Diversity & Inclusion in Happy Valley/West Linn, OR? (Portland: real estate, new house)

[solhss]

Hi All - I'm considering purchasing a home in the Happy Valley/West Linn area as a transplant from(you guessed it, CA). I'm originally from NY, married and have a baby girl. I am a person of color(southeast asian), and although I do find HV to be absolutely gorgeous and some houses in the 800k range with stunning views, I have heard that HV can be a little...trumpy? And can also lean towards to conservative side when it comes to politics. Secondly, when driving around I did notice a good amount of diversity, although maybe this is relegated to just scouters mountain? West Linn although haven't heard it to be trumpy it wasn't very diverse from what I could tell, although that argument can be made for Oregon as a whole Curious what peoples thoughts are on the HV/West Linn scene and if it's a good place to live for a family who is a person of color. Thanks!

[EasyBeezy]

I live near there. Clackamas County as a whole is very purple. In my travels in truly "trumpy" areas, I've seen tons of Trump flags and other paraphernalia. I've never seen anything like that in Clackamas, and definitely not in Happy Valley. I personally like the middle of the road political orientation of Clackamas. I don't know what it is like to be SE Asian in a mostly white community, but I don't think you would encounter overt racism in Happy Valley or West Linn.

[texasdiver]

Happy Valley is an upscale Portland suburb. There are a lot of affluent Asian-Americans from both East Asia and SE Asia living in every affluent part of the metro area. Kaiser Sunnyside Hopital is right next door. I expect a lot of Asian and SE Asian medical professionals live in Happy Valley because it is by far the closest upscale suburb to the hospital. Clackamas High School, which has a larger attendance area than just Happy Valley is 60% white, 17% Asian, 12% Hispanic, 75 multi-racial, and 2% black so that should give you some notion of the wider area.

As for politics, this NYT map is the best I have seen for drilling down and seeing the politics of an area: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...ction-map.html

It appears that Happy Valley is pretty blue and all the surrounding precincts voted for Biden by about a +11% to +17% margin except for one tiny precinct that went to Trump by 1.1%. You have to go further east to Damascus to find majority Trump precincts and it gets pretty red the further you go from the metro area.

West Linn is a lot bluer than Happy Valley. West Linn went for Biden by +38% as did most of the Beaverton and Hillsboro area.

[Nell Plotts]

I live on the west side so my opinions about HV and West Linn are formed 2nd hand. Politically and ethnically they are basically blue. Race is not an issue. Where do you or your SO work? There is a rule of thumb that you should live on the side of the river (Willamette in this case) where you work. The reason for this is traffic. I think the schools are comparable.

There is a significant concentration of Vietnamese in SE Portland, refugees from the Vietnam era. They, like me, are getting old. Their children are often well-educated professionals who have disbursed throughout the community - the best Asian grocery is in Beaverton. What remains are excellent Asian restaurants (as least before the pandemic).

[solhss]

This is all really helpful guys thank you. I would be working in the Eliot Neighborhood in Portland proper. I mapped it out and I think its roughly 15 miles or so and about a 22 min commute for each, with West Linn being slightly shorter. I'd be getting in pretty early around 6am so hopefully would avoid rush hour traffic. So that's very interesting in that HV is actually leaning blue, but just relatively purple in comparison to West Linn/LO, etc. I'm coming from Orange County so I'm use to purple at this point. I don't mind living around some people of different political beliefs as long as they keep to themselves and aren't outwardly racist, especially when my family come to visit. HV seems intriguing to me from an investment perspective because it just seems like it's continuing to grow, and as scouters mountain area and more developments go up it will prob look a lot more like West Linn/LO in the near future. Am I off in that assessment?

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by solhss

This is all really helpful guys thank you. I would be working in the Eliot Neighborhood in Portland proper. I mapped it out and I think its roughly 15 miles or so and about a 22 min commute for each, with West Linn being slightly shorter. I'd be getting in pretty early around 6am so hopefully would avoid rush hour traffic. So that's very interesting in that HV is actually leaning blue, but just relatively purple in comparison to West Linn/LO, etc. I'm coming from Orange County so I'm use to purple at this point. I don't mind living around some people of different political beliefs as long as they keep to themselves and aren't outwardly racist, especially when my family come to visit. HV seems intriguing to me from an investment perspective because it just seems like it's continuing to grow, and as scouters mountain area and more developments go up it will prob look a lot more like West Linn/LO in the near future. Am I off in that assessment?

From my perspective, West Linn and Lake Oswego are more old money and the demographic seems to be aging in place a bit more in those towns. Lots of older homes and the population tilts a bit older. Happy Valley is much newer with a lot more new construction so trends younger with lots and lots of young families, many of whom are migrants from other states like CA.

