Safe towns around Portland?

[Squatch831]

Thanks everyone! I will be looking at all these options closely. I will
Be moving now as soon as I find a place.

 

[PDX1953]

I recently sold in Tualatin, made a great profit & now live in McMinnville. I got a lot more house for my $$ than I would elsewhere but I'm retired & bought a place that was recently updated. Funny thing about this town - there aren't any donut shops or full-service car washes like Kiss. Population is ~35k & growing & I spoke to a guy who's lived here for 25 years & he said the Libs are slowly but surely increasing. This used to be a real agricultural area and there's a large steel rolling mill but with wine country so close & a lot of retired Kalifornians moving here there are McMansions being built right up the road from me. Still - a lot better than Tualatin b/c it was becoming too Portlandy.

 

[Camelfilter]

I recently sold in Tualatin, made a great profit & now live in McMinnville. I got a lot more house for my $$ than I would elsewhere but I'm retired & bought a place that was recently updated. Funny thing about this town - there aren't any donut shops or full-service car washes like Kiss. Population is ~35k & growing & I spoke to a guy who's lived here for 25 years & he said the Libs are slowly but surely increasing. This used to be a real agricultural area and there's a large steel rolling mill but with wine country so close & a lot of retired Kalifornians moving here there are McMansions being built right up the road from me. Still - a lot better than Tualatin b/c it was becoming too Portlandy.

That McMinnville seems to be exploding!

Some friends sold there house within a week there, over ask. They're currently looking for a place in Linn county that will fit there needs, but are taking some time to do so.

 

[Joe13]

Hi everyone! I MIGHT be moving up in the Portland area from mid valley Oregon. Portland looks like a nightmare.. Crazy stories on the news daily. My question is are there any safe areas around Portland ? Beaverton, Tigard, hillsboro?? I don't go out to bars or party or anything like that, I just need to find a town that's somewhat affordable in the area that is a nice family town. I'm a boring gun packin family man. Lol. Parks, fishing spots, the zoo.. That's all I really care about. And somewhere I can drive to on BLM to shoot. Thanks everyone.

Vancouver is one big suburb...

Pretty safe with very few exceptions.

Stay out of Gresham, Hillsboro and North Portland imo.

 

[The Heretic]

Idaho or Montana, buy a chopper and fly to work or telecommute

I have noted that from my place, I could commute as quickly to Salem as I could into Portland, but Salem doesn't have the jobs - at least not for me.

 

[The Heretic]

There are no safe places, just different types and degrees of danger. Show me someone who truly believes they are safe, and lives their life accordingly, and I will show you someone destined to become a victim.

JMO

Of course it is a spectrum, with no place perfectly safe, but I am sitting here with my back and front doors open, several windows open, with no concern of home invasion. Of course, I live on a private road (not gated), off a back county road, off another back county road, 500 yards from the Yamhill county line, on a mountain, 5 miles from the nearest town, 30 miles from PDX. I am more likely to get a visit from a rabbit or deer at my door than I am a tweaker.



So pretty safe.

But I do have a loaded shotgun next to my bed just in case a rabid squirrel makes an appearance.

 

[WildBills-AR]

Vancouver is one big suburb...

Pretty safe with very few exceptions.

Stay out of Gresham, Hillsboro and North Portland imo.

Not so sure what's wrong with Hillsboro? It's got a lot of new and lots of jobs Intel is where the money is. The far west side of it isn't as nice ok but other than the traffic kinda sucks like everywhere.
Vancover is nice but as people started telling me last year don't work on the other side of the river from your home and that's good advice because traffic. You can find a good safe clean place about anywhere but traffic will kill you. Interesting reading the options.

 

[benchmark]

Corvallis. The 400 block of Northwest 27th Street between Harrison Boulevard and Tyler Avenue seems to be a nice neighborhood. Okay...okay not funny. That kid obviously drank the Hanford cool-aid. Later.

 

[Squatch831]

Corvallis. The 400 block of Northwest 27th Street between Harrison Boulevard and Tyler Avenue seems to be a nice neighborhood. Okay...okay not funny. That kid obviously drank the Hanford cool-aid. Later.

I actually live 20 min away from
There. This Stuff usually doesn't happen in Corvallis like that

 

[benchmark]

I actually live 20 min away from
There. This Stuff usually doesn't happen in Corvallis like that

It is in a nice central location of the state and near main corridor. I was sorry to hear of that tragedy, stupid kid.

 

[aksu747]

Vancouver is one big suburb...

Pretty safe with very few exceptions.

Stay out of Gresham, Hillsboro and North Portland imo.

I second that especially Gresham,I take a class there and every time I go I see or hear at least a few sketchy things. Gresham feels like the kind of area where I could be robbed mid day in open view,also loads of gang signs spray painted everywhere. Also seems to be a lot of drug activity in that area. If my class there was a night class I would just refuse to go entirely,the area is sketchy enough in the daylight I can't even imagine how dangerous the area is at night.

 

[jbett98]

Try the Rockwood area just West of Gresham. That's a bad mojo area day or night.

 

[aksu747]

Try the Rockwood area just West of Gresham. That's a bad mojo area day or night.

That area is sadly an area I have to pass through to get to my class.

 

[Kruel J]

Vancouver is one big suburb...

Pretty safe with very few exceptions.

Stay out of Gresham, Hillsboro and North Portland imo.

I'm in Hillsboro, and while there are some parts of it to steer clear, I find most of it safe and clean. I spent 13 years in Seattle, a few in SoCal. Hillsboro and west is a walk in the park. Ever been to Forest Grove? It's like the city that time forgot. Quiet, no traffic maybe an hour from Portland.

@Joe13 when was the last time you were in Hillsboro?

 

[Kruel J]

Funny, for such a "big city" I hit a deer on Baseline 2 years ago at around 9 o'clock at night. Unfortunately it was a fawn and didn't make it. Yes, I pulled over and made sure there wasn't any suffering.

 

[Joe13]

No offense meant to the Hillsboro people - been awhile since I spent much time there but unless you work at Nike or Intel (or other industrial place) there seems to be much nicer areas to live around Portland

 

[Kruel J]

No offense meant to the Hillsboro people - been awhile since I spent much time there but unless you work at Nike or Intel (or other industrial place) there seems to be much nicer areas to live around Portland

There's always a nicer place to live brother.

 

[Joe13]

And yes, forest grove is a nice place

 

[Kruel J]

And yes, forest grove is a nice place

I grew up there, and my parents still live there. What a crusty forgotten about town. What's not to like?

 

[CoastRange57]

To put this all in perspective, the inflow migrations into the PDX metro area have been about 31,000 per year. Now since this is a highly scientific theory I have, but it still makes the point.

If you take that 31,000 people and split it up between East County- Happy Valley area, west Metro Hillsboro to Forest Grove, and then Newberg McMinnville areas, each area gets 10,333.3 residents each year. Due to urban growth boundary restrictions growth will be tightly contained to those areas.

This assumes that you add the effective populations size of the cities of Happy Valley, Forest Grove, and Newberg to their respective areas over the next 3 years. I do not think that is a sustainable growth rate, since new housing starts will never keep pace with that, and TRAFFIC will become the biggest problem, as will job base. Just thinking that,but anybody who has driven on the west side in the last 3 years will be hard pressed to dispute my guesses.