Vancouver or Beaverton/Tigard/Tualatin? (Portland: sales, house, neighborhoods)

[kdboken]

My husband and I are looking at homes in the SW Beaverton/Tigard/Tualatin area as well as the Salmon Creek area of Vancouver, WA. It is likely that I will work in Portland, and as much as I prefer a short commute, it is much more important to me to have a kid/people-friendly community and neighborhood with great schools. A back yard is a must with our two dogs and active little boy. I am aware of the state tax in OR and sales tax in WA. Any feedback would be appreciated. How long does it take to get from Salmon Creek to downtown Portland dring regular rush hour?

Thank you!

[davefr]

If you work in OR you pay the OR 9% income tax regardless of which side of the river you live on. If you live in Vancouver you'd likely do all your shopping in OR to avoid the sales tax. So that means the tax implications probably won't be huge.

Therefore you should pick the community that appeals to you for quality of life. The Vancouver to Portland commute on I-5 is pure hell at rush hour. However from Beaverton you could take the Max train to Portland.

There are some nice older neighborhoods around Beaverton with decent yards.

[mellow144]

I live in Beaverton and commute to downtown Portland. By avoiding most of the freeway and taking back roads my commute is 30min each way. That is leaving before 7 in and by 4:30 out. Otherwise it's a good 40min. Keep in mind Beaverton covers a lot of ground. So the commute would vary depending on where you are.

[looopson]

Definitely Beaverton. Tualatin is nice but too far and public transit still kind of sucks out there. In Beaverton, you can hop the MAX and you're at work.

Of course they also want to build the MAX line up to Vancouver eventually. But who knows when that would be.

[sofia76]

Unless you work unconventional hours, you won't have a short commute from Vancouver to Portland. Exception would be if you live in downtown Vancouver and can bypass most of the traffic on I-5 north of the bridge. I would never live in Beaverton (I just find the congestion within it to be annoying), but the nice thing about Beaverton is there are multiple ways to get in and out. As others have mentioned, there's the Max (assuming you live near the Max), and there's also lots of buses that operate out of there, and of course, the freeway, and you can take back roads. So you have more options. Tualitan is nice; I don't think it's too far ... if you work in SW Portland, Tualitan might be a good option. Tigard is even closer ... I have a place in Portland, only five minutes drive from downtown (15 minute bus ride), and Tigard starts just 2 miles down the road.

[sofia76]

Oh, and also if you work in Portland, you are going to have to pay state income tax on your earnings anyway. Portland workers tend to choose Vancouver as their home not to avoid taxes, but because of the school system, and because you can get more house for your money there.