Moving to Portland early next year... (Gresham, Beaverton: apartments, for rent, first time home buyer)

[maranda7]

Hello -

I'm just trying to get an idea of where we should look for housing. I have a couple of questions/statements to make and would love any feedback from those that know the city/areas.

I am going to move to Portland with a friend of mine, she's going to go to Multnomah... I have no idea where in Portland it is and neither does she - she just found something that she wants to study there and the program seems to match her needs/wants. I'm wondering if anyone knows where Multnomah is located at and what areas around there are good to look at?

We'll probably end up renting, even though I would love to purchase a house. I'm not sure what the market is like in Oregon, but in Arizona it's pretty good for first time home buyers - bad for everyone else... I'm assuming it's like that everywhere else? I'm young (and apparently stupid) and this would be the first home that I'd buy. I probably would like to rent for 6 - 12 months though, just to make sure that Oregon is all that I want it to be. I visited Beaverton when I was in 7th grade (in December) and fell in love with the area and I've decided that at some point in my life, I am going to live in Oregon or even Washington. I know someone in Vancouver, WA and my friend knows someone in Portland - they're kind of giving us a run-down of where to look... the only thing is, they've basically listed the whole entire Portland city... so it was no help at all.

Here's what we were told to look into:

NE - affordable and nice, apparently
SE - Artsy
St. Johns area

We really do not want to be in the city (downtown) which is in the SW region (from what I gathered).

If we buy a house we need something no more than $200,000 - I know this isn't a lot and in Phoenix that is a really old house (old houses up there are nice, to me... in Phoenix they're hideous) OR a new house that is in the middle of no where (an area that's just being developed)... are houses that are $200,000 and under going to be in bad areas?

As for renting - what is the standard rent rate out there? We're going to need a house with a backyard (I have a Boxer)... so apartments are out of the question. The house we rent in Gilbert, AZ - in a nice area - is $1,000 a month... it's a 3 bedroom 1,300 - 1,400 sq ft. I noticed that most houses out there are 800 - 900 sq ft for 2 bedrooms... that scares me. I'd like a house that is at least 1,000 sq ft and ideally, I would prefer something that was 1,200 - 1,400 sq ft+... I know the larger the house the more it'll cost... but I am just wondering if tiny houses are really all that's out there with the occasional "larger" house... to me, 1,200 sq ft is a small house... a standard house out here is like 2,000 - 2,400 sq ft... so you can see why such a tiny house scares me. I had a 2 bedroom apartment out here that was 1,025 sq ft which was small to me... but I could handle that because the bedrooms were not tiny... I'm afraid that my king size bed will take up the whole entire room?

Okay -- I guess I asked enough silly questions... and I'm sure some of you will get a kick out of it... but we're dead set on moving out there (and I'm so excited) BUT I just want to be prepared for living costs and the sizes of the houses.

[no one special]

Multnomah is my neck of the woods. Dowtown is in SW yes- but there are parts of SW Portland that are not downtown. The downtown area is small in comparison to other cities. You could go SW or just W of Downtown and be in SW Portland. Areas like Multnomah, Garden Home, Hillsdale, Raleigh Hills, Capital Hill, Forest Park, Sylvan, Skyline, etc. are all a part of SW Portland but are suburbs.

Multnomah is a district. It is also a street that runs through the district, which is near the Garden Home area. I am sure when you say Multnomah you mean Multnomah Village (not to be confused with the fact that Portland is in the county of Multnomah.)

I like this area. Multnomah Village is a close community that has some neat shops and some very neat people. Everyone is friendly in Multnomah Village. There are apartments, houses, and duplexes for your choice of places to live. Many housese for rent out here. It is close to shopping in any direction you choose and very close to the freeway. It is only a few miles from Beaverton, which you have visited before.

In fact, I live in Beaverton just past Garden Home which is a neighborhodd between Multnomah Village and Beaverton. If you are traveling on Multnomah Blvd. and follow it along its path, within a few miles you will end up on Allen street which will lead you into the south side of Beaverton and to my favorite Chinese restaurant, Mandarin Palace. Yum!

