Suggest Vancouver / Camas neighborhoods for family with older kids

[oregonnative1]

A followup question -- what do people think about the neighborhood around Costco off of 205? There seems to be a lot of new construction in that area, and the houses are close to Seton high school. Based on my wife's preference we will likely still do private school for high school and Seton is the only private high school choice in Vancouver. It's appealing to buy a new house 5 minutes drive from the school but not sure if there are any hidden surprises for that neighborhood.

Is that the Costco that texasdiver was mentioning? There's a Costco in Camas but only 1 in Vancouver.

[oregonnative1]

Originally Posted by zerp

Belz Place neighborhood in Camas is what you want. Sub-2500 sq foot homes will be $800k-$900k.

The neighborhood is easily 25% Asian or one parent is Asian. Note this includes South Asia also, but there are several Americans of Chinese and Vietnamese descent there.

What is unique about the neighborhood is that it has a heated community pool that is open Memorial Day through Labor Day.

You won’t find coffee shops and restaurants within walking distance from your Camas or East Vancouver house. You’re moving to the suburbs not a Portland clone without the disgusting craphole that Portland has become.

Thanks, I'll read up on Belz Place.

[Pomelo]

Originally Posted by oregonnative1

Is that the Costco that texasdiver was mentioning? There's a Costco in Camas but only 1 in Vancouver.

No, the Costco texasdiver mentioned has a mailing address of Camas, but it is actually in Vancouver city. Any address on a road with a “SE” (southeast) prefix bordering Camas is legally within Vancouver, even if the mailing address says Camas. Union High School is also in Vancouver even though it has a Camas mailing address.

You can see precise city boundaries here:

https://cityofvancouver.us/cdd/page/maps

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by Pomelo

No, the Costco texasdiver mentioned has a mailing address of Camas, but it is actually in Vancouver city. Any address on a road with a “SE” (southeast) prefix bordering Camas is legally within Vancouver, even if the mailing address says Camas. Union High School is also in Vancouver even though it has a Camas mailing address.

You can see precise city boundaries here:

https://cityofvancouver.us/cdd/page/maps

There are three separate boundaries between Camas and Vancouver and none of them match.

The actual municipal boundaries which are the result of recent annexations

The post office zip code boundaries which are older between Camas 98607 and East Vancouver 98683 which determines which name you put on an envelope for mailing.

The school district boundaries with are older still and don't match either of the two above boundaries.

So the Costco and Union HS have Camas addresses according to the Post Office even though they are in land recently annexed by Vancouver.

It is even more confusing on the other side where you have neighborhoods in Washougal that feed into Camas HS.

Just because one jurisdictional boundary changes doesn't mean the other two do. Plus, the municipal boundaries are not all-inclusive. There are plenty of unincorporated areas that belong to no city. Whereas zip codes and school district boundaries are all inclusive. There is no spot of land that doesn't pertain to some zip code and some school district.

[kwalk65]

I live in one of those neighborhoods that has a Camas address but is technically East Vancouver. The best part I think in buying on the outskirts of Camas (closer to Vancouver) is it gave me Camas schools yet I pay Vancouver City Taxes. Yes, I pay for Camas schools within those taxes but the carve out for the City of Vancouver taxes is a good tax savings.

The outskirts, I am off of 192nd/34th Avenue in Camas with walking distance to grocery stores, restaurants, coffee, etc. is fantastic.

At your price point I'd be buying in the best area/neighborhood you can afford. If you can find a house you like in the Camas school district that would be my first choice.

[Wile E. Coyote]

Originally Posted by kwalk65

I live in one of those neighborhoods that has a Camas address but is technically East Vancouver. The best part I think in buying on the outskirts of Camas (closer to Vancouver) is it gave me Camas schools yet I pay Vancouver City Taxes. Yes, I pay for Camas schools within those taxes but the carve out for the City of Vancouver taxes is a good tax savings.

The outskirts, I am off of 192nd/34th Avenue in Camas with walking distance to grocery stores, restaurants, coffee, etc. is fantastic.

At your price point I'd be buying in the best area/neighborhood you can afford. If you can find a house you like in the Camas school district that would be my first choice.

So, Fisher's Creek / Fisher's Landing(s)?

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by Wile E. Coyote

So, Fisher's Creek / Fisher's Landing(s)?

Those are west of 192nd and I think everything west of 192nd is zoned to Evergreen schools. Both of those neighborhoods would attend Fishers Landing Elementary and Mountain View HS. Which are good schools too.

This is the correct boundary map

https://www.camas.wednet.edu/Camas20...y-Map-2018.pdf

If you want to be in the city of Vancouver but have Camas schools I think you are basically talking about this area I shaded yellow that is east of 192nd but west of the Camas municipal boundary. That is a pretty small area and your chances of finding exactly what you are looking for within such a small area is probably pretty slim. There isn't a huge amount on the market right now. I doubt the tax difference between Vancouver and Camas is really that meaningful.

