Working in Beaverton, Where should I live? (Portland, Tigard: for sale, houses)

[elizabrooke]

Hi, I'm going to be teaching in Beaverton..but not sure that I want to live there. Where should I live that will not be a horrible commute? I also need to be thoughtful of my two daugthers that will be in Elementary and Middle School - would like them to go to good schools. Any help would really be appreciated. What are commutes like to and from Beaverton if living in Wilsonville, West Linn, Tigard, Oregon City, Sellwood, and other areas of Portland? Where would you live if you were in my shoes?
Thanks!!
E

[pdxer07]

We live in Beaverton, and I work in Portland. The commute is bad. My perception is that the commute is bad from all the areas you mention to Beaverton :-(

On the other hand, we are extremely happy with the Elemantary school (Scholls Heights). It is just a 5 minute walk from our house, and is rated a 10 (comparable to the best schools in the state) at greatschools.net

Hope this helps.

Pdxer07

[elizabrooke]

Thanks PDXer. What area or neighborhood would you call that where you live? Are there any areas at all that you would reccommend to live other than Beaverton? I am going to come up this weekend and check it out this weekend. Are there areas of Beaverton to avoid if I do choose to live there?
Again, thanks so much for your help!
E

[pdxer07]

Hi Elizabrooke:

We live in an area in the Southwest part of Beaverton, close to Murrayhill. My recommendation will be to identify the schools you are interested in, and then look at the neighborhoods. If you intend buying, rmls dot com is the listing of the houses for sale in and around Portland, and you can search for houses by the specific school you are interested in.
When we were looking to buy, we looked at Lake Oswego, West Linn, SW Portland and Beaverton. Unfortunately even then we could not find the kind of house we wanted for the kind of money we had, in Lake Oswego, West Linn and SW Portland. Beaverton worked for us... and we have been happy here.. though we too are looking to move.. to the East coast
As for areas to avoid. Generally if you go by the school ratings... the highly rated schools tend to be in decent areas.

Good luck with the search over the weekend.. there are a number of houses in the market where we live and a good amount of new construction going on, so come on by.

Pdxer07

[drokliss]

Greetings,

I would take a look at Tigard. It has a long-standing reputation for being a decent place to live. Our house is about a half mile walk from Twlity Middle School and Templeton Elementary. The neighborhood is good, and we may be putting our house on the market soon (moving out of state possibly). Housing can be a bit expensive, but the area is still growing and improving.

Good luck.

[pdxer07]

Hi Elizabrooke:

Hope your trip to the Portland area was good, and you have managed to find that perfect place
We too are gearing up to put our house on the market.. hopefully it will go on next week.

Good luck with everything.

Pdxer.