I want to rent an apartment in a fun neighborhood. I will be working downtown or going to school at Portland State, want good public transit options, but want to live near coffee shops and cafes.

A dozen neighborhoods would work. Most of Portland's buses and its trains go directly through downtown, so if you can live near a MAX stop or the streetcar or a (good) bus line, you can get into downtown without driving. Having a bike helps...

The Pearl District and Northwest Portland are good choices if you can afford them, because both are close to downtown and on the streetcar line. But both are pricey.

There are also some highrise apartment buildings Downtown but you would lack a "neighborhood" feel and these buildings can be expensive, too.

On the east side of the river, you could live in Hawthorne District in SE, in Irvington or Alberta in NE and still live in a nice but slightly less expensive area than NW or Downtown. And all of these areas have plenty of shops and cafes you might desire.

I will be working in Beaverton or Hillsboro but want to live in Portland and not in the burbs. Would prefer not to drive...

Portland's MAX Train runs from Downtown west to Beaverton and Hillsboro - this is really the only way to get out there via public transit from Downtown. If you will work close to a MAX stop, then it would help to live near a MAX stop in Portland. You would probably want to live in NW or SW very close to downtown Portland. In SW, you could live in Goose Hollow, King's Hill, or Uptown (close to Burnside), where there are some high rise apartments, walk to NW, and also walk to the MAX train. You could also take your bike on the MAX going east from the Goose Hollow, King's Hill, and PGE Park MAX stops, so you could live further away from a MAX stop and bike fairly easily to MAX.

To see what the driving or bus/train commute would look like between any two locations in the Portland area, use the Portland Mapper to get maps and directions via Google Maps. Just add the areas you are interested in or any address in town to My Locations on your map, then Get Point to Point Directions.

If you want to drive, it's still advantageous to live in NW or close to downtown on the west side, because you want to skip I-84 and I-5 if you can help it when commuting to the western suburbs (Hillsboro and Beaverton). The dreaded Sunset Highway (Highway 26) gets messy enough, and you don't want too many traffic variables. Although you would be going against rush hour traffic living Downtown and working in Beaverton or Hillsboro, the Sunset still gets busy, especially inbound at night, going up the hill toward Sylvan Hill. It's not an unbearable commute but not fun.

I don't want to live right in the city - are there any nice areas outside of the urban neighborhoods?

Lake Oswego is kind of a ritzy suburb south of downtown Portland - known for huge mansions and upper middle-class homes and condos, in a suburban setting. You can take the TriMet buses 35 and 36 to downtown if you will be commuting or going to school in Portland. Or you can drive inbound on I-5 in the morning through the dreaded Terwilliger Curves...

There's also Orenco Station, way out on the West Side in Hillsboro, an "old neighborhood" themed newer development of homes, condos, and apartments built around a MAX station. Part of the development has old-style row houses and tries to re-create the feel of an old neighborhood. For the 'burbs it's not bad, but Portland has too much of the real thing Orenco to feel authentic. Still, if you must live in Hillsboro, it's a good choice. There are also lots chain stores nearby and the trendy new Streets of Tanasbourne Mall on Cornell Road.

We just want to buy a nice home in one of Portland's nicer neighborhoods. We can live pretty much anywhere but want a safe neighborborhood with character.

Northwest Portland, if you can afford it, has beautiful homes and it's a great neighborhood, but it's also very urban: homeless people wandering around, not a lot of street parking, etc.

Laurelhurst in NE/SE Portland is one of Portland's very first "planned suburbs" (not really a suburb anymore) with roads slightly curved so as not to be a grid. It has really nice homes and the name "Laurelhurst" is well regarded. It's a little quieter than NW Portland, less "urban" in part because there aren't really any apartment buildings.

Sellwood in SE Portland is kind of a satellite of Portland because it is a bit removed from downtown and not easy to get to from the freeways. But it has some beautiful homes, some well-known antique shops, and nice parks.

In NE, Irvington is known as another "elite" urban neighborhood, maybe not as exciting as NW but still one of Portland's best. Slightly east of Irvington is Beaumont-Wilshire, a slightly more conservative neighborhood than some of the others with some posh, classic Portland homes.