[cyberous]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

Demographically speaking you will find the highest percentage of Asian population in East Vancouver and Camas. Well, Asian is a very broad category, but if we are taking about educated professional people then that is the case. That also tracks with wanting to be close to I-205.

So I would say limit you geographic focus to the attendance zones for Mountain View, Union, and Camas high schools. Union and Camas are very similar demographically. Mountain View is somewhat more diverse.

Here are the demographic profiles of the three areas that I mentioned

MOUNTAIN VIEW HIGH SCHOOL



UNION HIGH SCHOOL




CAMAS HIGH SCHOOL



Your one reasonable private school that isn't some tiny evangelical bible school is Seton Catholic school which is more or less a small version of Portland's Central Catholic if that makes sense. That is on the other side of Vancouver.

As for neighborhoods that have close access to I-205 you are talking about East Vancouver or West Camas. Basically any place that has relatively quick access to Highway 14 which runs along the Columbia and connects to I-205.

The two streets that connect are 164th and 192nd. 192nd is more or less the dividing line between East Vancouver and Camas. You aren't really going to find the sort of walkable neighborhood you are looking for unless you go all the way into downtown Camas and then you will find it but the houses there are older. That might be exactly what you are looking for frankly. But you will have to be patient as that is a small area and the nice houses go fast. Otherwise there are various good neighborhoods around Camas and East Vancouver but they will be more suburban feeling.

You can go to the Camas and Evergreen School District web sites to pull up the boundary maps. But essentially it is the following:

Mountain View covers the area of East Vancouver on both sides of I-205 that is south of Mill Plain. You don't want to go north of Mill Plain as that will put you into the Evergreen HS attendance zone and that is a somewhat rougher area and will be farther from I-205 anyway: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...UZwcroNg0/edit

Union covers a lot of farther flung suburban area on the North East side of Vancouver (so McMansion land) but carves out a corner of area next to the Costco including the Westridge Area which is very nice and should be on your list: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...T8G-Yzetg/edit

Camas covers everything to the east of both Mountain View and Union. To be close to I-205 you probably want to be in the Prune Hill area which is the dark blue on this map. You will just need to google map the distances to see that you aren't getting too far from I-205. Frankly a lot of the Prune Hill and possibly the Grass Valley area which is the purple on this map will be as close to I-205 as many parts of East Vancouver simply because of how the exits work out. Being close to an Highway 14 exist is more important that crow flies distance to I-205. In fact, being right next to the the bridge will put you further away since you will have to drive back up to Mill Plain or back to 164th to get to the first exit onto I-205

Do what we did. Come over on the weekends, drive around with google maps and Zillow and get a sense of what specific neighborhoods you like and what amenities are nearby. Check out things like the library and shops in downtown Camas and on 192nd and 164th which are the main commercial areas.

Frankly, most people of your demographic with kids in 4th and 6th grade are going to pick Camas. There is no getting around that. Not only does it have the highest rated schools but has a higher level of community engagement with the schools simply because it is more of a stand-alone community rather than giant suburb. Evergreen School District is one of the largest in the state and there just isn't the same level of community engagement with the schools. It just feels like a much more coherent community than the collection of suburbs you get in East Vancouver. That is why we moved here 7 years ago. The neighborhoods in East Vancouver are pretty similar but Camas just had a much greater community feel to it. People just feel more engaged in the community and schools. And if you decide you don't want to keep commuting to private school in Portland then Camas probably has the best middle school options. Most of the west side of Camas feeds into Skyridge Middle School. Our daughters attended there and it is a good school. No complaints.

Not a lot for sale right now in Camas, but here is one near where we live that is nice: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7...23246904_zpid/

Since you aren't in a rush I would just familiarize yourself with the geography and places that you might want to live, and then be ready to strike when something ideal comes up in an area that you like.

Two other factors to consider (that were factors for us). First of all you have already done the tax math. Our middle child is currently a sophomore at UW and we are probably in a similar income bracket as you. My wife is a family physician and I teach. I estimate that our tax savings by living in Washington covers the entire tuition and room and board for our daughter to attend UW. That's not nothing.

Second, you will find better higher education options in Washington. UW is a world class university and highly competitive (kids with perfect 4.0 GPS sometimes don't get in). So up there with Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, etc. Nothing like that at all in Oregon frankly. And then you have more diverse additional options with WSU, WWU and the UW branch campuses around the Seattle area. UO and OSU are not bad options, but neither one is UW.

You will also find the public schools to be better resourced in WA than in OR. Doesn't mean OR doesn't have good schools. But in a strictly apples to apples comparison of equivalent neighborhoods you'll probably find higher rated schools in WA. That is largely because WA does a better job of funding K-12 education than OR does.

Here is a map of homes in the 700-900K per school boundaries texasdriver mentioned above currently available. Let me know if you need more info.