Which Clark County town would you recommend for me? (Tacoma: renters, houses)

[SuzyBee]

Hi Vancouver area folks! Thinking of relocating to the area from Bay Area CA. We are a family of 5. We have family moving to Southern WA and we are thinking we would like to be there too. Looking for acreage(5+) where at some point we can have somewhat of a small farm, chickens and goats. We don’t want to be more than an hour from Portland. Schools are important so of course Camas District is coming up in our research but what other districts are good? Are there any school districts that if you were routed there that you would consider private school? The spots we liked the most seem to be in Amboy though. Can anyone tell me about Amboy and the schools there? I have a 3rd grader. Husband and I are mid 40’s. Pretty liberal but don’t care if you are too. Just want to move somewhere where we can have some land, privacy and a nice community to be a part of. I’m usually involved in school activities and really think that this move will be it as far as whee we will stay through retirement. So far upper Camas, Washougal and Amboy are jumping out. Is there a neighborhood with large lots that has decent schools and maybe more liberal leaning people? If not, that is fine but figured I’d see. We don’t care for nightlife, much more interested in scenic and outdoor recreation but at the same time don’t want to be super far out in the sticks. Where would you look if you were me? And before anyone says Oregon, I want to be close to my family in WA, lol. Thank you!
ETA - our price range is hopefully mid 500’s to under 650 if it has established land with gardens, fruit trees and outbuildings. We are not needing fancy and are super down to earth people but of course do not want to live somewhere with neighbors having garbage and disarray. We are eventually hoping to work from home so commute times to either Vancouver or Portland aren’t a huge factor.

[Jane917]

Ridgefield might be worth a look. The schools are excellent, though a bit in transition right now as the high school is being remodeled and a new middle school/junior high just opened. Most of the growth is due to large housing developments going in, but there are still plenty of undeveloped acreage lots and homes on 5+ acres. It is a very family centric community, along with a lot of retirees (which we are). I believe Amboy is part of the Battleground SD, which is having some problems. All of Clark County is close to Portland, depending on traffic. The new developments on the waterfront and downtown are encouraging. Eastern Vancouver is close to Camas, which has excellent schools. Camas is also very family centered. I think you have lots of choices in Clark County that would make you happy.

[SuzyBee]

Thank you Jane. I do have Ridgefield in the search. We are coming in December for a scouting mission. Going to check it out for sure! Does anyone know if you can transfer to other schools if you want to drive them?

[texasdiver]

We went through your same decision process 3 years ago and chose Camas. Have not regretted that choice one bit. I tend to think the Camas schools currently have the most resources and programs of any of the different options and seem to have the highest performing schools by whatever metric you want to use to measure.

If not Camas then Ridgefield, Hockinson, and Washougal are all similar sized districts with single high schools in the 2A classification so they are all rivals. Ridgefield is growing the fastest due to the explosive growth out there and the district is struggling to keep up and is doing lots of new construction but the schools are still a sea of portable classrooms. Hockinson and Ridgefield are more agricultural/farming communities that have become exurbs of Portland. Washougal is more of a woodsy historic logging town on the edge of the gorge. So the rural property has a different flavor...more wooded hillsides in Washougal as opposed to large acreage lots on former farms in Ridgefield and Hockinson. All three districts were once quite "small town" rural areas that are all three becoming popular Portland exurbs so they are all changing rapidly as new upscale subdivisions get built and new people move in from out of state (like yourselves). Without looking at actual data I would guess that Ridgefield and Hockinson have a slightly more affluent population than Washougal but that is changing fast for all these areas

So, for example.

Acreage in Hockinson and Ridgefield looks like this, flatter more open acreages carved out of former farms: https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal.../81352070_zpid

Acreage in Washougal (and also much of rural Camas) will look more like this, more wooded and steeper slopes with lots carved out of former forest land: https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...65376379_zpid/ or this: https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...23304369_zpid/

I would not intentionally move to Amboy. Very tiny rural area that feeds into the struggling Battle Ground school district. Not much of a town at all. I don't even know if they have a grocery out there. You will be driving your kids long distances for every single thing.

If you are new to the area and not tied to any particular town and concerned about schools then Camas is most people's first choice but also probably the most pricey. After that Ridgefield, Hockinson and Washougal are probably fairly equivalent choices but on opposite sides of the county so commutes and convenience will be the deciding factor for most people. The north part of the Vancouver school district (Skyview and Columbia River HS areas) and the east part of the Evergreen School District (Mountain View and Union High Schools) would be good choices for schools but those areas are more suburban with few acreage lots. Those are the East Vancouver, Salmon Creek, and Felida areas. I would avoid Battle Ground beause they can't seem to pass bond measures and are struggling to find their schools. I'd avoid the districts further north like La Center, Woodland, and Kalama because those are just getting farther and farther away and will be more insular small town sorts of places.

