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Real Estate & Homes in Portland - Oregon - Portland, Oregon homes and communities
Portland
The City of Roses Portland is the blooming rose of the Pacific Northwest. This big city with a small-town feel offers visitors and residents charm, diversity and beauty. Located 70 miles from the rugged Oregon coastline and 60 miles from scenic Mount Hood, the city unfolds into a welcoming gift for visitors. Encircled by rivers, the great Columbia River Gorge and interconnecting waterways, it’s easy to see how the Rose City has become one of the top 10 greatest places to live in the United States.
Portland is a city with an interesting dichotomy: a city steeped in historical importance (one of the sights along the Lewis and Clark Trail) with an aggressively modern approach to life. Recently proclaimed North America’s Best Big City by Money magazine, Portland draws visitors and residents alike to its bustling downtown corridor. Its innovative MAX light rail system, streetcars and bus system make transportation easy and interesting, opening up the city’s shopping, entertaining and dining area to easy access.
Portland Fast Facts
Location: Portland is located near the Oregon-Washington border, between Olympia and Salem
*Total area: 130 square miles
*Population: 538,180; 1.95 million in the metropolitan area
*Median income: $41,278
*Median resident age: 34.9 years
Average precipitation: 37 inches
Average temperatures: 79.5 ºF in July, 33.5ºF in January
*Information provided by 2000 Census
For more information about Portland visit Portland Homes Guide.
Parks and Attractions
Portland’s residents are known for their eccentric nature and their innovation. Portland developed a plan 25 years ago to ensure the integrity and beauty of this natural area. Its development plan promises that “vibrant, diverse neighborhoods are home to all manner of people, but it’s the other things that give a place its soul — the cafes and markets, the art, parks, plazas, vistas and sanctuaries.” Portland has more than 37,000 acres of parks in the metropolitan area.
Forest Park, in particular, offers visitors the nation’s largest urban park, dedicating 5,000 acres to the park alone. Washington Park includes the International Rose Test Garden, which displays more than 560 varieties of lovely roses. Every year, the city welcomes the annual Rose Parade and Rose Festival to celebrate and appreciate the beauty of this city’s roses. Others find the city’s Classical Chinese Garden the perfect spot to indulge in peace and tranquility, with an entire city block dedicated to this garden alone. In contrast with the largest urban park, Portland is also home to the world’s smallest dedicated park: 24 inches in size.
Portland offers visitors the best in quirky tourist attractions. If your interest is in literature, you’re sure to love Powell’s Book Store, the country’s largest independent bookseller. With a downtown store that covers more than a city square block and contains the world’s only three-door elevator, bibliophiles will be convinced they’ve died and gone to heaven. For those interested in relaxing and taking in a movie, Portland’s McMenamin’s brew-and-view theaters are sure to please, with a combination movie theater, restaurant and brewery. Portland is the home for more than 25 microbreweries, earning it the nickname of “Munich on the Willamette.”
Encouraging residents and visitors to explore the city on foot seems to be one of Portland’s city planners' chief aims. With a unique combination of half-size city blocks, easy access to public art and a variety of fountains, walkers are sure to find something to capture their imagination while they stroll. If interests are piqued by shopping, the artistic Pearl District will draw people in with its eclectic combination of shops and galleries.
Portland is also a great city for biking, with many paths intertwined among the city, affording wonderful views of the city skyline. The promenade of the Gov. Tom McCall Waterfront Park leads to the historic Steel Bridge, with a lower deck devoted to bicycle/pedestrian crossing of the Willamette River.
On a cultural note, Portland’s Art Museum showcases a variety of art, including an outdoor sculpture garden. The Portland Art Museum is striving to become one of the premier art museums in the Pacific Northwest, if not in the country. Local art galleries support the mission of the Portland Art Museum by offering a monthly Thursday evening gallery walk (known as First Thursday Gallery Walk), where the finest art galleries stay open late and introduce new-and-upcoming artists.
The Oregon Zoo rests among the hills of western Portland. The zoo’s unique approach to showing animals in their natural habitat encourages guests to wander, observing thousands of animal species, and native plants and grasses. If the sprawling zoo is too much to take in, visitors can hop aboard the Washington Park and Zoo Railway to enjoy a four-mile trip through the zoo on replicas of the old great trains. For those science aficionados, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is a sure hit, with its displays of astronomy and laser shows, OMNIMAX theater and much more.
Neighborhoods
The metropolitan area is comprised of Portland proper and many outlining towns. Portland is made up of 90 neighborhoods, but true natives refer to the city in five districts: north, northwest, northeast, southeast and southwest. Like many states, Oregon’s real estate market is growing in leaps and bounds, particularly in Portland. The average price for home in the Portland metropolitan area was $222,500 in 2003.
Portland is a city that draws in visitors and welcomes newcomers. It’s a city with warmth, depth and many challenges. While a rainy winter may seem bleak to some people, Portland’s rain offers the promise of great winter skiing in the mountains and beautiful green summers filled with roses.
Education and Business Portland is also home to the finest in education and commerce. With diverse educational opportunities such as Oregon State University, Lewis and Clark University, Concordia University and extension branches of the University of Oregon, Portland is a vibrant community for students. Portland’s primary and secondary schools are excellent, with a variety of public and private schools (both secular and non-secular) to choose from.
Portland’s industry used to rely heavily on lumber and shipping. Nowadays, Portland and its surrounding communities are known as the “Silicon Forest” for the variety of high tech industries that offer employment in the Portland area. There is a wide range of employment opportunities, from semi-conductor manufacturers and software companies to the world’s most popular tennis shoe company: Nike.
Where is Portland?
Written by Elizabeth Westmore exclusively for HomesParadise.com.
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