Best Places to Retire: Hillsboro, Oregon
This is a city that understands rain. It gets wet 161 days a year, and the showers can be especially relentless come wintertime. But one person's gloom is another's opportunity, and for transplants to this wildly eclectic city near Portland, opportunity knocks in various forms.
Hillsboro's moist climate can be a boon for golfers. The damp weather keeps the greens lush, and that same marine influence also warms the entire area. It's no Scottsdale, Ariz., but the viable golfing season is still respectably long and without the oppressive heat of the southern states.
"There are a lot of golfers out here," says Tom Carey, general manager at Meriwether National Golf Club in Hillsboro, one of 14 in Washington County. Meriwether's clientele is made up mostly of local residents, and the club has a sizable constituency of retirees (the $159 senior citizen monthly fee for unlimited golf in the peak season doesn't hurt).
The wet weather is also inevitably spectacular for growing grapes, which is why Hillsboro's Willamette Valley is Oregon's most active wine region. Pinot noir is the valley's specialty, and the half-dozen wineries that dot the Hillsboro landscape offer plenty to taste.
John Platt, proprietor of the Helvetia Vineyards and Winery, about 10 miles north of downtown, has been planting, harvesting, and otherwise obsessing over his grapes since the 1980s. Platt spends plenty of time at the winery happily chatting up tourists and locals about wine, food, climate change, urban growth, farmland conservation, and everything else under the sometimes shy Oregon sun.
Platt's views on land use tend to mirror those of an area where folks are passionate about preventing urban sprawl and safeguarding its unique mix of suburban convenience and natural beauty. The preservation of agricultural lands (like vineyards) has been a hot topic, and the city promotes its Orenco Station housing development, a concept designed to build community but also discourage the carcentric (and environmentally unfriendly) lifestyle.
A retiree, however, should not live on drink, golf, and public policy alone. Hillsboro offers the usual cultural suspects: farmers' markets, arts center, library, theaters, and the like, yet for those needing a romp through the urban jungle, its access to the light rail system makes for an easy trip into the heart of Portland. And an hour's drive west takes you straight to the Oregon coast.
Perhaps the most memorable asset of Hillsboro is its wide range of landscapes. It's easy enough to forget the Home Depot, Target, and the Intel and Sun Microsystems campuses that populate the most active parts of the city; a drive of less than 20 minutes in almost any direction uncovers a scenic vineyard, golf course, or park. Meriwether, for example, is just 3 miles from a major highway yet retains its isolated charm. "You feel like you're in the middle of nowhere," says Carey.
The city continues to grow and change, but its residents remain loyal to their home. "Hillsboro is a big small town," says Platt. "And I'm never gonna leave."
ABOUT HILLSBORO, ORE.
Population: 84,533
Median home price: $260,000
January average temperatures (high/low): 46/35
July temperatures: 80/55
Source: OnBoard LLC
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