Among one of the most popular and well-liked suburbs in our Portland metro area is Beaverton. And it appears that we are not the only ones that have noticed that Beaverton Oregon is pretty awesome. It turns out that time.com and Money Magazine have also done the math and realized what many of us already knew. Beaverton Oregon is a great community and one of the best places to live in the entire country!

In the latest issue, Money magazine evaluated and ranked the top cities in the U.S. The evaluation considered some 60 key factors that included taxes, education, health care, and several other indicators in order to determine and rank the top cities to live. The main focus for establishing the list was hometowns that had affordable housing, jobs and other factors that made these cities the cream of the crop. Our local Beaverton did pretty darn well!

 

Beaverton Oregon A Top U.S. City

According to the Money magazine search, Beaverton grabbed the number 9 spot on top places to live. Though number one on the list was Columbia, Maryland and number ten was Naperville, Illinois. Of the 50 top U.S. cities to make the list, only 6 were on the East coast. One of them from Washington, four were in California and the sole Oregon spot was of course Beaverton.

This year’s winners were picked using some pretty sophisticated research that began with all U.S. towns and cities that had populations from 50,000 to 300,000 residents, resulting in an initial pool of 823 cities. They then proceeded to cut the list down by eliminating places with the lowest predicted job growth, communities with the most crime, and cities without a strong sense of ethnic diversity. They continued to whittle down the list of U.S. contending cities by considering household incomes, home values, unemployment rates, health, and several other key factors.

Key Facts About Beaverton

Since Beaverton is now considered one of the top cities in the United States, we decided to gather a big list of additional facts about Beaverton. We found a lot of details that are likely pretty new to most of our readers and will give you a good history lesson on Beaverton as well. They are listed in no particular order, so be sure to read them all and let us know which was the most interesting Beaverton Oregon fact you didn’t already know.

Here are some interesting facts you may not know about Beaverton:

The city of Beaverton apparently got its name due to its close proximity to a large body of water derived from beaver dams, and the natives had a village close by that was called Chakeipi, meaning Place of the Beaver, though early settlers referred to it as “Beaverdam”.

  • The city of Beaverton was formally incorporated in 1893 with a population of around only 400.
  • Beaverton is the sixth-largest city in Oregon with a current population estimate of somewhere around 96,577 residents.
  • In 1860, a toll “plank road” was completed that linked Portland to Beaverton over a trail that was called Canyon Road.
  • The first railroad was built into Beaverton in 1868
  • Beaverton got its first bank in 1910
  • The city of Beaverton owns and maintains 131 acres of land and maintains over 225 miles of underground drainage pipe and maintains 1,446,226 lineal feet of sewer lines.
  • Beaverton maintains almost 6,000 trees within the city.
  • Beaverton street sweepers sweep 883 miles of city, county, and state roads.
  • Beaverton has over 221 miles of city streets and bridges PLUS almost 14 miles of pedestrian paths it maintains.
  • The city of Beaverton has upwards of 167 traffic signals and 6,991 streetlights as well as 17,299 city signs, including street name, regulatory, and pavement markings.
  • Hall Boulevard in Beaverton is named after the Hall family who made their trek to Beaverton from Missouri in May of 1845.
  • Beaverton averages just under 40 inches of rain per year, which is oddly about 4 inches per year more than Portland.
  • The hottest recorded temperature in Beaverton was 106 degrees, and a record low of 0, with an average high temp of 62 degrees.
  • Beaverton got its first post office that was located in a general store in 1972.
  • Beaverton requires you to buy a $10 permit before installing a burglar alarm.
  • Beaverton is located just about 7 miles west of downtown Portland
  • There are 46 schools in the Beaverton School District, the 3rd largest school district in Oregon
  • The biggest employer in Beaverton is the Beaverton School District with 3,797 employees.
  • In 2010, Beaverton was named by Money magazine as one of the 100 “best places to live”
  • Home of the region’s largest farmers market
  • Has more than 100 parks encompassing over 1,000 acres
  • Beaverton has approximately 42,144 housing units within the city and of those 20,934 are rental units or non-owner occupied.
  • The average home price in Beaverton is about $336,982.
  • The average Beaverton family is 3, and the average household income is about $79,339
  • The city of Beaverton covers an area of about 18 square miles
  • Beaverton has 6 sister cities in 6 countries. They are Gotenba, Japan 1987 – Hsinchu, Taiwan 1988 – Cheonan, South Korea 1989 – Birobidzhan, Russia 1990 – Trossingen, Germany 1993 and Cluses, France 1999

Additional resources used:

http://www.beavertonoregon.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/931

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaverton,_Oregon

http://oregon.hometownlocator.com/or/washington/beaverton.cfm