Orchards

Just across the river from Portland, Oregon, the Mountain View Meadows-Orchards neighborhood is a suburb of Vancouver, Washington. This neighborhood features gridded streets and plenty of pocket parks, perfect for taking the dog for a walk and enjoying the community feel. “This neighborhood is full of cute houses and wildlife,” says Chris Seim, a real estate agent based out of Seattle who works across the Pacific Northwest. “While it’s small, it’s full of activities and always has something going on.” Mountain View Meadows-Orchards features houses in primarily bungalow and ranch-style houses, priced between $500,000 and $650,000. While this neighborhood’s roads don’t guarantee sidewalks, the residential roads have slow speed limits, making them safe for daily strolls. This area has been rapidly growing, and it's likely that more development will continue in the future. A draw to this neighborhood is the highly rated schools. Students living in Mountain View Meadows-Orchards attend Evergreen Public Schools District schools, rated B by Niche and regarded as the third-best school district in Clark County, Washington. This district has a student-teacher ratio of 17 to 1 and received an A from Niche for college preparation and readiness. A student growing up in Mountain View Meadows-Orchards may attend Pioneer Elementary School, rated C-plus by Niche, Frontier Middle School, rated C-plus, and Heritage High School, rated B-minus. There’s also Cascadia Technical Academy, offering a wide range of specialty programs for juniors and seniors in high school, including construction technology, cosmetology, dental studies, IT and STEM, culinary school and a teaching academy. Programs like these help students pursue careers and post-secondary education. After school and work, locals have plenty of outdoor activities to enjoy. Locals head to Vancouver Mini Skatepark to shred the rails. A full basketball court is also attached to the skate park, perfect for locals to get a pick-up basketball game started on the weekends. Oak Grove Neighborhood Park also features a playground, a quarter mile of asphalt trail, a basketball court and picnic tables. “Since this neighborhood is so close to Vancouver, it’s easy to head into the city for a concert or a show,” says Seim. “There’s never a shortage of things to do when you have access to both Vancouver and Portland so close!” Once you’ve worked up an appetite, head to Magnolia Tavern, a southern kitchen and bar open seven days a week, featuring their specialty Magnolia fried chicken and limoncello mascarpone cheesecake for dessert. Stonewood Bar & Grill is also perfect for a casual meal and happy hour specials. Home cooks will love the easy access to Safeway for all your grocery needs. “The Pacific Northwest isn’t always known for its food scene, but there are new restaurants popping up all the time,” says Seim, “and there’s always something new to try.” This quiet suburban neighborhood is ideal for those looking for a peaceful town and an easy commute to downtown Vancouver and Portland. Between idyllic parks, stellar schools and walkable streets, there’s a lot to love about Mountain View Meadows-Orchards.