[StealthRabbit]

For productive acreage ...Why not do Skamania or Cowlitz County?. (each are ~ 30 min to PDX)

Clark...has some issues (many issues if living rural and expecting it to stay that way)

Goats and fruit trees are not a good combination. Renter's (unannounced / unapproved) goats wiped out one of my 50 yr old fruit orchards in 3 weeks (20+ trees and berries bark stripped and now dead. Renters are gone too...)

I would NOT do Amboy or Hockinson / or Battleground. I don't like the risk of many miles on country roads with intersections (Too many yrs as a EMT) and WAY too many sleepness nights hoping and praying your teen driver kid makes it home alive, and not kill someone else in the process.

I would find a quick commute (<5 min) to SR 14 or I-5 (I don't do stoplights )

For gardening and mellow climate and a country school, I like Carrolls area

Otherwise... Mt Pleasant. (no additional neighbors coming there!) Federally protected growth management.

[Farmer15]

Originally Posted by SuzyBee

Looking for acreage(5+) where at some point we can have somewhat of a small farm, chickens and goats.

Agree with Stealth about goats and fruit trees. The same goes for sheep. (Let's not mention those pesky deer ) Having farmed on a small scale with chickens, goats, sheep, cows, garden, and fruit trees, I would follow up TexasDiver's remarks by strongly recommending the flatter acreage. I've done it on hilly, and it adds a lot of extra headaches, especially with regard to permanent and temporary fencing, brush clearing, mowing paddocks, etc.

[SuzyBee]

Thank you all for the honest and sound advice regarding goats. And the great recommendations! I am leaning towards Camas and Washougal but also going to check out the surrounding counties as well. The advice stealthrabbit gave regarding the country roads really made me think that I don’t want to be worried about teen drivers! It’s such a bummer though because the houses I liked best on the mls right now were in Amboy. Ahh..the search goes on!

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by SuzyBee

Thank you all for the honest and sound advice regarding goats. And the great recommendations! I am leaning towards Camas and Washougal but also going to check out the surrounding counties as well. The advice stealthrabbit gave regarding the country roads really made me think that I don’t want to be worried about teen drivers! It’s such a bummer though because the houses I liked best on the mls right now were in Amboy. Ahh..the search goes on!

Amboy is cheap because it is a LONG way from anywhere and it isn't an in-demand location for families due to the schools. There's an elementary in Yacolt and a middle school in Amboy then your kids would get bussed 10-15 miles into Battle Ground for HS. Here's a recent article about Battle Ground school funding struggles: https://www.clarkcountytoday.com/new.../#.W9ii7GhKiUk

[182pilot]

If you're ok with disclosing, what part of the Bay Area are you coming from? We're headed up from the East Bay (Walnut Creek area). After more than two years on the hunt we are pretty much decided on Fern Prairie in Camas. The ability to get flat acreage that is close in was really a selling point for us. The problem is that the pricing in Camas has been going through the roof because of all these Californians invading with their huge equity .

We have two young kids just starting elementary school so it really came down to Camas or Ridgefield initially. If we had bought two years ago I would have really considered Ridgefield. Today, I'm not comfortable because of the explosive growth and lack of established capacity. Camas is coming off the explosive growth and has passed the bonds and actually constructed capacity to handle it (except for the HS, but hopefully that will be figured out by the time our kids are that age.)

I never even went up to Amboy, just way too far from anything. Hockinson has good schools and some really neat properties for less money than Camas but again, just too far out for us. Downtown Camas is really neat and frankly I like the fact that the mill is still the anchor. I lived in Tacoma years ago and anyone complaining about the mill smell in Camas now, hasn't got any kind of real perspective. We live in an exceptionally affluent community in the Bay Area with almost no blue collar working class. I'm eager to get my kids exposed to some economic diversity so they don't turn spoiled rotten with no frame of reference.

The Camas School district deliberately skews elementary and middle school boundaries so that there is a healthy mix of students from all backgrounds. For example, we almost built in the Parklands at Camas Meadows and that development feeds to Lacamas Lake, which is miles away (by road anyway). Grass Valley is very close by but Lacamas Shores already feeds there and they don't want to the two most affluent developments feeding to the same elementary school.

[StealthRabbit]

Amboy can be fine, just far away (More driving / potentially less family time).

I have (4) friends who live there (with teenage drivers).

They have survived fine.

Just be careful (Best advice I got when coming to PNW...) Do not buy a home nestled back in the trees... =Dark, damp, needles, moss, and falling trees,