Looking for a new apartment in Portland (Milwaukie: apartment complexes, lease)

[J24]

So come the end of November it'll mark my first year in Portland. With that comes the end of my lease, and with my roommate getting married this summer, I'm in need of a new place and would like some advice.

I currently work in southern Milwaukie, but I'm dating a girl in Vancouver near the 205/Mill Plain area, so I'd like to maybe find something that's a happy medium between the two. I don't mind a 20 minute commute, as that is what I was used to before I moved to Portland.

I'm just looking for a decent 1 bedroom place that's under $750/mo if possible. I'd like it to be in a somewhat nice neighborhood where I don't have to worry about my car getting broken into or damaged. Other than that, I'm pretty easy going on where it is as long as it isn't a craphole.

Any suggestions on specific apartment complexes or which areas to look? Though I've been in Portland for about 9 months now, I still don't exactly know where the boarders of the "nice" areas and the "not so nice" areas are.

[J24]

Nothing at all? I've been doing a lot of searching and I'm not finding much at all in my budget. I'm thinking I might have to up that by a couple hundred..

[FSF]

There aren't too many secret listings that people here are going to know about, if any. The ones that are out there and available require a lot of pounding the pavement with no guarantee whatsoever of results. $750 for a decent one bedroom in most nice areas are going to be extremely difficult to come by to begin with if you want to be in Portland. As for protecting against car break-ins, unless you have a garage, you're going to risk that in almost all areas of the east side except maybe like Eastmoreland and a few other very limited areas that really don't have many apartments anyway. It may be more prevalent in some areas than in others but it's a risk that will be there.

I don't understand why you don't find a nice place in Milwaukee, ideally near downtown. Then your commute will be reasonably short. Vancouver is not THAT far if you work around rush hour. And the apartments should be less.

[Minervah]

I think I can honestly say that if people here who rented knew about a one bedroom apartment in a good neighborhood going for $750 they would be all on it for themselves. I know I would. I think you are going to have to add more than a couple hundred for the neighborhood you want in Portland.

The suburbs sound more to your needs. I second the suggestion of Milwaukie.

[hamellr]

Darn, I JUST rented out a cute vintage 800 Square foot one bedroom apartment in Hawthorn with easy Freeway Access to both Vancouver and Milwaukee for that price.

Just go to PadMapper.com and beat the streets in the neighborhoods you want. Part of the reason I didn't respond to your original post is I don't know of any good neighborhoods halfway between Vancouver and Milwaukee, and is only a twenty minute commute to Milwaukee.