Portland: General Areas - Neighborhoods / Commuting (real estate, apartments, rentals)

[imdudesdad]

Hello.
My wife and I and 5 month old will be moving to Portland. I've been there a few times, but don't know anything about the city. To start, I was wondering if anyone could give me a general idea on where to begin based on this criteria?

Working: will be working downtown.
Leisure: enjoy working out, bicycling, walking, art galleries, museums, natural wonders.
Housing: will be renting for at least 1 year - prefer condo/townhouse type community w/ garage to save $$. Will buy after that.

a. Neighborhoods: general nice areas, schools, low crime, not busy, etc.. (N, S, E, W, NE, NW...)
b. Commuting/traffic: areas for access to roads/freeways or transportation.
c. Prices: middle class type areas.

Thank you so much for the help.

[philwithbeard]

Start by Google: Moving to Portland, OR

a couple of places hosted by real estate types give run down on Portland Neighborhoods. Please ignore the Rah-Rah cheerleader tone, they are after all Real Estate types.

2nd The Mass Transit system:
TriMet: Public Transportation for the Portland, Oregon, Metro Area

Please note: commuting to downtown in a car is not fun. Portland has put it's money into mass transit, not roadways. Political Climate will not change that any time soon.

Official Info of neighborhood maps:
Citywide Neighborhood Maps
(hint: look for the "small scale" map, PDF format.)

Neighborhood Association Pages
keep clicking links and you will find current police statistics for each city of Portland neighborhood.

***Does not include 'burbs*** which are outside of city limits.

[sofia76]

For condo/townhouse rentals you might want to check out Multnomah Village. I'm trying to think of middle class areas with decently priced condo rentals that are not too far from downtown ... you can find them here and there, but I can't think of an area with a whole bunch of them outside of the MV, Gabriel Park area (SW). There are some new condos that have gone up in SE (near Hawthorne and Belmont, particularly), and some of those might be for rent, but I'm not sure what the prices are like (I'm guessing high as they were built and sold during height of market). But I would say that with a five month old, you have a lot of choices. Will your wife be working, too? Do you need to be near good childcare options? Or will she be home during day and looking for other parents of young children to spend time with?

Irvington is usually a good bet, too. There are some condos that have gone up there in the last ten years, and it's a great area for commuting to downtown (you could bike, take bus, or even walk on really nice days). Lots of shops, restaurants, walkable places right near the residential areas.

[oregonn8v]

You may also want to consider the Pearl District in NW Portland. It was a booming area about 5 years ago, and with that was a lot of speculative development of condominiums. Many of these units were never sold when the housing market collapsed and some were turned into high end apartments. There are certainly units available for rent and it is walking distance to downtown Portland with numerous restaurants, galleries, coffee shops, etc. Most have secured parking and the access to I-405, I-84, and Hwy 26 are very easy. This gets you south and north (I-405), east to the gorge and Mt. Hood (I-84), and west to the coast/beaches (Hwy 26).

Forgot to add that the Portland Streetcar runs right through the Pearl and can take you up to the south end of downtown and Portland State University and South Waterfront.

[Nell Plotts]

Rather than the Pearl, if you are considering NW Portland look north and west of Chapman School.

Bus service to downtown is frequent, Friendly House has a co-op preschool, families with small children abound. There are an abundance of coffee shops on Thurman, a branch of the Mult. County Library.

I grew up on Upshur near 29th. My mother loved to walk and walked, in heels, from her office in downtown to home regularly. When I was a kid I would walk in Forrest Park, up Balch canyon, then on trails that were barely discernible all the way to the St. John's Bridge. [Scared her to death!!.] Ah yes, there was the rope swing we constructed across the creek....

[pathrunner]

Sounds to me like Multnomah Village is your best bet. No need to get on the freeway and it's a pretty drive into the city. Taking a bus is really easy from there as well.