Portland area recommendations - (Tigard: apartment, rent, house)

[bregan]

Hey all... we are moving to the Northwest and are seriously considering the Portland area. I am looking for family friendly neighborhoods, rent somewhere between 1100 - 1350 a month, 3 bed rooms. We are not looking to buy right now, but still want to be in a house, and not apartment. Commute is not an issue as I am all travel or work at home. I do, however, need fiber for internet, so either Fios or Uverse enabled neighborhoods. This is what is hard to find as I have to check service on any house that I am interested in. I have yet to find any that offers either of those services.

Suggestions or maybe you know of some newer neighborhoods that have fiber and relatively inexpensive?

[Wicked Felina]

I may be off base here, but try heading out to the cities west of Portland. My friends who lived in Tigard, in the area around Hall Blvd. had fiber cable.

[LeftCoastee]

re: Internet. What kind of speeds are you looking for? I'm in IT and work from home full time when not traveling. I need fast internet since I'm typically moving ~10 gigabytes worth of info every day.

When I moved here in 2009 I wanted FiOS as well, but it wasn't available. I hate Comcast with a passion but unfortunately I had to go with them. I was pleasantly surprised with the performance of their cable internet. I get the second tier business plan. Just ran a speedtest:



Their top tier should be up over 50 down and 10 up.

Not sure if that would work for you, but thought I'd throw it out there.

[philwithbeard]

Frontier now operates the FiOS franchise in Portland area. They seem to be mostly in the SW side of the Portland metro area. Previously FiOS was run by Verizon.

Here is a link from a couple of years ago (from what I know)
Verizon FiOS Availability Map | DSLReports.com, ISP Information
(click on Portland of course.)

Frontier is heading for large rate increase. Google: Frontier Communications

[Nell Plotts]

There are lots of family friendly neighborhoods in and around Portland.

Between the lines I assume you travel by air when you travel. For that reason I wouldn't choose communities much south of I-205. Using I-5 to the airport in the morning would not be my choice (congestion headed to Portland city center).

Living in Vancouver may be an option for you if you aren't a consultant (vs employee). Washington has a Business & Occupations tax on gross billings. Don't get caught unawares trying to avoid Oregon's income tax. Also, there will soon be a toll on the interstate bridges. Remember, tax wise there is no free lunch.

Were I you I would start looking at school test results to help you focus your search.

[bregan]

Originally Posted by LeftCoastee

re: Internet. What kind of speeds are you looking for? I'm in IT and work from home full time when not traveling. I need fast internet since I'm typically moving ~10 gigabytes worth of info every day.

When I moved here in 2009 I wanted FiOS as well, but it wasn't available. I hate Comcast with a passion but unfortunately I had to go with them. I was pleasantly surprised with the performance of their cable internet. I get the second tier business plan. Just ran a speedtest:



Their top tier should be up over 50 down and 10 up.

Not sure if that would work for you, but thought I'd throw it out there.

Thanks for the responses... that doesn't seem bad at all Leftcoastee, and I'm also in the IT industry. With those speeds I think I can be happy! Recently, I had to downgrade from Uverse to DSL, I feel like I went back in time about 10 years.