Are there older homes with walkable neighborhoods in the Suburbs? (Portland: real estate, renting)

[bobkeenan]

We are moving! We have a place rented in NE Portland and will be looking to buy. We love the older neighborhoods (We love bungalows) with good walkability (coffee, bakery, grocery in walking distance). I think some of our favorite neighborhoods are Irvington, Sabin, Sellwood, Woodstock, Moreland.

But the nicer bungalows in these areas are pushing our budget.

So the question is do any of the suburbs have those kind of old home walkable neighborhood qualities. We are going to check them out when we get up there in a few weeks but hints are welcome.

I think that anything within about 20min commute from downtown portland would be nice.

[scottius]

Multnomah Village/Hillsdale is your best bet.

[Nell Plotts]

A real estate person would know better than I but reflecting on the era those bungalows were built and the growth pattern of our communities, I can't think of any. Towns such as Newberg and McMinnville have them but that would mean a LONG commute to the city.

On second thought, you could also look in the vicinity of SE 16th & Harrison (Ladd's Addition?) then further out on Harrison in the mid 40s.

Take your time, while bungalows are in high demand home prices in general are still falling.

[Daisy32673]

Multnomah Village, First Addition in downtown Lake Oswego along with the ones you already mentioned. But like you said, be ready to pay a lot of money for them. Prices on homes havent hit bottom here yet but may in a couple years

[philwithbeard]

If you **must** be outside the city limits of Portland, plus still be in Oregon (which is recommended if you work in Oregon) the usual places come to mind:
Beaverton
Oregon City
Wilsonville (a bit of a stretch on your distance)

Since you will be renting in the NE PDX area while you look to buy a home, may I suggest you at least consider a few of the hidden very good areas on the east side (small homes, reasonably priced, quant local business area)? NE Glisan and NE 60th comes to mind; you may find a hidden gem of a home between SE Stark St and E Burnside between SE 73rd and SE 80th (although posters on this forum with longer memories than mine will discourage you from looking in this Montavilla neighborhood; use your own judgment.)

Except for the walking part, Wood Village (North of Gresham) is rumored to have reasonably priced single family homes, but that is very suburban and mostly newer homes.

But I urge you to wait until you get here and get a feel of the 'vibe' of Portland to discover that long commutes from the 'burbs is not what many in Portland want to do.

[Rob Allen]

Originally Posted by philwithbeard

Beaverton

Specifically, "Old Town" or Central Beaverton. Appproximate boundaries - Farmington Rd. (Route 10) to the north, Lombard St. to the east, Erickson Ave. to the west, and Allen Blvd. to the south. Visit the farmers' market on Saturday morning across the street from the library (right in the middle of the area I just described), wander around the local streets and see if you like it.

[Minervah]

You learn something new everyday. I didn't know Multnomah Village was considered a suburb. It is a beautiful area though, no matter what you call it.

[Nell Plotts]

It is sort of a 'tween'. Legally in the City of Portland but with a separate identity.

Portland grew by incorporating small communities, villages. For example, St. John's was a community, so was Ladd's. The same thing happened to the subdivision where my husband's family purchased a home near Grant High School. It used to be that changes in property titles were recorded in a book and a page added to the seller's property record that was akin to a loose leaf notebook. His parent's record showed when the property was purchased in the 1800s, later subdivided, homes built, City incorporated the subdivision.

[The Cactus Leaguer]

Generally speaking, much of the older housing stock in suburbs is located in towns that were founded earlier, and much of it is walkable. Examples:

Hillsboro (near downtown)
Beaverton (central)
Multnomah Village
Oregon City

Here is a suggestion for researching this remotely:

-Go to a real estate website such as Redfin.com
-In the search field, restrict your search to a particular suburb and age of home (say, 1900 to 1950)
-You'll probably find most of the old housing stock located near their city center (which was probably the main trading post 100 years ago, now transformed into a walkable town center)
-As a double check, cut and paste the address into walkscore.com, and you can see how "walkable" the house is (amenities within walking distance), and you can also get an estimate for your commute if you know where you are commuting to (side note - I just did this myself and found a TON of really cool, older housing stock in both Hillsboro and Oregon City, although you may be looking at longer than 20 minutes for a commute on both)

The caveats are that the walkscore is by no means perfect, and the commute is subject to traffic snarl variability. But it's a good start.

Good luck!