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I know there are some Camas residents lurking and posting here.
My wife and I have been actively home shopping in Camas and need to settle on something soon. We are looking at houses in the Deer Creek area on the south side of Prune Hill and also some slightly older comparably sized and priced houses in the Lake Heights and Lacamas View neighborhoods on the north side of Prune Hill
Does anyone who lives in the area have any meaningful insights as to the differences in these areas if there are any meaningful differences. Youngest child will be entering 5th grade so it really isn't an elementary school issue. Both areas attend the same middle school. From what I have observed without living there:
Deer Creek area and neighborhoods on the south side of Prune Hill. A bit newer so smaller trees. Definitely less tall evergreen trees. I suspect that might be due to the south facing views of Portland and the Columbia and people not wanting view-blocking big trees. Neighborhoods seem a bit younger with more small kids and strollers out and about. Feels more open and sun-lit due to the south side of the hill and less trees. Lots of small local trails but the area is more cut off from the big major trails and parks which are more on the north side of Camas so any longer hikes will require bike or car to get there (I hike and walk the dog a LOT).
Lake Heights area and neighborhoods on the north slope of Prune Hill above Lake Road. Taller trees and more mature landscapes perhaps due to less views of the city. Slightly older houses on slightly larger lots. Not quite so many young families, more of a mix. The area seems much better tied into the larger Camas trail networks along the lake and in the big parks which seems a big plus to me for walking, biking, and hiking without needing to get in the car. Probably a bit more gloomy and dark in mid-winter due to the north facing hillside and older trees.
Are these perceptions more or less accurate? Anything important that I'm missing that people who live in the area know about? Any meaningful distinctions in things like city services, internet and cable TV service, cell phone coverage, etc.? Thanks!
We live in the lake heights, lake pointe, sunningdale gardens, area. But when we were looking we were also torn between Deer Creek and our current neighborhood. Both are great areas and I think you really can't go wrong with this decision. It may come down to what's available when you decide. That said I will give you the pitch for my neighborhood
What we love. Our 1/3rd of an acre lot with mature landscaping, this is a biggie for us, not important for other people. Our neighbors, we are close in a way that I thought didn't exist except on tv. Our wide, flat, quiet streets, our kids ride their bikes everywhere. Our location near the lake, away from new construction, off of Prune Hill, and a quick drive to downtown Camas or to Costco and 192nd.
Downsides to our area. Dated homes. We have top to bottom remodeled ours but many haven't. Smaller square footage than perhaps ideal. That's about it for negatives, I wouldn't say it's gloomier down here than on the hill and at least once a winter there's ice up there and not in our area.
Deer Creek may have more younger children and more variety in housing size and age. It is also faster to get on 14. One thing I would keep in mind are the developments going in on Brady Rd. Read up on the plans for the next few years because it may change the feel and congestion up on that part of the hill.
Anyway, feel free to hit me up with any additional questions you have, good luck!
Thanks. That's pretty much what I thought as well. Most of the Deer Creek stuff is 2004-era whereas I see a lot more late 1990s stuff on the other side in Lake Heights. Some are beautifully redone, others not so much. I like the more mature landscaping on bigger lots. I didn't mean gloomy, just more shaded in the winter when the sun is lower on the horizon and perhaps behind the hill. I lived on a north slope on Douglas Island in Juneau Alaska which is a lot further north and in the winter we never got any sun at all because it was too low on the southern horizon. Was wondering if the same thing happened in places on the north side of Prune Hill.
There are some houses available on Sierra. Is that too busy of a street to live on? Seems like the only way off the hill so a lot of traffic gets funneled onto it and the curbs are painted yellow so no parking in front of your house on the street.
There don't seem to be any bad areas anywhere in Camas. Although I did find the road improvement plans for Camas and they are planning to turn 28th Ave up north of the lake into a 5 lane from Costco up to the old Golf Course and then 3 lane with bike paths up to 500 and put a new elementary school up there so they are planning for an enormous amount of growth up there north of the lake. Was looking at one house up there until I figured out that 2 lane country road will eventually be a 5 lane expressway and you'll lose half your yard.
What do you think about living on the periphery of downtown Camas? There are occasional nice houses for sale along 10th near Forest Home Drive. Right now they have nice views of the paper plant and Mt. Hood but I can't imagine that plant will keep running forever. They have to be running out of pulp in the nearby forests at some point.
