Hillsboro, A good place for 25year old newlywed (Portland, Beaverton: daycare, how much)

[dandickinson]

I grew up in Sacramento and than moved into the CA foothills for about 10 years. I have lived in Phoenix AZ for 5 years and hate it here. My wife has been in Phoenix her entire life and when I brought her up to Nor Cal she did not want to go back. We both love the green and the trees; we want to stay out of the politics of CA but move to the North West coast.

My brother wants me to move to Seattle but I don’t like the Fog and don’t want to be in a fast paced city life.

I am a graphic designer and she is a childcare director. We don’t want to work for big companies; we want to own small ones.

I have been looking at Hillsboro, OR for about a year now and think that is where I want to be. I do have a few questions and looking for advice.

1. Houses are dropping to the $50’s out here, are they that cheep out there?
2. How much is the MAX or bus to go the Portland?
3. What is Hillsboro like?

Advice: We are looking for an out of the city area yet close enough if we want to go to a party or need a taste of the CITY life. We are moving with the intent of starting a daycare and raising a family. We want to have neighbors, barbeques, play dates, and poker night. We also want a yard for the dog and the picket fence. Eventually we would like to get some land not to far from where we live and have some cows or pigs ect.

I’ll stop for now and se what you all have to say.

[philwithbeard]

About the TriMet transportation system:
Fare page: TriMet: Fares - Tickets and Passes

The system has fare Zones. Hillsboro and Beaverton are zone 3, Downtown is Zone 1, Inner business downtown is fareless square (no pay to ride in fare-less square). Note same price to go from Hillsboro to airport, as Hillsboro to Downtown on MAX light rail.

Oh, one last thing, once you get here, buy a monthly pass for MAX. The ticket machines on the stations are mostly toast and don't work correctly. Lots of grocery supermarkets sell monthly pass for TriMet. They sell them last week of Month for Next month thru the end of the 1st week of the next month (sorry, I know that ain't clear)

Oh, and before you make any decisions, Do Google map the area, and use the Terrain button. Look at the Geology of the area. Notice that I-5 interstate more or less follows a valley North to South between two ranges. Hillsboro, well, no other way to say it, has hills. If that is cool with you, GREAT.

[HonuMan]

From the western edge of Portland proper, through Cornelius and Forest Grove (which lie just to the west of Hillsboro), it's pretty much a continuous series of suburbs and shopping centers. Check out the current threads on Beaverton, which is between Portland and Hillsboro: what holds true for Beaverton pretty much hold true for Hillsboro, as well. From your description of what you're looking for, Hillsboro should suit you just fine. There's a cute old-town core, with a courthouse square, a park, and a variety of shops and restaurants. There's an excellent hospital (Tuality). Because of the substantial Mexican population, there are plenty of good Mexican restaurants, including authentic taquerias. Nearby, there are shopping centers, suburbs, a commuter airport, and several Intel campuses. (Lots of Intel employees live in Hillsboro.)

House prices have indeed come down, but you probably won't find anything habitable for under $180,000. The median price in the area is about $225,000 now. That will get you a modest 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom house in a decent neighborhood. The most common lot size since the 1970s is 5,000 square feet. For a bigger yard, you'll need to buy an older house.

If you think you'd like Hillsboro, but you want to be closer to Portland, I'd recommend central or eastern Beaverton instead. It's comparable in most ways to Hillsboro, and it's on the MAX line, but you can get into Portland more quickly. On the other hand, if you want to sample city life only once or twice a month, and you'd prefer a more traditional small-town feel for daily living, then check out Forest Grove. It's quite charming, and Portland isn't that far via Highway 26, but I wouldn't want to commute into Portland daily from there.

As for your long-term goals, multi-acre tracts of land near Hillsboro are very expensive, but they're much more reasonable near Scappoose, Vernonia, St. Helens, and westward.

Hope that helps!

[dandickinson]

That helps alot. Thank you for your responce