Best bang for your buck? Wilsonville vs West linn vs Lake Oswego (Portland: apartment)

[Gotquestionsandanswers]

We are relocating to Portland area and our jobs are in Wilsonville and in Downtown Portland. Which of these suburbs (Wilsonville, West Linn, Lake Oswego, and Tualatin) offer the best bang for you buck (low-crime, good schools, quality of life, easy access to downtown)? From our research Lake Oswego seems a little out of our range for homes that are "updated". Our top 2 choices are Wilsonville or West Linn. We are also considering Tualatin, but read an article about increasing poverty rate in the area? Also, what about Oregon City? home prices seem to be the lowest over there, is there a reason for that?

Any help would be appreciated!!

[EnricoV]

Home prices in Oregon City because it's a less desirable area. It's older, for one thing. And always has been a "working class" city, mostly employees at the paper mill that is no longer.

Any of those suburbs should be just great. Great schools, newer homes, etc. Lake Oswego is older, but has always been a more posh area. The others are newer, more recently (in the scheme of things) expanded to areas.

[Gotquestionsandanswers]

Thank you for that information EnricoV. We will definitely take Oregon City off our list. Right now its basically between Wilsonville or West Linn and i'm having a hard time deciding which would be a better in the long run? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[skiffrace]

Which of these suburbs (Wilsonville, West Linn, Lake Oswego, and Tualatin) offer the best bang for you buck (low-crime, good schools, quality of life, easy access to downtown)?

No matter what you choose, one of you will have a lousy commute. Downtown and Wilsonville are far apart, and the only reasonable artery between them is the perpetually clogged I-5. There is no reasonable public transit alternatives. There is something called WES, which is a light rail line that runs from Wilsonville to Beaverton. In Beaverton you need to change to Max, which will take you downtown. The whole trip is relatively easy, but it takes a long time.

The fact that you thought Oregon City is a reasonable choice by looking at the map means you don't realize what the traffic patterns in PDX area are like. Traffic is a one, big, perpetually jammed mess. It often takes a long time to travel even a few miles.

Lake Oswego is the only suburb on this list with reasonable access to downtown. Commute to Wilsonville from LO would be barely OK.
As you know, LO has great schools, but you pay for them with high house prices. If you can afford it, I'd consider LO, but if it's a stretch financially, I'd look elsewhere.

Commuting to downtown from Wilsonville and West Linn will be hell.

Tualatin is the dark horse here. Good schools, (still) reasonable house prices, and halfway between Wilsonville and downtown. Very safe and pretty as well. The best value for your money as far as housing, and a commute compromise.

[Twilighter]

Originally Posted by skiffrace

Lake Oswego is the only suburb on this list with reasonable access to downtown. Commute to Wilsonville from LO would be barely OK.
As you know, LO has great schools, but you pay for them with high house prices. If you can afford it, I'd consider LO, but if it's a stretch financially, I'd look elsewhere.

Commuting to downtown from Wilsonville and West Linn will be hell.

Using OR43, takes me about 10 minutes to get from my house on top of the hill in West Linn to downtown Lake Oswego. Taking OR43, it takes about 30 minutes to get from my house to downtown Portland. That's without traffic. It clogs up during rush hour. It will be made even worse if the LOT water treatment plant expansion is not blocked (and I suspect it won't be blocked.) They have freely stated that traffic on OR43, which has one lane in each direction in West Linn, will be affected for up to 3 years.

On either I5 or I205, it also takes 30 minutes to get downtown, without traffic. If I were working downtown during business hours I would plan for an hour commute each way.

But commuting isn't the only concern. You don't mention whether you have children. West Linn is more of a bedroom community than Wilsonville, which has more business development and more choices if you want to rent an apartment.

If I had the money, I would live in the more rural area between West Linn and Wilsonville, along SW Mountain Rd. It's bucolic.

[classicanne]

Originally Posted by Twilighter

If I had the money, I would live in the more rural area between West Linn and Wilsonville, along SW Mountain Rd. It's bucolic.

Oh wow, Twilighter, you're so right! I've never been out that particular road, and living in any car-dependent area is out of the question for me, but soon, especially as fall comes on, I'm definitely reserving a Zipcar and taking a drive out that way. Beautiful!

[skiffrace]

If I had the money, I would live in the more rural area between West Linn and Wilsonville, along SW Mountain Rd. It's bucolic.
...
Oh wow, Twilighter, you're so right! I've never been out that particular road, and living in any car-dependent area is out of the question for me, but soon, especially as fall comes on, I'm definitely reserving a Zipcar and taking a drive out that way. Beautiful!

Oh yeah!

Here is the view from the window of my old house on the northern slope of Bull Mountain.
It's been 4 years since I lived there, and still miss the sheer beauty of the place. The scenery, the trees, the sunsets, the serenity. And I still could walk to three coffee shops! I moved to Garden Home mostly for "convenient location". I am still wondering if it was worth it...

(and on the Seattle forum they actually believe Seattle is prettier than Portland...)

[Priscilla Martin]

All the advice you've received is spot on.

I've lived in Portland 70 years and the routes you are facing were once scenic, pleasurable drives that have been supplanted by extreme overcrowding.

It's been a few years, but I have commuted daily from NE Portland to Beaverton (Bethany School), NE Portland to McMinnville (Linfield College), and NE Portland to downtown (PSU). I spent many hours behind the wheel wondering if it was worth it. Hindsight.

I'd consider selling you my home. It was tax assessed last year at just over $900,000 which is thankfully low for the selling prices in the neighborhood are all over $1.2 million. Ridiculous.