Popular Portland Suburbs

If you're considering moving to the Portland, Oregon area, it's good to get a quick overview of places to live. We'll save a discussion living in downtown Portland for another article and focus this time on the most popular Portland suburbs. If you're shopping for Portland real estate, you'll want to take a look at these neighboring towns to see if they will provide the lifestyle you and your family are looking for.

Lake Oswego

Lake Oswego is a small community just south of Portland. It's an easy commute for those who need to work downtown; only about 20 minutes. Lake Oswego is a beautiful suburb of Portland with great neighborhoods.

• Map of Lake Oswego to Portland

Hillsboro

Hillsboro is a suburb of Portland just 30 minutes to the west. If you get on Highway 26 heading west until you pass the city grid, you'll start seeing some open space. That's how you know you’re coming up on Hillsboro. Just pass the Portland-Hillsboro Airport to go into town, or drive around the west side of town to find Hillsboro homes with more open space around them.

• Map of Hillsboro to Portland

Beaverton

Beaverton, Oregon is a small community just 15 minutes west of Portland. Most Beaverton homes were built in the 50's and 60's, with an abundance of ranch style homes and cottage homes. Beaverton homes are reasonably priced and a great place to raise a family.

• Map of Beaverton to Portland

Tigard

Tigard is a community about 15 minutes southwest of Portland. It is a nice little bedroom community, with homes that date mostly to the 60's and 70's. There are a lot of ranch style homes in Tigard. One of its biggest assets is that it is so close to both the city and countryside of the Portland area.

• Map of Tigard to Portland

West Linn

West Linn is great little suburb of Portland that sits just over 20 minutes due south of Portland. It is a quiet little area just across the river from Oregon City and minutes from Willamette Falls.

• Map of West Linn to Portland

Click here to find an experienced Portland buyer's agent.

Home inspectors are looking out for you

Just a word of advice - don't take the work of a good home inspector for granted. Too many buyers are so anxious to close a deal that they intentionally close their eyes to the property's problems. They fall into the trap of trying to save time and short term money, not considering the fact they their emotional decision may cost them dearly if they don't have someone take an objective look at the physical health of the property.

We all know it's truth that a home purchase is an emotional decision. How could it not be? We're parting with a significant amount of money, investing it in a nice piece of Portland real estate we're going to call home (in most cases, at least). There's bound to be some emotional connection to the property.

Hiring a home inspector serves to bring a disinterested third party in to take a look at the structure and property to point out any defects that ought to be known prior to entering a deal. Can a good home inspection kill a deal? Yes, of course, but that's rare. More often than not, it simply brings to light a few items that need to be taken care of prior to the closing.

Fortunately, most loan underwriters require a home inspection to make the loan. But even in cases where the money lender does not require one (like in cases of private money or peer to peer lending), you should always insist on getting a home inspection. As a buyer, Portland real estate inspectors are looking out for your best interest, and they may bolster your case of the need for price negotiation.

Mobile Portland Homes Search

Check out this cool little fast-loading site to search for Portland homes. It's about as streamlined as you can get, and covers several popular neighborhoods. You browse listings in preselected search links for various prices ranges, then you can narrow your search down if you'd like.

With the exponential growth in mobile-phone web browsing, mobile real estate search websites are fast-becoming an important source of traffic for real estate agents looking to master the next phase of technological innovation (there's always something "next," isn't there?).

The site is designed by a company that specializes in real estate websites. Here's their site dedicated to mobile real estate sites.