Moving to Portland area from Phoenix - advice needed from locals... (Beaverton: transplants, daycares)

[cjnemeth]

I'm originally from England and have been in Phoenix, AZ for 6 years.

My wife and I with our two kids (4 and 3 - yes we have our hands full ) are making a move to the PNW and due to my work, Portland and surrounding suburbs are our options.

We want a place that is great for famalies, has some great preschools/kindergartens, and has a good cost of living.

Places I have read about are West Linn, Tigard, Lake Oswego, Beaverton, Portland itself and Vancouver.

Any advice from the locals about the best places to raise a family would be welcomed.

Cheers

[SETabor]

If you've read any of the replies to similar questions, you should know the first location is where is your work? Location matters when there's bridges and tunnels to factor in.

[pandaundercover]

My husband and I just moved to Lake Oswego from Phoenix a few weeks ago. We were in Phx for 5+ years and are originally from CA. The areas around here are nice. I think Tualatin, Tigard, and Lake Oswego are really kid friendly. They're pretty clean cities and when I drive to work at 2am, I don't see anything that makes me paranoid. Beaverton isn't bad, but I find it more congested than the towns I just mentioned. But Beaverton is the oldest of the 4, and I'm sure it's overall a good place... just might wanna narrow look around a lot.

LIke the person above me said, you do wanna consider where you work and where your wife might work. While it's roughly only 10-40 minutes to most of Portland from the listed cities, there's a handful of highways and they do get a bit congested during rush hour. I find the bigger obstacle is getting over the river to the east side, where MIlwaukie is, because there's pretty much only one highway that goes over it and it's a pain in the butt. (It's also pretty much the nearest location of a supercenter walmart! 30-40min drive from Lake Oswego during non-rush hour). So you definitely wanna factor in things that are important to you guys. It's not totally like Phoenix up here in these areas.

[christiner81]

if you search this board for "phoenix" you will find several transplants' posts (including mine). I have a 5 and 3 year old, spent just over a year in SW Portland and this last summer moved a bit further out to Forest Grove. IMO, all those places are great family areas.

In my experience, finding daycare was my biggest challenge...there are not as many as there are in Phoenix and trying to pull together the logistics of commuting, daycare and school were difficult - and a contributing factor as to why we moved a bit further west. I relied on public transportation to get to work because of the parking situation (OHSU) which dictated my home location & work hours, and therefore a small radius for daycare options. It seemed that most of the preschools in the SW were part time private preschools, which are useless if you need FT care; many people I met have nannies.

The other difference is commuting...i used to do a 25 mile commute (each way) in PHX and it was no big deal timewise. you cannot live far from your job out here...commutes are so much slower even though everything is relatively closer/smaller than the phoenix sprawl. It was hard to understand it all just reading about it and looking at maps - asking about potential commutes on here is really helpful so you can land in a good spot.

[oldtintype]

Daycares/full day preschools are more plentiful on the east side and downtown. Not sure if that reflects the demographics age wise or if people on the west side just tend to be able to afford nannies more often

[Sadie064]

My husband and I just moved from Phoenix a few months ago. I have nothing to add about family-friendly areas since I don't know much yet...but I think we should start a Phoenix-transplant meetup as there seems to be so many of us. :-)

[Copsgirl73]

Commutes in Portland can be nasty (anywhere from 30-60+ mins) depending on how far out you are. Where you will be working will determine where folks will recommend you look

[peaceloveandtattoos]

Were Phoenix transplants as well! Been here an accumulative 12 months and loving it sooo much.
We currently live in Sellwood (which is a portland neighborhood) and it is very friendly and small-town feeling. Highly reccomend!