Finally do you know anything about the Perrywood subdivision? There are some houses with really nice big 1/2 acre lots back in there. I don't like living in a gated subdivision though. Curious if it is mostly older residents or families with kids.
I wouldn't live on Sierra, it's busy and can be icy in the winter.
Forest Home is going to be closed to regular traffic for up to two years because of a severe landslide. I'd avoid it like the plague. Oh and 10th has flooded this year, I wouldn't live there.
I have a friend that lives in Perrywood. It's very pretty and she has young kids. If I were being critical I would say it's closer to Washougal than Camas and it's far from 192nd where most of the shopping is. The houses are a little ornate for my taste but the lots are nice. Overall it's a nice area.
Yes, the area over by Costco and the golf course is going to have something like 1200 new homes and there are big development plans all over the north side of the lake as well.
Houses don't seem to sell very fast on Sierra and I was wondering why. I guess that is it.
I wasn't talking about buying on Forest Home but rather on 10th up the hill from the intersection of 10th and Forest Home. There are some nice houses on large lots on the uphill side of 10th backed up against the greenbelt. The subdivision is called Forest Home Estates. Looking at the news reports that is way uphill from where that flooding occurred on 10th due to the clogged storm drain if I'm reading the right news reports that you are referring to.
I had the same impression of Perrywood. Houses are rather ornate and more to the style that my parents might choose. That's why I was wondering about the average age of the residents in there. Don't really want to move someplace where neighbors will scowl at my kids because they are biking in the street or something. It does back against that new area of Washougal where all the houses are being built on top of each other where you have views of your neighbors backyard and roof but there is a greenbelt separating. It looks like it is only a couple of blocks from downtown Camas though. My wife would be commuting to the Orchards area so a farther drive. Google says to go around the north of the lake on 500 from that location but it is still a longer drive than from over where you live.
We are most likely going to settle for something in the two areas that I first described. Either Deer Creek and surrounding neighborhoods or the Lake Heights or surrounding neighborhoods. Kind of depends on what ends up available and what we like best. Seems like the most sensible areas for commuting, shopping, schools, and sports as both our girls swim.
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There certainly are some 'worse' locations in Camas. (Smell, micro climates, ground structure, traffic, services, HOA ...). Draw a line from the papermill to intersection of I-205 and SR 500. This will roughly define air flow of gorge winds / paper mill smell (seldom, but serious enough to avoid it). Watch the topography / wind / ravines.... And stay north of that line.
I have 4 friends on Sierra.... Not something I would consider. 2 homes have active 'springs' running under them, and through foundations. Liquifaction / earthquake will not be good. Do not live below them either...!!!
There certainly are some 'worse' locations in Camas. (Smell, micro climates, ground structure, traffic, services, HOA ...). Draw a line from the papermill to intersection of I-205 and SR 500. This will roughly define air flow of gorge winds / paper mill smell (seldom, but serious enough to avoid it). Watch the topography / wind / ravines.... And stay north of that line.
I have 4 friends on Sierra.... Not something I would consider. 2 homes have active 'springs' running under them, and through foundations. Liquifaction / earthquake will not be good. Do not live below them either...!!!
Macintosh is another region I don't like.
Ymmv
So you are talking about a diagonal line from downtown Camas to more or less the intersection of I5 and I205? If i'm reading your description correctly what you are basically describing is that the south side of Prune Hill down to the Columbia River (Deer Creek, Grand Ridge, and the other neighborhoods along Macintosh Rd) are what you would avoid and you prefer all the neighborhoods from the top of Prune Hill to the north.
Sierra is a very curvy road that winds down off the hill and passes through a variety of different neighborhoods. Is it the steep parts that are problematic? I see houses for sale along Sierra that just sit there or keep coming back on the market whereas other comparable houses on side streets sell immediately. I was assuming that it was more to do with the fact that it is a busier through street and people want the quieter side streets and cul de sacs.
In any event, I think we are leaning towards the neighborhoods on the north side of Prune Hill down closer to Lake Road such as Lake Heights. Will be slightly shorter commute for my wife up to the Orchards area and the neighborhoods are a bit older with more established trees. It is also tied in better to the parks system and trails for hiking and biking and will avoid the need to put the dog in the car when I want to go walk trails. Of course finding the right house in this crazy real estate market is something else entirely.
