If you’re moving to Portland, you probably already know how awesome this city is, from its arts and culture right down to its food and, of course, coffee. 
Of course each neighborhood in the city has its own feel, and unless you have a week to try out each area before you move, you might need some help finding your groove. That’s where we come in. We’ve created a list of the 10 best neighborhoods in Portland:
1. Hillsdale
2. Northwest
3. Irvington
4. Forest Park
5. Alameda
6. Richmond
7. Concordia
8. Downtown
9. King
10. Overlook
We came up with this list by examining data on over 30 of its neighborhoods in terms of these criteria:
You can check out our methodology, along with a more complete list of Portland neighborhoods, at the end of the post. First, here are the 10 best neighborhoods in Portland, starting with our winner, Hillsdale.
Hillsdale had some of the lowest crime rates in the city, an average high school graduation rate of 96 percent, plus residents had the third highest income in the city. But numbers can only take us so far. The reason you’ll love this neighborhood is its family-friendly vibe, its beautiful nature, old homes, and the hush that falls over the area come evening. It is a wonderful place to raise a family or just go for a walk. Now if you’re not interested in either of these things, you might do better to keep reading.
This neighborhood in Northwest Portland is one of the city’s most populous and popular, with about 20,000 residents. So it’s really no surprise that it ranked so well for its variety of amenities—more people, more things to do, right? It also ranked really well, though, for having one of the lowest crime rates in the city. In fact, in some ways it is a lot like Hillsdale. It’s safe, it’s charming… just throw in a whole bunch of restaurants, more walkable streets, a Trader Joe’s, the oh so awesome Cinema 21, and a younger demographic, and you’ve got yourself the Northwest neighborhood.
Jumping from the Northwest to the Northeast of the city, Irvington is the kind of beautiful neighborhood that people dream about living in. These are the types of homes that HGTV was built upon. It’s a primarily residential area (a good thing, too, because you could spend hours just ogling at these homes—average price: over $470,000!), but its southern border is dotted with plenty of restaurants, bars, shops, and other amenities—hence its high ranking in the amenities category.
If you think of nature when you think of Portland, Forest Park is probably what you’re picturing. This vast swath of beautiful forest—filled with hiking and biking trails, animals, bird-watching—is pretty much your backyard if you live in this neighborhood. So sure, Forest Park may not have much in the way of amenities, but even so, residents here enjoy the best standard of living in the city. The only drawback to that: it’s also the most expensive part of the city. But hey, if you can afford it, there’s no place better for a nature-lover.
Of all of the neighborhoods we looked at, Alameda came in as A) one of the best educated, and B) one of the wealthiest, with a median household income of over $100,000. Probably not a coincidence. Part of that is a high cost of a living. But before you move on to the next place, take a look at what you’re paying for: you’ve got a cozy, close-knit community-vibe going in the residential part of this neighborhood, beautiful views along Alameda Ridge, plus some cute shops and restaurants (including the Alameda Brewhouse!) dotted throughout.
Almost 18,000 people live in Richmond—which, for a neighborhood, is a lot. It’s one of the three most populous in our top 10. So why, exactly, is everyone clamoring to live in Richmond? Well, first of all, it has some of the most amenities per capita in the city. There are shops, coffee houses, and live music and great food, and in some places like Euginio’s, a bit of both. It’s a good place for families, but it’s also a good place for young urbanites. Also, feel free to leave your car wherever you’re coming from because you probably won’t need it here.
If Concordia seems a bit similar to Alameda, with its high median income, higher than average rent, home prices, okay, a relatively high cost of living overall, it’s probably because it is. These two neighborhoods are just next to each other. What makes Concordia unique, though, is its, ah, “up and coming”-ness. Right now, this little neighborhood is seeing a definite resurgence. Restaurants and shops are popping up, homes are being renovated and flipped, and it’s becoming something of an edgy and artsy community.
Here’s the difference between Portland’s downtown and most other cities’ downtowns: Portland’s is actually pleasant. Not only are there plenty of shops and restaurants (it had the most amenities per capita), but there are also parks, beautifully designed buildings, and surprise, surprise—it was also the sixth safest place in terms of both violent and total crimes. It’s almost impossible to summarize downtown Portland, so just think of it this way: anything you want is here. Churches, spas, restaurants, galleries, museums, restaurants, and ease of walking to it all. The only drawback is that all of this comes at a price—the median home price here is nearly $442,000. On the plus side, though, renting is relatively affordable.
The second of our tied No. 8s is King. This neighborhood in the northeast portion of the city came in high on our list mostly for its overall high standard of living. This means that King residents make a higher median income than in most places, their houses are generally more expensive, and the rent here is the third highest in the city. It’s safe, the folks that live here are no dummies (92 percent of them are high school grads), plus, it’s home to the Bye and Bye, where, even if you’re not vegan, the weeping tiger sandwich is reason enough to pack your bags and move here.
Last but certainly not least is Overlook. This growing little hood may be on “the other side” of Interstate Avenue, making it a bit secluded, but never fear, there’s plenty going on in the area. As a matter of fact, it has the fourth most amenities per capita in the city. But if, for some reason, you get tired of all the parks, delicious local eateries (Fire on the Mountain—the chicken wings! So good!), this neighborhood is also one of the most convenient as far as commuting goes. You can drive, bike, or even walk downtown or to nearby shops in other neighborhoods like Kenton.
The moral of this story is simple: We all know Portland is awesome, but as our analysis showed us, some parts are just plain exceptional. If you’re ready to move on up to exceptional, feel free to get in touch. We didn’t want to spend too much time on this right up front, but if you’re interested, here’s a bit more about how we created this list in the first place. Like any of our Big Deal Lists, we use facts and figures to determine our rankings, not our own opinions or hearsay. In this case, we used AreaVibes and business listings in order to research 31 of Portland’s major neighborhoods in terms of the following criteria:
We ranked each place in each category with scores from one to 32. We then averaged these scores out into an overall Big Deal Score for each place, where the lowest scores went to our best places. To see how more than just these top 10 ranked, check out the table below. If you don’t see your neighborhood on the list, it may be that it had insufficient data and was omitted. Or maybe you don’t live in Portland. 
Featured image source: Hillsdale Community Foundation via Facebook What’s your favorite neighborhood in Portland? Tell us in the comments below!
