Beaverton

Located just seven miles outside of Portland within the breathtaking Tualatin River Valley, Beaverton is the second-largest city in Washington County, Oregon. Part of the Portland metropolitan area, Beaverton is an economic center for Washington County along with neighboring Hillsboro. Beaverton is known as the home to the world headquarters of Nike Inc.

 

Named one of the 100 best places to live in America by Money magazine in 2010, Beaverton is a thriving community that enjoys the highest quality of living. Home to around 99,000 residents and spanning over 35 constituent neighborhoods, the community is the sixth-largest in Oregon and the second-largest city in Washington County.

 

Just seven miles from the megacity of Portland, Beaverton offers its residents unique outdoor recreational opportunities, as well as easy access to the exceptional recreational and professional landscapes of Oregon’s largest and most populous city, Portland.

 

Spanning over 222 acres, Tualatin Hills Nature Park in Beaverton is a gorgeous nature park and wildlife preserve that plays home to diverse evergreen and deciduous forest, wetland, meadow, and creek habitats. The Tualatin Hills Nature Center offers exciting exhibits, a variety of educational programs, and interactive visitor services throughout the year.

 

In addition, Beaverton also plays home to Cooper Mountain Nature Park, which faces the breathtaking Tualatin River Valley. Sprawling over 230 acres and situated just at the edge of the city of Beaverton, the Cooper Mountain Nature Park was opened in 2009 and is operated as a regional metro park, offering unparalleled views of the nearby Chehalem Mountains and amazing patches of old-growth Oregon white oaks.

 

Thanks to Beaverton's proximity to Portland, residents of Beaverton get to enjoy the best of Portland’s outstanding recreational opportunities. When in Beaverton, you can head to the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, which covers an immense 292,500 acres along the Pacific Northwest's largest river. The Columbia River delineates the Oregon-Washington state border, and its entire length is an amazing sightseeing region perfect for relaxing drives, taking pictures, or simply imbibing pristine nature.

 

Other unique attractions to visit in nearby Portland include Forest Park, which is the largest wilderness park within city limits in the United States, covering more than 5,000 acres; and Washington Park, which is home to many of Portland’s premier attractions including a zoo, a famous International Rose Test Garden, a children’s museum, Japanese Gardens, and an arboretum.

 

Real estate in Beaverton has shown an average growth of 4.08% per year since the year 2000 and the prices of homes in Beaverton have overall appreciated by a strong 131.72%. Beaverton’s housing market is considered very competitive and the sale prices of homes in Beaverton have experienced strong growth of more than 24.4% since May 2020.

 

The median home price in Beaverton is $500,000. Currently, there are 523 active homes for sale in Beaverton, and normally it takes just 35 days for a listed home to sell.

 

As part of the Silicon Forest, Beaverton is the location of numerous technology organizations and companies, including the Linux Technology Center of IBM, Tektronix, Maxim Integrated Products, VeriWave, and Oregon Technology Business Center (OTBC), a non-profit tech startup incubator.

 

Over the last year, Beaverton’s job market has grown by 0.9%, while its unemployment rate stands at a decent 5.2%. The US average is 6%. Also, the city’s job market is expected to grow by a staggering 42.9% over the next ten years.

 

On average, a Beaverton resident earns around $30,300 per annum, modestly higher than the US average of $28,500. The city’s median household income of almost $57,000 per resident is also slightly greater than the US average of approximately $53,000. Most of the residents of Beaverton work in construction, manufacturing, retail, finance, administrative services, educational services, accommodation, professional and technical services, and healthcare.

 

Beaverton is covered by 3 school districts, with Beaverton School District 48J being the city’s major school district encompassing 53 schools and 39,625 enrolled students. Besides, Beaverton also lies in proximity to many colleges including, among others, Lewis & Clark College, Oregon College of Art and Craft, and Portland Community College.

 

When it comes to higher education, Beaverton lies in the vicinity of several universities including DeVry University Oregon, Reed College, and the University of Phoenix Oregon Campus. Founded in 1908, Reed College lies just 9 miles from the city of Beaverton. The college is known for its mandatory first-year humanities program, senior thesis, progressive politics, de-emphasis on grades, and an unusually high proportion of graduates who go on to earn doctorates and other postgraduate degrees. The college has many prominent alumni, including over a hundred Fulbright Scholars, 67 Watson Fellows, and three Churchill Scholars.

 

To sum up, Beaverton is one of the largest cities in Oregon, offering all the modern urban amenities and playing home to a plethora of immaculate parks, scenic trails, and breathtaking views of the Tualatin River Valley. In addition, Beaverton is home to an array of top-notch technology companies and offers a lucrative professional landscape to its residents. If you are mulling over moving to Oregon, Beaverton would make a very promising place to call home.