Again, I love this area. I have lived in just about every area you could think of but have stayed over here for 7 years as I just can't find a neater area to call home and is as affordable as this one. You should be able to find a place easily in Multnomah Village. And due to the closeness of the freeway it is not too much trouble to get to the other parts of Portland.

Here is my downfall though....you are on the West side of the river over here and there are only a couple choices of bridges to cross over to the other side. During heavy traffic hours you can think of a bottleneck getting to any bridge and then it scatters back out again once you cross the bridge. I have tried them all and all of them are jam packed during rush hours. When I lived on the east side I had many choices on the route I chose to go anywhere. Over here, if I have to go to the East side I really think it through based on the time of day because of only a few choices of bridges.

Consider downtown the hub and in the morning lots of traffic flows to it and in the night lots of traffic flows away. In all directions. We have to pass through, around, or over the downtown area a lot to get to where we are going. I used to cummute over 30 miles to East Vancouver, WA from this Multnomah area and it was a real pain. I liked to say I drove on 5 freeways, in 3 cities and 2 states to get to work! It made it sound worse than it was which then made me feel better about the drive.

Traffic in Beaverton gets worse by the day- none of the lights work together around here. You can stop at one, travel 500 feet and get stopped at the next one. But Multnomah Village doesn't do that as it is the city of Portland and things flow a little better.

Multnomah Village is also very near a major shopping mall called Washington Square.

[maranda7]

She's going to go to the college called Multnomah - I'm assuming it must be in the area you're talking about though.

I'm really concerned about employment out there. I am terrible with traffic... Phoenix has gotten really, really bad... it's almost like rush hour all the time here now - except from 6AM - 9AM and 3PM - 7PM, that's the worst - where it's like inching... I don't touch the freeways because the non-moving traffic jammed packed into 4 - 6 lanes gives me really bad anxiety. Anyways, I don't like being on the road for more than 15 minutes... the traffic may or may not be as bad as Phoenix, I'm not sure... Portland is pretty big and with the way you describe it - it kind of gives me anxiety! If the college Multnomah is near Beaverton, I may just look around there. I believe Intel is in the Beaverton area (when I went to Beaverton I was visiting a friend, her dad moved there for 1 year to train employees at Intel)... and I've worked at Intel before, so I may be able to get myself a job there... maybe. Other than that - I'm afraid about having to drive to the city - I really don't want to drive for 45 minutes to 1 hour... and there's no way I can afford to live off of minimum wage that you'd get at a grocery store or coffee shop - I need an office job...

The zip code of the college is 97220 - not sure where that falls under.

[no one special]

97220 is the East side of Portland. Is that a Bible college you are talking about? I got that wrong then. It is not Multnomah Village but more on the East side around Glisan I think. Traffic wouldn't be as bad over there as there are many more choices to choose from for your commute...unless you work at Intel, then you would have a bit of traffic. Fifteen minutes from Multnomah Bible college would get you as far as down town or as far as Gresham. It would be more like 30-40 minutes to get as far as Intel from there. My commute of 30 miles took me about 30-40 minutes in the morning and 45-60 sometimes more in the evening. And I travelled all the way through Portland from it's East side to Beaverton. Multnomah Bible college I would say is about the centerpoint of the Portland area.

Check this map out for zip code info: Free Portland OR Zip Code Map

[maranda7]

I guess it's a bible college... I'm not sure... I never really asked her. Now that I look at their website, it does look like Christian school. Hm.

WELL...

Thanks for letting me know the area - I guess we'll look over there... is Glisan a decent area?

[no one special]

Glisan is ok but try to get a mile or so away from 82nd Avenue in either direction. 82nd is safe to walk in, shop in, drive through, etc... but as far as where your house is I, personally, would not want to be near 82nd avenue. If it were me I would choose the East side of I-205 but no further than 181st off Glisan or choose 60th or lower off Glisan (all the number streets go up from downtown and "1st" Street would typically be like Martin Luther King Blvd or so. I don't think the streets are numbered on the East side lower than 6th but Glisan only goes down to about 20th.) A quick way to know where the school is vs where you live would be for example if the address were 8401 to 8499 it would be between 84th and 85th. A mile is about 12-20 city blocks here depending on the size of the street.