young family possibly moving to portland! help us figure out the neighborhood situation! (real estate)

[alibot]

Thanks in advance for responding and helping us find out more info on the city.

We are a young couple (24 and 25 years old) with a 1 year old and a new baby on the way that are possibly moving to Portland by the end of the year. I am an RN and my husband will be working for the city. Location as far as work is not a problem for us at this time.

We have driven to Portland from the San Francisco area multiple times specifically to check out neighborhoods we like and just want some insight from people who actually live there as we know no one from the Portland area.

Some things that are important to us:
safety
younger neighborhoods/ family/ lots of children there
parks/ walkability
sense of community (farmers markets, local festivals, just stuff going on in the neighborhood)
schools (although are children are super young we are hoping to buy and stay put for as long as possible)

Judging from our real estate searches we can afford most of the east side (places like Irvington and Laurelhurst are cutting it close)

From our time going through neighborhoods we absolutely loved Sellwood. It felt like we weren't in a city at all, but then you still aren't far from downtown/ more of a city feel. We also went through Hawthorne and really liked that too. It felt more trendy and way more going on but still cute neighborhoods with kids everywhere.
where we are now I am the youngest mom at the park by at least 10 years. I want to be able to have friends with children who aren't super old although I of course don't discriminate.

Any help would be awesome. I hope we are there by Christmas!

[jjbon75]

lots available right now in portland, James