Rockcreek vs OakHills vs TerraLinda for buying home (Portland, Beaverton: real estate market, rent)

[tallharish]

Hi everyone, looking for suggestions for buying single-family home ($500k to $700k). We currently rent a home in Orenco Station community, next to Intel's RA campus and love it. But looking for houses around here, i see backyards are quite small, and I hear the schools are not as good, but the HOA fee is too high (~$300). Given the proximity to Intel, we surprisingly see few young parents, so something seems off. We will miss our wonderful neighbors though (all Sr. Citizens)

My wife works at Intel's RA campus, and we prefer to stay in ~15 min driving distance of her work. We looked at open-houses around town (Cedar Mills, Cedar Hills, Bethany, etc.), and thought we like houses with decent yard space (5k to 7k sq. ft lot size), with 2000-2500 sq. ft. living area. We also like houses in neighborhoods with some character and history and mature trees (sorry to the B-town up north) . We like the houses in RockCreek, Oakhills and TerraLinda area so far. It seems fitting our criteria and budget. Thought of asking if there are any peculiarities or quirks of these areas? Also any other neighborhoods we should add?

We are both in early 30s. Neighborhoods with a mix of age groups will be great.

[blazenjames]

I'd re-think your plans. Nike just fired hundreds of people and many will need to sell houses and leave the area. Intel is having major problems as well. Apple just announced plans to dump all Intel chips. Nvidia is buying ARM Holdings and this will be a major competitor to Intel. The areas you mention are price bubbles. Portland's nasty climate and now soft economy will ensure that future price inflation is negative to flat at best.

[Nell Plotts]

With respect to NIKE keep in mind the fact that many caught in the reduction will find employment with their competitors in the metro area and that a chunk of the reduction will take place outside of Oregon. Also many NIKE employees are not highly paid as some love to have NIKE on their resume. Many are two-income households and will hang tight for a while.

Chip manufacturing has always been a dog-eat-dog business. tallharsh probably knows more than blazenjames does about headcount issues.

[texasdiver]

The Portland metro real estate market is not that hyper-local. Beaverton and Hillsboro home prices are going to rise and fall based on the whole metro region's supply and depend, not anything uniquely local in Hillsboro. Job gains or losses in places like Vancouver, Tigard, and Clackamas and home construction in those areas are going to affect Hillsboro prices as much as anything local like Nike.

[tallharish]

Thanks blazenjames, Nell Plotts and texasdiver for your thoughts. Yes, i agree with the economic uncertainty, which is why we don't want to go overboard with our budget and rush into the process either. Just to clarify that we aren't in the market attracted by low mortgage rates or such. We have been in PDX area for ~5 yrs, and its the first time in our life/career where we have some mental bandwidth to think about it. So thought of exploring around. We can wait for 1-2 yrs to find the right home.

Any thoughts about my original question?

[tigerlily]

Originally Posted by tallharish

Thanks blazenjames, Nell Plotts and texasdiver for your thoughts. Yes, i agree with the economic uncertainty, which is why we don't want to go overboard with our budget and rush into the process either. Just to clarify that we aren't in the market attracted by low mortgage rates or such. We have been in PDX area for ~5 yrs, and its the first time in our life/career where we have some mental bandwidth to think about it. So thought of exploring around. We can wait for 1-2 yrs to find the right home.

Any thoughts about my original question?

There are no HOA fees in Terra Linda. It’s a sixties neighborhood. Lots of trees. A 1300 sq ft ranch was on the market four days last month had 11 bids, asking 435k sold for $455K. Many of the homes have been remodeled.