Teaching and living in Portland (Beaverton, Tigard: sales, apartment, rentals)

[DMC1225]

Hi! We (husband, 3 kids and I) are hoping to relocate from Texas to the Portland area within a year.

Here are a few of our concerns.

*How hard is it to find a teaching job in the Portland area? (We will not move w/o a job lined up.)

*What neighborhoods would you recommend for a family with young kids?
--Safety is one of our biggest concerns.
--We'll have at least one car to drive around if needed but we would also enjoy being able to walk and explore. Is it even necessary to have two cars?
--Any zip codes we should stay away from?

We plan on visiting in the next few months. Any insight you have to offer is appreciated!

[VelouriaPDX]

My sense is that teaching jobs are tricky to get here, but I don't have first-hand experience with that. I just know there are more qualified applicants for most professional positions here than there are positions available.

As for neighborhoods, that is entirely dependent on your budget. What is your budget for housing, what size home do you want, and how highly rated do you want the assigned public schools to be?

You could certainly just have one car in Portland proper, much trickier in the suburbs.

[BLAZER PROPHET]

First, teaching. Very competitive. That said, the Estacada school district is having a mass exodus of teachers due to an abysmal hire of superintendent. However, that person will be fired within a couple of years and there are openings. You also may want to look at Vancouver schools.

Second, safety. There really are no safe neighborhoods in Portland that I could recommend. And with the advent of legalizing drugs, it isn't getting any better. I like the outlier communities- West Linn, Wilsonville, Forest Grove, Estacada, Sandy, Vancouver. Vancouver is in Washington and you don't have the oppressive Oregon State income tax, far less crime, much cheaper housing, lower property taxes and Portland (with all it may have to offer) just across the river.

[VelouriaPDX]

There are plenty of safe neighborhoods in Portland to recommend but they are expensive, so we need to know OP's budget. West Linn schools are great but I'm not sure about the schools in the other communities mentioned above.

[jjpop]

Originally Posted by BLAZER PROPHET

There really are no safe neighborhoods in Portland that I could recommend. And with the advent of legalizing drugs, it isn't getting any better. I like the outlier communities- West Linn, Wilsonville, Forest Grove, Estacada, Sandy, Vancouver. Vancouver is in Washington and you don't have the oppressive Oregon State income tax, far less crime, much cheaper housing, lower property taxes and Portland (with all it may have to offer) just across the river.

There most certainly are safe neighborhoods in Portland, just as there are incredibly sketchy neighborhoods in Vancouver.

[DMC1225]

Thanks for the input! As far as housing budget, I'd say up to $1,300 (for now). Is renting in that range even do-able? Housing is so different from what we're used to down here!

Neighborhoods I've looked into and will check out on our visit are: Sullivan's Gulch and Multnomah. I've read about staying away from the East side b/c of the crime. Any truth to that?

[Nell Plotts]

There are areas in the NE with a bad reputation but the east side as a whole is by no means a high crime area.

You are in Texas? The Portland School District will kill for good teachers qualified to teach in Spanish immersion classrooms at the grade school level. We don't have a significant Hispanic population but many parents want their children to be fluent in Spanish.

[VelouriaPDX]

Sadly $1300 a month is not going to go very far in Portland. You could get a studio or small one bedroom apartment in the safe, desirable areas for that.

The "east side" encompasses such a broad spectrum of neighborhoods, so there is no truth to needing to avoid the east side because of crime. Sullivan's Gulch, one of the neighborhoods you mention, is on the east side and well above your stated budget, full of $500,000+ homes and rentals going for several thousand a month. East of 82nd Ave does get dicey and you need to be much more careful about where you end up out that way.

Multnomah Village is on the west side and also desirable and likely priced over your range.

You *might* be able to find a 800-900 sq ft two bedroom apartment for $1300/mo in Portland proper, but with three kids you likely need at least three bedrooms. I don't know of anywhere that would be readily available for less than $2,000/mo, often much more.

There are areas in the farther suburbs that might have a 3 bedroom place for that price. But you will likely need two cars, and the neighborhoods are not going to be the walkable mixed use neighborhoods you are envisioning. I'm thinking parts of Beaverton, Tigard, and Happy Valley. Keep in mind schools in the Portland metro are very hit or miss; some are great, many are unacceptable. If you find rental listings you are interested in cross check the schools, check the sex offender registry, and feel free to inquire about specific neighborhoods/intersections here.

[j_k_k]

Originally Posted by BLAZER PROPHET

Vancouver is in Washington and you don't have the oppressive Oregon State income tax, far less crime, much cheaper housing, lower property taxes and Portland (with all it may have to offer) just across the river.

I can't speak to the accuracy of all of the above, but just to help the OP answer one key question she might anticipate: forget living in WA and commuting to OR. You will pay Oregon's state income tax, and for normal shopping trips, you'd chew up the tax savings on gas and headaches crossing the bridges with traffic and such. Plus, WA groceries aren't subject to the high sales tax anyway. So if you want to work in Van, I'd live on the WA side, and in Portland, live on the OR side.

For what it's worth, I'm acquainted with a very senior figure in the Vancouver school district, and I have the very strong sense that it will be a very good educational environment. My wife, who has known this person professionally for nearly two decades and respected her/him very much as a person who deals in good faith, concurs. Oregon's public education system is not doing too well. I think a fair number of vacancies that occur in Oregon might reasonably raise the question: "And why is it they are leaving to begin with?"

[Hockeygirl063]

Southwest Portland is fine. I have good friends who live there and raised there kids. So saying there are non in Portland is wrong. But outlying communities can be good. I prefer the westside. less problems with gangs and violence. I live in South Beaverton, getting spendy to live but safe and good schools