What I personally don't like so much about Happy Valley is that there isn't much in the way of dining and shopping close by. You have to drive down to the Clackamas Town Center area and that is a lot of big box chain restaurants. So you'll likely be driving into Portland when you want to do any sort of dining beyond the local strip mall Thai joint or brew pub. I'm not sure what the dining options are like in West Linn, maybe it isn't any better. By contrast the comparable suburbs on the west side like Beaverton are jam-packed with restaurant options.

As for real estate investment? Honestly it is really just one big market. Happy Valley is going to rise and fall with the rest of the Portland metro area. I wouldn't expect houses to appreciate any more or less there than in any other comparable Portland suburb. They are all tied to the same regional economy and housing market.

[solhss]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

From my perspective, West Linn and Lake Oswego are more old money and the demographic seems to be aging in place a bit more in those towns. Lots of older homes and the population tilts a bit older. Happy Valley is much newer with a lot more new construction so trends younger with lots and lots of young families, many of whom are migrants from other states like CA.

What I personally don't like so much about Happy Valley is that there isn't much in the way of dining and shopping close by. You have to drive down to the Clackamas Town Center area and that is a lot of big box chain restaurants. So you'll likely be driving into Portland when you want to do any sort of dining beyond the local strip mall Thai joint or brew pub. I'm not sure what the dining options are like in West Linn, maybe it isn't any better. By contrast the comparable suburbs on the west side like Beaverton are jam-packed with restaurant options.

As for real estate investment? Honestly it is really just one big market. Happy Valley is going to rise and fall with the rest of the Portland metro area. I wouldn't expect houses to appreciate any more or less there than in any other comparable Portland suburb. They are all tied to the same regional economy and housing market.

That's a very interesting, yet sensical take on it. Thanks. Agreed on not a lot of restaurants/shopping in HV, although it sounds like that's starting to develop a bit more(or that's the hope at least). I also looked at South Hillsboro/Reeds Crossing development which is VERY interesting just because it so massive, and they did a pretty good job with it overall. However it looks like that place will turn a little bit later down the road, prob 5-10 years. What are your thoughts on that area vs the other more affluent areas? Or kind of the same viewpoint that it's all going to just run parallel to each other? I'm an investment guy so I'm always trying to find inefficiencies in the market. Honestly much of the Portland Metro area has a lot of Orange County 20 years ago vibes to it. Irvine use to be a no mans land and is a now a very affluent robust city in Orange County. I wonder if same will happen to a number of the cities in this area.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by solhss

That's a very interesting, yet sensical take on it. Thanks. Agreed on not a lot of restaurants/shopping in HV, although it sounds like that's starting to develop a bit more(or that's the hope at least). I also looked at South Hillsboro/Reeds Crossing development which is VERY interesting just because it so massive, and they did a pretty good job with it overall. However it looks like that place will turn a little bit later down the road, prob 5-10 years. What are your thoughts on that area vs the other more affluent areas? Or kind of the same viewpoint that it's all going to just run parallel to each other? I'm an investment guy so I'm always trying to find inefficiencies in the market. Honestly much of the Portland Metro area has a lot of Orange County 20 years ago vibes to it. Irvine use to be a no mans land and is a now a very affluent robust city in Orange County. I wonder if same will happen to a number of the cities in this area.

Honestly? I'm no big expert in this stuff but I would expect the two biggest growth areas in terms of prices and such over the next decade will be:

West Side (Portland West Hills, Beaverton, Hillsboro, etc.) because that area has such a big job engine with all the tech companies and as Beaverton and Hillsboro continue to develop into destinations in their own right in terms of shopping and dining it will make nearby housing more in demand. Kind of like what happened with Bellevue and Kirkland in the Seattle area.

Vancouver Area. Lots of new development happening in downtown Vancouver and the East Vancouver/Camas area including a lot of new businesses moving in. There are still a lot of relatively ungentrified neighborhoods in the close in neighborhoods of Vancouver between I-5 and I-205 that I expect will soon become popular because they are actually closer to Portland than a lot of suburbs on the Oregon side of the river. Especially if mass transit option and connections to Portland improve with a new bridge. But I also expect Vancouver to develop into an employment destination on its own right.

None of the other suburban areas around Portland have anywhere near the level of commercial development as Beaverton or Vancouver. So I expect they will lag behind to some extent. People and businesses will be looking for new job centers that aren't downtown Portland and I think Beaverton and Vancouver are best positioned for that. Which will raise the value of surrounding residential properties as well.

[ADI-AVENTADOR]

Wife and I had just purchased our new house in Happy Valley and loving it!! Please come be our neighbors. Everything is within walking distance and I think you'll love it here as well...

[solhss]

Originally Posted by ADI-AVENTADOR

Wife and I had just purchased our new house in Happy Valley and loving it!! Please come be our neighbors. Everything is within walking distance and I think you'll love it here as well...

Nice congrats! Where in HV? Was it a new construction or existing home? Curious what your experience has been so far with the neighbors, neighborhood, etc.