Portland OR. folks, Gresham Vs Hillsboro

[scottmandue]

Thinking of retiring in four or five years, my wife is from Portland... when we were courting I visited up there a lot... great beer, coffee, food, entertainment, did I mention great beer?
Love downtown Portland but want a house with a yard so we can have dogs, chickens, a garden, etc. so I am looking at places close to the trimet (light rail) so we could hop on the train to run downtown for fun/work.
Gresham and Hillsboro are at opposite ends of the blue line with downtown in the middle, pros and cons of either?
Thanks in advance!

[Nostril Cheese]

Hillsboro by far. but its the suburbs and away from everything.

Gresham is synonymous with meth.

[fanaudical]

Hillsboro. West-side in general is nicer (in my opinion) than the east side.

You might also consider SW of Portland along the WES line. (Longer commute - take WES to Trimet).

[scottmandue]

On one of my visits we stopped in Hillsboro for coffee and walked around a bit, I liked the small town feel of it. I know nothing of Gresham other than looking at a map it is closer to the gorge (and I loved driving up the gorge)

[lane912]

Oak Grove - 97267 is a hidden gem

[herr_oberst]

Hillsboro - closer to the beach, Lotta Nike and Intel money here; traffic can get serious.

Gresham, closer to the Gorge, pretty windy here.

Tigard, Sherwood, have what you're looking for, too, if Hillsboro floats your boat, and if Gresham is your thing, try the area around Troutdale, too.

Further south, Wilsonville, Canby, McMinnville are all farmland communities close to PDX...

[scottmandue]

My goal is a easy walk to the trimet (I will be done with fighting freeway traffic, I'm a native Los Angeleno)! Google maps show all the trimet stops so I have been cross referencing that with Zillow.

Wife was living in Beaverton when we met.

Retiring in four to five years, things will change but figure we can sell, pay off this mortgage and have $200K to work with.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I lived in Gresham for a year - thought it was pretty nice then. It rains like hell though which you may be aware of, but it's 150-200 days of gray, no sun and drizzle, rain, whatever. It gets old quickly. That goes for just about everywhere west of the cascades though, not just Gresham.

[JoeyD]

Gresham = Methlahem

[jyl]

You live way the heck out in Hillsboro if you want a mini farm and country livin' . . . If you simply want dogs, chickens and a garden, there are plenty of houses with yards in closer-in Portland.

[LWJ]

Neither. PM me. I have lived in Portland Metro my entire life.

[Shifter]

Originally Posted by lane912

Oak Grove - 97267 is a hidden gem

Bingo! Could not agree more, and the light rail is currently being extended into that area.

You can still get a home in that area with over .5 acre under 400k. Of course the food and the meth isn't as good as what you will find in Gresham and Hillsboro, but you can always take the max there...

[lane912]

and the property tax in Oak grove is lower than any other area mentioned-

[Noah930]

Speaking of tax (though it might not be as a big an issue if the OP is going to be retired), does Multnomah County still have an additional 1% income tax on top of the 8 or so percent the state is already assessing?

[biosurfer1]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

My goal is a easy walk to the trimet (I will be done with fighting freeway traffic, I'm a native Los Angeleno)!

Traffic will seem like a cake walk no matter where you end up if you're used to LA traffic. I have traveled to a lot of big cities throughout the US and the traffic in LA is on another level. SF, Seattle, Chicago, etc. can be bad, but no where near the 24/7/365 "any direction is the wrong direction" type of LA traffic!

[jyl]

Hwy 26 at rush hour is irritating, even if it isn't LA-level gridlock.

[MMARSH]

You sure about that, I'm from Portland. As much as its home to me, I could never live there permanently again. maybe I'm just water logged, but i can't/won't deal with the rain and grey skies. in fact, I have three friends who have recently retired and moved out of the state. Where did they move....Southern California....

[BigInJapan]

Originally Posted by Noah930

Speaking of tax (though it might not be as a big an issue if the OP is going to be retired), does Multnomah County still have an additional 1% income tax on top of the 8 or so percent the state is already assessing?

Yes...it was passed off on the voters as a 'temporary' tax (as well as the temporary trimet tax that was supposed to end when a large project ended) that we in Multmomah County get the opportunity of paying in perpetuity now. PDX metro voters love to pay taxes (for some reason) and are credulous...and they swing the state since most of the population is here.

I live in John's Landing...right near the heart of downtown. I love being close to everything.

Ian

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

I lived in Gresham for a year - thought it was pretty nice then. It rains like hell though which you may be aware of, but it's 150-200 days of gray, no sun and drizzle, rain, whatever. It gets old quickly.

This is my biggest worry, native SoCal boy... lived with sunshine 3/4 of the year. I like rain but not sure I like it THAT much.

Originally Posted by jyl

You live way the heck out in Hillsboro if you want a mini farm and country livin' . . . If you simply want dogs, chickens and a garden, there are plenty of houses with yards in closer-in Portland.

No mini farm, I'm going to be retired, I WILL get a low key part time job just to keep from going crazy but I don't want to have to "work the back 40" either. Truth be told I would be happy with a condo downtown (uber low maintenance) but wifey want dogs and chickens... thought a part of me likes the idea of the suburbs on out on the edge country too. We went wine tasting in Sherwood and I really liked that area.

Originally Posted by Shifter

Bingo! Could not agree more, and the light rail is currently being extended into that area.

You can still get a home in that area with over .5 acre under 400k. Of course the food and the meth isn't as good as what you will find in Gresham and Hillsboro, but you can always take the max there...

400 is a bit steep... as I say I will be retired and the low or no mortgage payment would be ideal. I see stuff on Zillow in the Hillsboro area in the 250 range?

And not to be a broken record but has to be WALKING distance to Trimet is mandatory!


Also spent many weekends and a few weeks in Portland over the three years I courted my wife... I'm very familiar with the traffic patterns.