ladd's Addition, and the SE Woodstock area. I'll assume that the "hippie element" previously mentioned is not an issue for you as you mentioned Hawthorne as a possible, so you must not be bothered by the culture there. Ladd's Addition/Clifton, Mt. Tabor and Woodstock are all in the surrounding area to Hawthorne while being a BIT more neighborhoodly. In SE Portland, stay West of 82nd. You probably don't want to be that far away from downtown anyway, but the area around and past 82nd gets dicey.

I'd also suggest NE although I don't know where the current nice places to live are. It has changed dramatically in the last 9 years since I was there. Apparently a lot of the neighborhoods are now up and coming there and in N. Portland, but there are still some yucky areas to be wary of. I lived right down the street from Lloyd Center, which never used to be a neighborhood but is now the Lloyd Center District and is a bit pricey. But, great bus and max accessibility, great shopping/restaurants. Also lived in SE. I'd say the East Side was my preference. Close in yet more affordable than other areas, funky yet not too way-out, nicely laid out street grid, and plenty of its own attractions to choose from apart from downtown.

[Leisesturm]

Before moving to Oregon I had put Hawthorne, Selllwood, Mt. Tabor, etc. on my short list based on Google earth fly-by's and Craigslist ads. Once on the ground and tooling through the neighborhoods both on bicycle and on foot we started to form some opinions. Agreed, 82nd is definitely some kind of natural delineator. Further east than Division or Powell is another. As cyclists the bike friendly vibe is great but IMO the 'grid' isn't really as there aren't many streets besides the big east west boulevards that run completely through without dead-ending after four or five blocks. All in all I can't strongly disagree with the eastward leaning slant of the majority of posters but I can tell you that once we started looking west, and I mean really west, thats when it became possible to find the things you are looking for. I am taking a break from digging out the vegetable garden as we speak. We are in Hillsboro but I think you could find as much as we did without going past Beaverton. We live practically in sight of the MAX station and I wouldn't have it any other way. I timed the trip to PDX downtown at 45 min. on MAX. The road distance is 17mi. Parts of Beaverton are as close as 10mi. We rent 3 BR with garage but I looked it up on Zillow and discovered that it is a 2006 build and is currently under $225K. YMMV

H