Hi all, I have an opportunity to relocate to Portland for the job. The office will be in downtown with 5 days a week work in the office. We are looking for recommendations on where to buy a single family home or vacant land to build a custom home.

Budget is $2.3m- $2.5m (maybe we will lower it after we figure out how the property tax work there)
lot/land size 0.3-0.5 acre
Need a good or decent public school system. Our kids are 5 and new born.
Close to Costco will be nice or a varieties of grocery stores closeby
Hope traffic won't be too bad to drive into DT. within 30 - 45 mins will be ideal.
maybe a scenic area

Thank you in advance.

Last edited by panacea1982; 02-14-2025 at 02:17 PM..

There are few buildable homesites so you want to look at existing homes. Find an anal-retentive home inspector and make offers conditional.

Lake Oswego and West Linn have challenging commutes to down town.

On the west side, close to down town, look at Willamette Heights, Kings Heights, Arlington Heights, Portland Heights and the neighborhoods that abut the hill on the flats in northwest (also known as the alphabet district as the street names are in alphabetical order). All are in the Lincoln High School enrollment area, West Sylvan Middle School, Chapman and Ainsworth primary schools. Friendly House has a preschool (co-op?) and provides after school care for Chapman. There is an excellent early education school at Class Academy.. not cheap but they take children once potty trained. Most students at Class Academy are children of high-tech engineers. [Need I say that close-in west side is my neighborhood?]

Ainsworth has a Spanish immersion program that starts in Kindergarten, admission by lottery. Lincoln has an International Baccalaureate track.

The neighborhood has Fred Meyer's, Whole Foods, Trader Joes and local chains Zupan's and New Seasons. Costco isn't convenient. I use the one in Tigard but there is one near NIKE that may work for you..

Property taxes are high..

Last edited by Nell Plotts; 02-14-2025 at 06:49 PM..

I can't advise you generally, but I will point out that the Columbia Gorge is extremely scenic, however what may seem like a doable commute through it is very much impacted by weather.

I live in the eastern gorge and am astonished at how bad conditions driving through it can be. I grew up in Minnesota so it's not like I don't have experience with winter weather.

But the gorge is narrow and often doesn't feel safe to me even in just a heavy rain. a lot of this is due to driving a Toyota Carola rather than the taller vehicles around me, but still, places with no shoulders to get out of traffic, for example.

I hope a lot of people who know the Portland neighborhoods post.

Near Beaverton Costco, commute via MAX. A no car commute to downtown would be a benefit.

Probably better to invest your RE $$ and to rent (I prefer this in an overpriced market, when I may choose to leave within 10-15 yrs). my RE equity WORKS for me, and delivers adequate income to pay rent for a wonderful place I could never afford, or desire to maintain or insure or pay taxes. And.... I can live in Tokyo, Toronto, Tahiti, or Toulouse (or Beaverton).

Beaverton schools offer a lot of choice, especially for sports / swimming/ clubs / variety of academic type learnings / international groups and exposure.

Depending on age and interests of students... Consider the option of FT college instead of high school. (Free in WA state, 7 minutes from Downtown Portland). Oregon has some similar provisions as well, but not free tuition for HS students. Our kids had enough qualifying college credits by HS graduation age to enter U as full Jr. Saved them a pile of dough, and gave them 2 yrs headstart on earnings. No HS transcripts required. College transcripts were adequate for placement.

EEH, the commute from Washington to downtown Portland is more like 45 minutes and is brutal. One of these days the I-5 bridge to Washington will be replaced and travel to Washington will be even worse during construction.

There are few routes into downtown from the west suburbs, light rail is your best option. There are park and rides to make travel doable but I don't know if they can accommodate the demand. Light rail runs all the way to Hillsboro.

Agree...
Lake Oswego and West Linn. New or aging areas with or without HOA's, rolling hills and just outside of the immediate metro area but very close to everything.