Like many American cities, Vancouver has an "urban growth boundary," which establishes rules for how a geographic area can be developed during a set length of time. They are not all built equally, but in Vancouver, it serves an obvious purpose of preservation. "I like this area because it is beyond the edge of the urban growth boundary, so people looking to get away from the city but still live in town, find a good space here," says Realtor Cassandra Marks of Real Broker, a local farmer who in her spare time publishes home buying research videos about the Orchards area to YouTube. "It's just a really, really beautiful area and a really nice community itself." North Sifton-Orchards extends up from Fourth Plain Boulevard between 130th and 152nd Avenues until it meets its northern boundary at 99th Street. Inside is a segmented grid of all sorts of home designs that often hide behind tightly trimmed cedar hedges and white picket fences smothered in British ivy. "The Orchards area has everything from a little bit older, single-level homes to brand new construction," says Marks. The neighborhood's midcentury modern Prairie homes, ranch-styles and even some bungalows sell around a median of $475,000, though new builds often sell for a higher range of $500,000 to $650,000. Prices like these are competitive for the Pacific Northwest and are a significant attraction for many home buyers. "Part of the reason why I moved to Vancouver is because when I bought my farm, it was $100,000 cheaper to buy in Washington than it was to buy in Oregon," says Marks. Neighborhood students may begin their education at either Sifton, Silver Star or York Elementary Schools, all of which earn a C-plus or higher from Niche. Once they reach middle school, students attend either Covington Middle, which earns a C from Niche, or Frontier Middle, which earns a C-plus from Niche. Finally, high schoolers attend Heritage High, which is located right in the neighborhood. Heritage High earns a score of B-minus from Niche and is home to a college and career development center for students, which assists with developing such skills as applying for scholarships and internships as well as resume building. The neighborhood is home to several well-used parks. Tiger Tree Park provides neighborhood kids with a logging-themed jungle gym topped with faux pine trees. Another can be found on the south end of the neighborhood at Little Prairie Neighborhood Park, which has a grinding ledge for skateboarders and BMX bikers. But when you need more room to spread out, or if you grow tired of playgrounds, many residents visit Hockinson Meadows Community Park. Seventy of the park's 240 acres are devoted to a disc golf course that is expected to be fully complete by the fall of 2024. Sad news for the pups whose owners take them to the Meadows' dog park, as they will have to watch those Frisbees fly across the sky from behind a fence, but good news for Vancouver's vibrant community of disc golfers. "It's very community-driven," says Communications Manager for Clark County Public Works Kayley McLachlan-Burton. "Volunteers in the area's disc golf community were absolutely, 100% instrumental in designing the layout of the course and providing input on the layout and the difficulty level." There are plenty of amenities for shopping right at your fingertips in North Sifton-Orchards. A Walmart Supercenter is located less than a mile outside of the neighborhood on Fourth Plain Boulevard, as well as veterinarians' offices, auto repair shops and several local restaurants. While you're driving along the Boulevard, pull into Dutch Bros Coffee – a beloved Vancouver institution that sells almost as many bumper stickers as cups of joe. Or split off from Fourth Plain Boulevard at Ward Road and visit Magnolia Tavern to peruse their menu of creative cocktails and Southern dishes. It isn't easy to narrow down what makes North Sifton-Orchards an intriguing place for home buyers. Simply put, "It's a great place for people who want the amenities and the schools and the mobility of an urban area but also want the charm and the beauty of a natural area," says McLachlan-Burton.

People come to the Orchards Area for a number of reasons, not the least of which is its close proximity to most of the things you need to live and those things that bring you joy. “It is very centrally located,” says Chelise Kuhn, a veteran Realtor with Char Taylor Real Estate LLC, who lives in the Orchards Area. “Everything you need is a stone’s throw away.” Orchards Area, in Vancouver, Washington, is houses and schools and libraries with restaurants and shopping on the outskirts. You have a mix of mostly contemporary and ranch-style homes along wide, suburban streets with sidewalks and a plentiful portion of trees. “There are a ton of established trees. The houses were pretty much built around the trees,” Kuhn says. “Most of Orchards Area was built in the 90s and early 2000s, so there are slightly larger lots than houses built today.” The median price for a single-family home here is around $530,000, with the average home listing for slightly more. “Homeowners should expect to spend from $400,000 to $600,000 for three to four bedrooms and 1,200 to 2,500 square feet,” Kuhn says. Evergreen Public Schools serves Orchards Area Children. Niche rates the district B and ranks it in the top quarter of Washington school districts for student-athletes. Students attend Orchards Elementary School and Covington Middle School, both of which Niche rates C and Heritage High School, which Niche rates B-minus and ranks in the top half of the state's best college prep public high schools. When the kids leave school, they have parks galore waiting for them. “We have a lot of very nice parks,” Kuhn says. “A lot of them have new play structures. There’s Burnt Bridge Creek Park. It’s just been around forever. The one the people like most is Nikkei Park. Everybody calls it the dinosaur park because it’s dinosaur-themed. People come from all over to visit that park.” There is no shortage of places to eat locally, either. Although when it comes to getting a great meal, you’ll find most people headed for the waterfront. “Because it’s up and coming, and they have a lot of high-end restaurants down there. I would eat at Twigs, literally everything on the menu. They have an awesome cookie in a skillet that they top with ice cream. So, if you want to gain 20 pounds, you go there for dessert,” Kuhn says. For retail shopping, you’ll head over to Walmart or Target, which are within five miles of here. Grocery shopping at Fred Myers is a convenient option among about five or so supermarkets. People also head into Portland to shop. “In Vancouver, we have three farmers' markets in the summer,” Kuhn says, adding how much there is to do here. “We’re super close to lakes and rivers, two hours from the beach and an hour from skiing on Mount Hood, and there’s a ton of hiking around here.” And there are busses to get you to most places. So transit shouldn’t hinder you from having fun.