What do you guys think of all those new neighborhoods on the Washougal side that feed into the Camas schools? Not sure what they are called (Lookout Ridge?) but the ones with letter street names just east of Crown Road. They did not appeal to me when we did a drive through. Too steep and complete lack of vegetation makes it so you are looking down on your neighbors roof and back yard and all you see is a sea of roofs. But some people must like it because they are building a lot of houses over there. I'm guessing it is the views which I don't care about so much. It seems kind of disconnected from the rest of the Camas area and you are forced to go down a long narrow steep street without sidewalks to get down to 14.
I'm going to be a little biased about the Lookout Ridge area, we rented over there before we bought in 2007-2008. A lot of those houses were built during the boom and for various reasons it was foreclosure/short sale city when we were renting there. At one point it seemed like every other house was either for sale or in some kind foreclosure, abandoned etc. the neighborhood was a weird place to be at the time.
That said if you were looking for a newer house and you're really careful that you get the ones in the camas district side of the street (we have friends who thought they had but wound up in Washougal schools) it's a lot cheaper to buy a big new house over there, maybe with a view than it is farther west. It seems still to be harder to sell them too.
The Crown road area isn't really to my taste, I think some of the neighborhoods look nice, particularly Round Lake they're doing a decent job with, but the two Safeways within close proximity are pretty small and junky and it's a drive to anywhere else. A lot of 3rd Ave is 25miles an hour so you're crawling everywhere too. Also, and I know this doesn't apply to you but Woodburn is the only elementary school in Camas that I've heard negative things about from more than one person.
Again, I'm a little burned on the area from our renting experience so take my opinion for what it is and I do have friends that live over there and love it.
Oh and on Sierra, it's steep, curvy, and busy. And icy often too I wouldn't live there, drivers tear down the hill and your kids would be confined to the house. And the earthquake/landslide factor is a real one too. Camas is having issues up on the hill with landslides, not all of them are being reported. I'd be hesitant to buy anything on the side of the hill and especially below houses being built on the hill.
Well thanks. More confirmation to stick with the older flatter parts of Camas. At least to the extent that a late 1990s house can be considered "older". The houses built in the 1990s mostly have nicer larger lots anyway and tend to be more conveniently located.
I didn't like the feel of the Lookout Ridge area but couldn't exactly put my finger on the reason why. Part of it was the steep drive up from 14. I didn't realize until later that there was another entrance to the area from Crown Road. But it just feels really crammed in up there with all the houses on top of each other. Something about the geography of the slope and lack of vegetation and trees for fear of blocking someone's view I guess. But the houses on the equally steep slopes in other parts of Camas somehow don't have that same feel of being right on top of your neighbors. Maybe the lots are smaller up there or something. I haven't really researched it but we won't be shopping over there unless we get desperate and can't find something elsewhere.
Sierra is funny. This house is about the lowest priced house in the whole area on a price per square foot basis: http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale.../23283468_zpid and this one keeps coming back on the market at lower and lower prices: http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale.../66648279_zpid so there is something about that street that makes houses hard to sell compared to the rest of Camas where similar priced houses go in a day or two.
Basically I think it will come down to the flatter parts of Deer Creek where there are some very pretty neighborhoods, or some of the more established neighborhoods on the other side of the hill like Lake Heights or Holly Hills. I'm hopeful we will find something adequate in one of those areas.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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If you have kids, follow hml advice.
Lookout Ridge, I fully agree. NO!
Stick with your gut, there are some nice homes near Lake Point. I have a few friends in smaller / 20 yr old homes on nearby Jackson Ct .(next to / west of UL). Very happy / nice neighborhood ! (as are many)
Think TAXES and buy as small as reasonable sf home.
Spend the extra savings on family vacations to SUN !
( the kids / spouse will thank you for that) Great memories of spontaneous trips to SUN!
Proximity to activities / shopping / schools / church... =more family time, less travel time. All are more important than a Cheap $ / sf house.....
If you want to make Real Estate money..... It will not usually be on a primary residence that is your perfect spot. Go buy a commercial property if you want an Investment.... A residence is NOT an asset / investment in my portfolio. It is a PITA liability. Minimize the risk and pain. Enjoy your home as the Retreat, that it should be for your entire family.
Bargains often come at a terrible cost.
Best wishes, there are several 'right choices', no perfect choices.
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