Lake Oswego

Primarily situated in Clackamas County, Lake Oswego is a beautiful city in the state of Oregon. Surrounding the 405-acre Oswego Lake, the city was founded way back in 1847 as a town, and was later incorporated in 1910. Once a hub of Oregon’s iron industry in the late 19th century, Lake Oswego is presently a suburb of the largest and most populous city of Oregon – Portland.

 

Ranked by Niche as the 2nd best place to live in Clackamas County, Lake Oswego is a thriving community home to around 39,800 residents and spanning over nine constituent neighborhoods, making it the 13th largest community in Oregon.

 

Located just about 8 miles south of Portland, Lake Oswego offers unique outdoor recreational opportunities as well as top-notch professional and business opportunities minus the big-city congestion. The city is home to George Rogers Park, which is a 26-acre green area located on the bank of the picturesque Willamette River. Once the site of a thriving Native American group, the park proudly stands as Lake Oswego’s first community park and offers two baseball fields, a soccer field, easy access to the river, a memorial garden, restrooms, a kids’ playground, and outdoor tennis courts. The park also has the historic Oregon Iron Company Furnace.

 

To experience first-hand the charming close-knit dynamic of Lake Oswego’s community, visit the Lake Oswego Farmers' Market, which was established in 2001 to provide an open-air seasonal market at Millennium Plaza Park, in downtown Lake Oswego. The Market offers some of the region's best produce and goods that are directly sold to the town folks by more than 80 growers, producers, gatherers, and crafters.

  

The community of Lake Oswego always had a keen appreciation for the socio-cultural impacts of arts and crafts. That is why, way back in 1952, the community decided to establish the Lakewood Center for the Arts in order to inspire and nurture a love of theatre and the arts in the community. This permanent multi-art and theatre facility sponsors and coordinates educational and cultural programming in theatre, visual arts, and community events.

 

The Center created and plays host to the annual Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts, a popular city-wide celebration of visual arts with an education program.

 

Real estate in Lake Oswego has shown an average growth of 4.09% per year since the year 2000. Since 2000, the prices of homes in Lake Oswego have overall appreciated by a strong 131.87% and Lake Oswego’s housing market is considered most competitive as the sale prices of homes in Lake Oswego have experienced a staggering growth of more than 37% since May 2020.

 

The median home price in Lake Oswego is $899,000. Currently, there are 262 active homes for sale in Lake Oswego, and normally it takes just 38 days for a listed home to sell.

 

Over the last year, Lake Oswego’s job market has grown by 0.9%, while its unemployment rate stands at a decent 4.5%. The US average is 6%. Also, the city’s job market is expected to grow by a whopping 42.6% over the next ten years.

 

On average, a Lake Oswego resident earns around $57,400 per annum, substantially higher than the US average of $28,500. The city’s median household income of almost $84,200 per resident is also much greater than the US average of approximately $53,000. Most of the residents of Lake Oswego work in wholesale, manufacturing, retail, finance, real estate, educational services, professional and technical services, and healthcare.

 

Lake Oswego is covered by 5 school districts, with Lake Oswego School District 7J being the city’s major school district encompassing 10 schools and 6,891 enrolled students. Besides, Lake Oswego also lies in proximity to many colleges including, among others, Oregon College of Art and Craft, Lewis & Clark College, and Portland Community College.

 

When it comes to higher education, Lake Oswego lies in the vicinity of several universities including Reed College, Marylhurst University, and Multnomah University. Founded in 1908, Reed 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, Lake Oswego is a charming community that enjoys the coziness of small-town living just a stone-throw away from Oregon’s largest city, Portland. The city offers unique outdoor recreational opportunities and its proximity to Portland affords its residents the chance of benefitting from top-notch recreational, professional, and business opportunities. Should you decide to move to Oregon, Lake Oswego would make a great place to call home.