Moving to Portland Need advise (Gresham, Beaverton: appointed, affordable apartments, foreclosure)

[questions11]

Hello Everyone. My family is going to be moving to Portland Here soon. We have never been there and we are moving there blindly.
I would like to know of the safer neighborhoods and schools. My daughter is only 3 1/2 but soon she will be starting school.
Any advise on what neighborhoods to stay away from. I know this sounds mean but I really dont want to move to an erea where I have to so cautious that i can't even enjoy living.. you know.
If any of you know of any nice apartments max we want to pay for rent is 900. Any townhomes condos apartments or homes anything..
I know I am real picky but I know that in the town I currently live in there are neighborhoods I would never live in only because there is always someone getting shot or drug busts.. and all that wonderfull stuff that comes with crime. sigh. I just want honesty.. thanks to those who reply honestly. I am not asking to glorify portland or to scare me from moving there.. I just want a nice quite clean safe or safe enough.. with advise on good schools.. Thanks again... sorry i prob repeated myself lol.

[hamellr]

There aren't any areas of Portland with a lot of murders and people getting shot all the time. With a young child, there are very few areas of Portland I wouldn't want to live in at all.

Here's a crime map to help you out: CrimeMapper notice that most things are robberies, property damage (graffiti,) and car prowlings.

[Nell Plotts]

Please tell us where your husband will be working (geographically), if he will be working in Hillsboro you don't want a commute from Gresham.

Rent rates are increasing for a variety of reasons (growth of Intel, popularity of the metro area, and the foreclosure problems as the rest of the country), we want to point you in the right direction.

[Bkk4now]

Portland does not have severe ghettos. So "bad neighborhoods" where you walk in fear of drive by shootings is everyday is not an issue.

What is an issue is the lack of affordable apartments. Google "Portland, increasing rents" and you will gain some valuable insight into a serious problem of lack of affordable housing for working class people. If you can not afford to put down a deposit on a house, then you are forced to rent.

$900 will not get you a townhouse or condo. Correction - you may get a two bedroom apartment in Gresham, Beaverton, Tigard, Milwaukie. These are the satallite suburbs to Portland proper. But then expect you and your spouse will need a car to get around.

[questions11]

Originally Posted by Nell Plotts

Please tell us where your husband will be working (geographically), if he will be working in Hillsboro you don't want a commute from Gresham.

Rent rates are increasing for a variety of reasons (growth of Intel, popularity of the metro area, and the foreclosure problems as the rest of the country), we want to point you in the right direction.

He will be working on the east side of the river.. we just dont know where to get an apartment. We are looking in Happy Valley, and Gresham, and i guess the east side of portland.

[questions11]

Originally Posted by Bkk4now

Portland does not have severe ghettos. So "bad neighborhoods" where you walk in fear of drive by shootings is everyday is not an issue.

What is an issue is the lack of affordable apartments. Google "Portland, increasing rents" and you will gain some valuable insight into a serious problem of lack of affordable housing for working class people. If you can not afford to put down a deposit on a house, then you are forced to rent.

$900 will not get you a townhouse or condo. Correction - you may get a two bedroom apartment in Gresham, Beaverton, Tigard, Milwaukie. These are the satallite suburbs to Portland proper. But then expect you and your spouse will need a car to get around.

We have a car to get around in. I guess I am just being extra picky. I am just used to where I live and I think everywhere is the same.
How bad would the commute be if we drove from beaverton over the river going towards gresham? We would like to pay between 750 to 900 for a 2br.

[gypsydoc]

A commute from Beaverton to Gresham would be through some of the worst traffic here. You'd expect to drive around one hour each way (depending on exactly where you'd be coming from/going to and the time of day. Not a good choice, really. It would be better to go from Gresham to the east side of the river rather than driving from Beaverton through downtown, or HWY 30 or even taking I-84. (Not sure where exactly your place of employment would be as there is a long way from south (Milwaukie, Oregon City area) to North Portland (St. John's or even Vancouver - which is another transportation issue because of the I-5 bridge or I-205 bridge).

Keep in mind that there are 6 bridges over the Willamette River and they tend to bottleneck during rush hour, so if you can live and work on the same side of the river, you'll find it easier to get around.

To get an idea of driving here, check out YouTube and look up driving through Portland. I've found some camera work in a car as a person actually drove from Beaverton around the city. That can give you some idea.

There may be others. Happy Valley is a great place to live, although there's not tons of apartments there. Those that are, tend to be in larger complexes. Finding something in the $900 range could be difficult.

