Looking to move to Oregon (Portland, Beaverton: real estate, condos, credit card)

[mrk13p]

Hello all, my wife and I have been contemplating moving to Oregon this past year. We are actually visiting this saturday - tuesday and have each day planned to look at properties. We have one friend who lives there in Canby and loves it. She recommended Beaverton, tualtin, Sherwood but she herself has only lived there less than a year. I was lookin for more input. We are in our early thirties. Looking for a safe place close to nature and trails but also close enough to shopping areas. Basically, we would love to go hiking in the morning and have dinner/movie at night. we also love going bowling. Price range would be around 250,000. We are also open to townhomes. My wife is a real estate agent and i am a loan officer. We have a good down payment and savings so looking for a job isnt at the top of our list. What cities would you recommend? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Robsteel17]

Portland is the most "fun" but not in that price range. I would suggest Hillsboro (East of Brookwood Pkwy), Beaverton (but choose your neighborhood wisely), or even the far western stretch of Portland north of US 26 (up towards Bethany).

These areas are suburban with shopping areas and good schools. If transit is a priority, you can find townhouses near the MAX line in your price range in Hillsboro/Beaverton.

[mrk13p]

sounds good. we are actullay checking out hilsboro also. I hate traffic lol. One reason im planning to move away from our current residence.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Originally Posted by mrk13p

sounds good. we are actullay checking out hilsboro also. I hate traffic lol. One reason im planning to move away from our current residence.

Hate traffic? There are very few cities in the usa that have worse traffic than Portland and all of those are much larger cities with much higher population.

[seattle man]

Originally Posted by mrk13p

Hello all, my wife and I have been contemplating moving to Oregon this past year. We are actually visiting this saturday - tuesday and have each day planned to look at properties. We have one friend who lives there in Canby and loves it. She recommended Beaverton, tualtin, Sherwood but she herself has only lived there less than a year. I was lookin for more input. We are in our early thirties. Looking for a safe place close to nature and trails but also close enough to shopping areas. Basically, we would love to go hiking in the morning and have dinner/movie at night. we also love going bowling. Price range would be around 250,000. We are also open to townhomes. My wife is a real estate agent and i am a loan officer. We have a good down payment and savings so looking for a job isnt at the top of our list. What cities would you recommend? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Good choice that you are moving to Oregon! The people are so nice and the real estates values are cheap!
I love Portland for the light rail and the big city feel without it being overly expensive. Good Luck!

[mrk13p]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

Hate traffic? There are very few cities in the usa that have worse traffic than Portland and all of those are much larger cities with much higher population.

were actually trying to stay away from portland specifically for this reason. were hoping the surrounding areas will be much better

[mrk13p]

Originally Posted by seattle man

Good choice that you are moving to Oregon! The people are so nice and the real estates values are cheap!
I love Portland for the light rail and the big city feel without it being overly expensive. Good Luck!

exactly!! we worked all this time to pay off all our debt and there is no way were going back to that life of maxed credit cards and overtime hours at work. were starting fresh and planning to live a simple life and enjoy nature. Hopefully oregon addresses this

[patches403]

Even if you live out in Hillsboro; chances are one or both of your jobs will involve you having to commute towards Portland where you will definitely have to deal with the traffic. The local traffic in Washington County even on the city streets is congested for a lot of the day. If your goal is to get away from traffic, don't come to the Portland metro area.

Most people would recommend you live as close to your jobs as possible to reduce your commutes so would suggest one or both of you find jobs before moving or looking for homes; that will help narrow down the areas you should be looking at since pretty-much anywhere on the Westside of the metro area meets your other requirements of nature/trails and close to shopping. FYI, real estate here is expensive relative to most of the USA. Your budget of $250,000 is definitely low and will qualify you mostly for condos/townhomes and older/run-down properties in lower income neighborhoods.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

Hate traffic? There are very few cities in the usa that have worse traffic than Portland and all of those are much larger cities with much higher population.

On the news last night, Portland ties for the 12th worst traffic in the usa. The rest of the cities on the list are huge cities with many times the population of portland.

[bler144]

Originally Posted by mrk13p

were actually trying to stay away from portland specifically for this reason. were hoping the surrounding areas will be much better

That's not necessarily a safe assumption. Many of the worst snags are outside the core if not outside the city itself.*

On the south side Wilsonville always seems to have stop-go traffic of late, and it can be slow all the way up through the curves. On the west 26/217 are both pretty congested, and in the evening the backup for traffic getting on 205 can make it slow for traffic on local roads as well. On the E/SE 205 is congested as well in many stretches.


If it were me in your shoes I'd probably either look down around Wilsonville/Canby/Woodburn, or on the WA side, either Vancouver-Camas-Washougal or Ridgefield-Battle Ground.

*Similar to how 95/128 sucks outside Boston, or 294 outside Chicago, etc. Driving 'around' the city can be as bad as driving in/out of the city.