Taking the Long View

Edited by Brian Barker

WHETHER REVIVING OLD STREETCAR DISTRICTS LIKE KENTON, maintaining midcentury gems like Raleigh Hills, or starting from scratch in places like Forest Heights, Portlanders seem wired to create great places to walk, bike, shop, and simply be. So as we make our annual assessment of the best places to live in Portland, we’ve chosen to look beyond the obvious statistics—housing prices—to offer a longer view of value.

We’ll guide you to a trio of neighborhoods where thoughtful planning and savvy investments have kept the prices steady, and to three other hoods poised for great times ahead. We’ll also visit a community that’s aiming to go carbon neutral and introduce you to the city’s first new strategic neighborhood plan in 30 years.

Of course, we’ve gathered comprehensive housing data on all 120 neighborhoods and communities across the region. (After all, who doesn’t want to know how their home’s doing?) But we also dug for other measures, like pedestrian- and bicycle-friendliness, proximity to supermarkets, residents’ generosity in giving to the arts and disaster relief, and even politics and pets.

So join us in putting aside the gloom and doom that’s plagued the local real estate market. There are so many reasons to celebrate Portland’s neighborhoods.