Gresham has some nice choices and I live very close to it. My daughter just found a great 2BR/2Bath 950 (ish) square feet apartment with washer and dryer for $750 plus utilities. It is near a park with a pond and fountain.

Please keep checking on maps, routes, drive times, etc. to get even a better idea of what you're in for. Where are you coming from? Best wishes in this adventure. Hope everything goes as planned. If you have a job before you get here, excellent! Jobs are quite difficult to get here. My husband works in a warehouse and there was just an opening in the office. Over 200 people applied for this $28,000 a year position and many of them had masters' degrees. Just so you know!

Housing is far more expensive than many other places in the country.... but it is less expensive than other cities on the west coast.

[gypsydoc]

Just reread what you'd written... and I see you were asking re: going from Beaverton towards Gresham, not all the way to it. It can still be a drive because hwy26 is the main road that goes from Beaverton East, BUT, it will depend on WHERE your job is. How much time are you allowing to find a place and move in? That can make a difference as well.

Originally Posted by gypsydoc

A commute from Beaverton to Gresham would be through some of the worst traffic here. You'd expect to drive around one hour each way (depending on exactly where you'd be coming from/going to and the time of day. Not a good choice, really. It would be better to go from Gresham to the east side of the river rather than driving from Beaverton through downtown, or HWY 30 or even taking I-84. (Not sure where exactly your place of employment would be as there is a long way from south (Milwaukie, Oregon City area) to North Portland (St. John's or even Vancouver - which is another transportation issue because of the I-5 bridge or I-205 bridge).

Keep in mind that there are 6 bridges over the Willamette River and they tend to bottleneck during rush hour, so if you can live and work on the same side of the river, you'll find it easier to get around.

To get an idea of driving here, check out YouTube and look up driving through Portland. I've found some camera work in a car as a person actually drove from Beaverton around the city. That can give you some idea.

There may be others. Happy Valley is a great place to live, although there's not tons of apartments there. Those that are, tend to be in larger complexes. Finding something in the $900 range could be difficult.

Gresham has some nice choices and I live very close to it. My daughter just found a great 2BR/2Bath 950 (ish) square feet apartment with washer and dryer for $750 plus utilities. It is near a park with a pond and fountain.

Please keep checking on maps, routes, drive times, etc. to get even a better idea of what you're in for. Where are you coming from? Best wishes in this adventure. Hope everything goes as planned. If you have a job before you get here, excellent! Jobs are quite difficult to get here. My husband works in a warehouse and there was just an opening in the office. Over 200 people applied for this $28,000 a year position and many of them had masters' degrees. Just so you know!

Housing is far more expensive than many other places in the country.... but it is less expensive than other cities on the west coast.

[Rider51]

Originally Posted by questions11

He will be working on the east side of the river.. we just dont know where to get an apartment. We are looking in Happy Valley, and Gresham, and i guess the east side of Portland.

The east side still doesn't really narrow it down. Are you talking NE 7th and Columbia, or SE 202nd and Foster? That's about a 20 mile drive zig-zagging through the city, much of it off-freeway.

Happy Valley is a nice area, but it's also a mix of sprawl and McMansions with walled off neighborhoods mixed with spendy houses. If you're from a city like San Jose, you'll be used to it and like the neighborhoods. If you're from somewhere like Colorado Springs and looking for a small town feel, you may be disappointed.

Parts of Gresham are a town with nothing happening, sometimes considered the step-child of Portland. But parts of it are nice. It's also fairly quiet there, and traffic isn't bad. It's very likely you can find rent in this area in your budget.

School wise, nothing is terrible. I guess I would avoid Lents to deep SE, and parts of North Portland. But this isn't the Bronx, or Detroit. As someone else said, there are no ghettos here. Much of the city is nice, and the worst places are really just working class to working poor. There really isn't a lot of violent crime in Portland, regardless of what infotainment-hysteria news outlets would have you believe.

As someone else noted, housing here is fairly expensive, and the economy very slow to recover. If you're looking for work, get ready to accept just about anything to get going.

Ask more questions, I'll do my best to answer.

[EnricoV]

Originally Posted by questions11

We have a car to get around in. I guess I am just being extra picky. I am just used to where I live and I think everywhere is the same.
How bad would the commute be if we drove from beaverton over the river going towards gresham? We would like to pay between 750 to 900 for a 2br.

I would not want to commute from Beaverton to the east side. I'd look at slipping over the county line into Clackamas County, like in Milwaukie or Clackamas. You're likely to find something less expensive there, but it's (IMO) better schools than SE Portland will have. And the commute will be easier to any location on the east side.

I wouldn't want to live on the outer East Side (out towards Gresham). Cheaper apartments, but more crime.