Looking to move to Portland area, advice on different neighborhoods please (Beaverton: best neighborhoods, rental)

[NFURNO]

Hi everyone, thanks in advance for reading this and any advice you have on the areas.

Currently I live a couple miles outside of washington DC in northern virginia. I am in the process of trying to convince the wife to move out to the portland area because I feel we need a fresh start and a better place to raise our daughter and future kids. She wants to do about a year of research and money saving before making the jump and essentially giving me a year to convince her. We are taking a week vacation to portland in May for my birthday to see some sights, go on our first family vacation and get a look at the areas. A couple things we are looking for...

Good-great school system, obviously the better schools are a huge plus
Looking for alittle more suburbia feel but like the idea of looking out the back door and seeing tons of trees and mountain landscapes.
Cool stuff to do around ton or close areas to do family activities.
Like places that we can go walk the town and visit parks and shops.
Low crime
Family orriented neighborhoods
Looking for houses/townhouses under 200k
Im confident I can transfer over with my company to find a job and my wife works from home but I'm looking at getting a job with a police department, so if anyone knows how that market is I'd love feedback on departments and availability.

again, being from DC we are use to ghetto, high crime, terrible traffic. Obviously looking for a big improvement but dont expect nirvana.

More than happy to clarify

The areas I've looked into so far are, beaverton, sherwood, oregon city and st helen. Thanks again for any info, also would love pictures if anyone has them.

[oldtintype]

Compared to DC all the schools are good and all the neighborhoods are safe.

With that said, check out SW Portland, but as everyone will tell you, find out where you're going to work and worry about where you live after that. Though as Portland is mostly a series of neighborhoods you're "a little more suburban feel" applies to both most of Portland as well as the suburbs. I have been only to DC and Arlington, VA but most of the Portland neighborhoods would be urban in the way Arlington is urban--close to stuff, old bungalows, but not super dense.

People will claim the Portland School District sucks. Compared to DC school system it will be your own nirvana. No school here has the extreme problems of there, even our worst.

[NFURNO]

I work for bestbuy and can literally go where ever one is open, all the while applying to police departments. My wife and I lived in the city and grew tired of it fast and like more suburbia, leaving arlington/alexandria and out in fairfax suburbs now. I appreciate the feedback but if you could give any more details about the outlying areas around portland I'd appreciate it.

I guess I should clarify, I'd rather live outside portland and have a short drive into the city than live in the city.

[crisw]

There's a Best Buy at 82nd and Johnson Creek, so you may want to check out the Happy Valley area. If you're looking for suburbia, it's there, and many places have incredible views of Mt. Hood. Milwaukie along the 224/Lake Rd. area might work as well.

[EnricoV]

Pretty much all of the Best Buy's (like most big-box type stores) are in the suburbs. Any of them would be acceptable IMO, and go for a suburb nearby. The most problematic store would be the one at Jantzen Beach or the one near the airport. Best neighborhoods for those locations would be Vancouver, and then you have the commute to contend with. Because you only have to make your way over the river, I'd say they'd be okay ... just wouldn't be my first choice.

As for police departments ... with those, too, I'd look at the suburban towns and counties, and avoid Portland and Multnomah County.

[Nell Plotts]

Portland Police Department has had weak leadership and Multnomah County Sheriff's office is known to be the first social worker on the scene. The problem with the Sheriff's office is that the city of Portland carves a huge donut hole in their area of responsibility, they spend a lot of time on the road.

Agree with the above on Best Buy locations. SOME DAY in the future the I-5 bridge between Portland and Vancouver must be upgraded. Given WA attitude about funding (state wide) that will mean a toll and to manage volume both the I-5 and the I-205 bridges will be tolled. Your kids may be in college by that time but it is a known risk with an unknown date of impact.

[NFURNO]

Any reccomendations as far which suburbs? schools, communities and such

[bler144]

Originally Posted by oldtintype

People will claim the Portland School District sucks. Compared to DC school system it will be your own nirvana. No school here has the extreme problems of there, even our worst.

Sure, but the OP is from NoVa, not D.C. A lot of the NoVa districts are going to be higher rated than many of ours, and Fairfax is generally considered to be quite strong. There will be comparable schools in the Pdx metro, but certainly not all of them.

You can look up a Best Buy store map online. But agree with crisw, Happy Valley schools are strong (though rental prices there are high right now, but buying will be much cheaper than NoVa). Likewise there are some good districts around the Tanasbourne store (Sylvan).

Agree with EnricoV that Jantzen Beach is to be avoided as a work site, though I will say that a reverse commute there won't be so bad. North-bound during morning rush is fine, as is southbound in the eve. The hitch being what school district would you be in? Almost all of NoPo is going to be well shy of NoVa standards. If you're going to be farther east near Alameda, the commute to the Cascades store is probably preferable anyway.

Of course, the business pundits seem to think Best Buy is due for some contraction, and which stores might be gone in 2 years I can't say.

[Leisesturm]

Originally Posted by bler144

Of course, the business pundits seem to think Best Buy is due for some contraction, and which stores might be gone in 2 years I can't say.

Agreed, which is why I would recommend the Beaverton location on Cedar Hills Blvd. That one isn't likely to go anywhere anytime soon. I just have to believe that somewhere in Beaverton, can be found good schools and a nice suburban feel to things.

H

[NFURNO]

I read that sherwood have really good schools but from what I saw on google maps it looked kinda rural