Suggestion for a House with Great Schools and more. (Portland: neighborhoods, to buy)

[DavinSov]

Hello guys,

Does anyone have a suggestion to where I can find the following criteria to buy a house: Hillsboro, Beaverton or Portland.

1) Good Schools for our children 10yrs and 16yrs old.

2) Bigger Lots/land for our two large Golden Retrievers.

3) Close by to Rail system.

4) Purchase Price Under $400,000

Thank you in advance.

[John Shaft]

Cedar Hills area of Beaverton? Not directly on the rail.
Hyland Hills? Again, not directly on the rail.
There's a neighborhood just north of Baseline and West of 158th (can't remember what it's called) that may have some prices in that range, with all the price declines. You could hit the Elmonica station then. I think that's Sunset High.

"Large lot" and "near rail" don't tend to go hand-in-hand.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

How big of a lot? Are you thinking like 1/2 acre or 100' x 100'?
How close to light rail? How about the trimet bus?
Are you using light rail to commute to work or just get around?
If commuting to work, where would be the final destination?
Are you willing to drive or bike a few miles and park in a light rail lot?

400K buys a newer or nicer old 2k to 3k square foot house on a 50'x50' lot in the "good" parts of SE Portland.
I live in the Woodstock/Eastmoreland area (SE Portland) and have a 100' x 130' lot (which is not the norm in this neighborhood BTW--most lots are 50x50), my 1900's 2000 sq. ft. house appraised at 388k last year (property taxes are 3.3k a year), and I have an Australian Shepherd and a Border Collie mix.
Works well for us. And it's a great neighborhood. I can walk 2 blocks to the bus and be downtown in 30 minutes.
And if the dogs need to really run and play, there are plenty of dog parks in Portland.

The elementary schools here are Duniway, Lewis, and Woodstock. Grades 1 thru 5.
Which elementary school you attend depends on your neighborhood school boundries.
Middle School is Sellwood Middle School. Grades 6,7, and 8. Students in this school come from many neighborhoods in this part of SE.
As far as high school goes, in the Portland Public School district you can pretty much pick your high school depending on your focus. (grades 9,10,11,12)
(I wouldn't rate PPS schools the "best", just adequate.)

[oregonn8v]

DavinSov:

I will let others who live in/around Beaverton and Hillsboro to answer your questions for those areas, but being a lifetime resident of Portland I believe that I can cover this city pretty well.

1) Good Schools...I will assume that you are looking at the public school system. With that said, Portland Public Schools (like any major city) has some exceptional schools and some poor performing schools. Here are some basic facts that you should know.

The PPS District runs on a neighborhood program...depending on where you live you attend the school(s) that serve your neighborhood.

There are some schools that are magnet/charter/specialty schools that are part of PPS that do not serve a neighborhood and are filled via a lottery system. An example of this would be Winterhaven School in the Brooklyn neighborhood. It is a K-8 school that focuses on Math and Science and is filled only through the lottery.

Currently the two best high schools in Portland are Lincoln HS (in SW Portland near downtown) and Cleveland HS (in SE Portland). Grant HS (in NE Portland) or Wilson HS (in SW Portland) would round out the top three.

Finding a home in either the Lincoln cluster (schools that feed Lincoln) or the Cleveland cluster (schools that feed Cleveland) would be your best bet. Typically the elementary and middle or K-8 schools that feed into a better HS will also be better...but you do need to be careful.

A great place to get school information and rankings is at http://www.pps.k12.or.us/schools/index.htm

Here you can find the schools that serve a particular neighborhood, select any school, see its test scores, demographics, etc.

2) Regarding land/lots, Portland has a typical lot size (50'x100'). I would say this holds true for 80% of the homes on the East side of the Willamette River where it is flatter and more of a grid, and 35% of the homes on the West side where there are more hills. My wife and I were fortunate enough to get a home on a double lot (100'x100'). This give our kids and dog plenty of room to run but this is unusual. You are likely going to need to look in the suburbs (Beaverton/Hillsboro) for more land.

3) Close to the rail system (MAX) is going to put you in NE Portland (Lloyd District, Hollywood, Rose City, Park Rose), North Portland, or Gresham. Beaverton and Hillsboro are also served by MAX but I can't tell you specifically which areas. Here is a map of the Light Rail (MAX) system; http://trimet.org/schedules/maps/railsystem.htm. Be aware that they are currently working on expanding the light rail system to run down the I-205 corridor towards Oregon City which will incorporate a lot of currently underserved neighborhoods.

4) >$400K ... This is going to be the tough one in Portland...especially with some land. The market is soft right now so I would suggest looking around but you are generally going to find that prices decrease as you move away from the city center. This is an absolute generality and there are some very prestigious neighborhoods in some of the burbs and some generally less desirable neighborhoods in the city but all in all the Urban Growth Boundary set up by Metro (our urban governing body) has kept land value in the city pretty stable. I would recommend using www.johnlscott.com to search for homes. I will state that I am not a realtor and do not know anyone who works for John L. Scott. I just know that their web search is very user friendly.

Hope this helps. If you have specific questions about Portland neighborhoods/schools, please let me know and I will do my best to answer them. Portland is a great city and I hope you find it welcoming.

[piniw]

I would recommend feeding into Lincoln High or living in the Cedar Mill/Bethany area. Bethany has stoller and Westview which are highly rated. Yards won't be huge but it depends on where you are. I have dogs myself and live in Cedar Mill and find my yard is big enough for them. Seems like they always want to be inside with us anyway. Plus, it is a quick drive to Forest Park for a hike with them. Good luck,

[ksucher]

Schools: hands down Beaverton wins, more money, better student/teacher ratio

Rail systems: that means stops, Beaverton wins again there are 8 stops within/close to city limits and it also has the WES Rail

Large lot: $400k Beaverton has many