4 Essential Portland Real Estate Maps

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Maps are timeless. They were one of our first ways to organize information about places, and today — when it seems like information is unlimited — they’re even more important.

If you’re buying a home in Portland, you’re probably on Google Maps or another general mapping website on a regular basis, learning where the neighborhoods are and how you might travel from one part of the city to another.

But there are a whole lot of other maps out there, each with its own special reason for being — to shop for real estate in Portland, to understand who lives here, or just for the pure beauty of the form. These three maps take the information you need and present in a way that’s beautiful, useful and unique.

1. Get Your Bearings

Portland can be confusing for newcomers — all those bridges, the quadrants, and the neighborhoods that sound like they’re the names of the barbers at that fancy beard salon down the street. Cully, Lloyd, Reed, and Alberta? Why is Center in East Portland, and isn’t Boise in Idaho?

Fortunately, Archie Archambault is all about representing odd and cool names, and he also created a wildly different, minimalistic map of our city that he printed on a 19th-century letterpress machine (only in Portland!) Check this map out at Slate.com, where Archie explains why real estate agents are his top “insider resource” for learning the layout of a city.

2. The 20-Minute Map.

For most people, a big advantage of urban life is that they can walk from point A to point B, boosting their health and leaving the stress of driving behind. But not all cities are created equal. The AARP reports that high walkability correlates with high livability — meaning that people who don’t have to take their car everywhere are happier, healthier and more involved in their communities. Portland rates high for walkability, with pocket neighborhoods where you can walk from home to the grocery store, park, shopping and restaurants in under 20 minutes. Unfortunately, there are still some areas of the city that are underdeveloped, where walking might not be so safe or convenient.

This 20 minute map, created by City of Portland planners, uses a heat map-style gradient to show how different areas of the city compare. They call it the 20-minute neighborhood map because it allows users to instantly see where walkability scores are high. The colors — ranging from hot yellow to blue — indicate not only where Portland’s homes and businesses are, but also the quality of pedestrian infrastructure like sidewalks and off-street paths. What color is your neighborhood?

3. The Best Portland Real Estate Map for Data

In a competitive real estate market like Portland, having the most accurate data is key. But you also want a map site that is easy to use, customizable and rich with information. This mapping tool has it all, historic permits, zoning maps, crime maps, hazard maps, future development maps, and more – all related to the specific Portland address you’re researching. It’s all at Portlandmaps.com.

4. Real Estate Map with Powerful Features

portland homes for sale

Never one to let “good enough” alone, I’ve been working on a new Portland real estate map search that I think could have powerful implications. PortlandHomesforSale.com has powerful fully functioning tools. Looking just for the new homes that hit the Portland real estate market today? We have a page for that. Want to only see all the open houses in one spot? We’ve got that. Want to see only all the active, available short sales and foreclosures (ones you can put an offer in on today)? We’ve got a page for that. Have a specific neighborhood you want to keep tabs on? You can search by neighborhood and all the Portland neighborhood boundaries are displayed by default. This was a lot of work, but the ability to track active homes for sale and recent sold homes in each unique neighborhood and bookmark the areas essential to you, well I think it will be worth it. PortlandHomesForSale.com is really powerful.

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