Beaverton's Tech Corridor: What Moving to Silicon Forest Actually Looks Like in 2026

by Kerrie

Beaverton sits at the eastern edge of Oregon's "Silicon Forest," the tech corridor running west through Hillsboro that's anchored by Nike's world headquarters and Intel's largest R&D footprint outside its own state of origin. If you're relocating for a job at either company, or in the broader tech ecosystem around them, the commute and lifestyle case for Beaverton is still real. What's changed is the employment picture: both Nike and Intel cut jobs in Oregon in 2025 and 2026, and that's worth knowing honestly before you assume "Silicon Forest" means guaranteed growth.

I've written about Beaverton before as part of a westside suburb comparison with Tigard, but Beaverton's identity as the anchor of Oregon's tech corridor deserves its own conversation, especially right now. A lot of relocation content out there still treats "Silicon Forest" as an unambiguous good news story: big campuses, big paychecks, short commutes. That's not wrong, exactly, but it's incomplete for 2026, and if you're the one deciding whether to buy a house here based partly on a job at Nike or Intel, incomplete is the wrong amount of information to work with.

What "Silicon Forest" Actually Is

The Silicon Forest is the informal name for the tech and semiconductor corridor stretching from Beaverton west through Hillsboro, largely following the US-26 (Sunset Highway) corridor through Washington County. Beaverton sits at the eastern end of it.

Nike's World Headquarters, the Philip H. Knight Campus, occupies roughly 400 acres inside Beaverton off SW Murray Boulevard. According to Nike's own most recent annual report, the campus is occupied by approximately 10,600 employees across management, research, design, development, marketing, and finance functions. That's meaningfully lower than the 12,000-15,000 figures you'll see repeated on relocation and moving-company blogs, most of which don't cite a source. I'd rather give you the number straight from Nike's own filing than a rounder, more optimistic figure that isn't sourced.

Intel's presence sits further west, primarily in Hillsboro and Aloha, and is genuinely massive in scale: Intel has described Oregon as the "heart" of its R&D operations, with more than 22,000 employees across four Oregon campuses, its largest concentration of facilities and talent anywhere in the world.

Beyond those two anchors, the corridor includes Tektronix, ADI, and a long list of smaller semiconductor and tech companies. If you're relocating for a job at any of them, Beaverton's appeal is straightforward: you're close to the corridor without living inside Hillsboro's more industrial, campus-heavy footprint.

The Part Most Relocation Content Skips: 2025-2026 Was a Real Down Cycle

Here's where I want to be direct with you, because most of what's written about Beaverton and the Silicon Forest treats it as a straightforward growth story, and the last eighteen months don't fully support that.

Intel cut thousands of Oregon jobs. Starting in mid-2025, Intel filed Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices affecting its Hillsboro and Aloha campuses. An initial notice of 529 layoffs was revised upward within days to 2,392 positions across four Oregon campuses, among the largest single mass layoffs in Oregon history. That came on top of 1,300 Oregon positions cut in an August 2024 global reduction, and another 669 Hillsboro and Aloha positions cut in November 2025. The cuts are part of a broader company-wide plan to reduce costs by $500 million in 2025 and another $1 billion in 2026.

Nike cut jobs at its Beaverton headquarters too. In April 2026, Nike announced roughly 1,400 layoffs globally, the majority in technology roles within its Global Operations department, with positions affected at the Beaverton headquarters specifically. The company described it as part of its "Win Now" turnaround plan.

At the same time, the state is actively investing to secure the corridor's future. Oregon passed its own CHIPS Act (Senate Bill 4) with $210 million in initial state investment in the semiconductor industry, and Hillsboro-based companies, including Intel, have received a portion of that funding to support future expansion at the Hillsboro campus. A June 2026 state report described Oregon's semiconductor industry as being "at a crossroads," expanding rapidly on a global level thanks to AI and advanced computing demand, but facing real risk of losing ground to other states without continued investment.

So the honest version isn't "the tech corridor is dying" and it isn't "nothing has changed." It's that two of the corridor's biggest employers both went through real, publicly reported layoffs in the same eighteen-month window that this content is being written in, while the state is simultaneously betting real money on the corridor's long-term future. If you're relocating for a specific offer at Nike or Intel, that offer is what matters, not the corridor's overall headline. But if you're relocating more speculatively, hoping the ecosystem will have an opening for you once you arrive, I'd want you to walk in knowing the hiring environment has been tighter than the "Silicon Forest" branding suggests.

The Commute Case, Which Is Still Genuinely Strong

Beaverton and the silicon forest for relocating tech professionals

Setting the employment headlines aside, the physical case for living in Beaverton if you work anywhere in the corridor hasn't changed. Most Beaverton neighborhoods put you within roughly 5 to 12 minutes of Nike's campus and a 15 to 20 minute drive to Intel's Hillsboro facilities off US-26, off-peak. The MAX Blue and Red Lines both run through the Beaverton Transit Center, and WES Commuter Rail connects south toward Tualatin and Wilsonville, which matters if you're not driving.

The tradeoff is US-26 itself during peak hours. The stretch between the Murray Boulevard interchange and the Sunset Tunnel is a known bottleneck, and a commute that takes 15 minutes off-peak can stretch to 30 or 40 minutes during the 7 to 9 a.m. window. If your role has any flexibility on start time, that's worth negotiating before you commit to a specific neighborhood based on a best-case commute estimate.

Which Part of Beaverton Actually Fits You

"Beaverton" covers a lot of geographic and architectural range, more than the citywide numbers suggest, and the right pocket of it depends on what you're actually optimizing for.

North of Canyon Road, closer to central Beaverton and the MAX line (areas like Cedar Hills and Five Oaks) tends to mean older, more established homes from the 1950s through 1970s, larger lots, mature trees, and the shortest, most direct routes into both Nike's campus and downtown Portland. If daily transit access matters to you, or you want to be able to walk to Cedar Hills Crossing for groceries and errands, this is the practical choice. The tradeoff is you're buying an older home, which usually means more deferred maintenance to budget for.

Bethany, technically unincorporated Washington County but functionally part of the Beaverton-Hillsboro conversation, sits further north and skews newer: master-planned communities, HOA fees, and a shorter drive for anyone commuting specifically toward Hillsboro's Intel campuses rather than Nike's. It's a common landing spot for dual-tech-worker households where one person works at each end of the corridor.

South Beaverton, Murrayhill, Sexton Mountain, and Cooper Mountain trade a longer surface-street commute for newer construction, larger homes, and more space, generally the pick for families prioritizing school zones and yard size over a five-minute commute advantage. Progress Ridge adds a walkable retail center into that mix if you want some density without giving up the newer-construction tradeoff.

Aloha, just west of Beaverton proper, is the value play: older ranch-style housing stock, larger lots, and pricing that generally runs meaningfully below Beaverton's core, with a commute to Nike or Hillsboro that adds only a few extra minutes either direction.

None of this is a substitute for touring the specific streets you're considering, commute times shift block by block once you're off the highway, but if you're relocating from out of state and trying to shortlist areas before you ever set foot here, this is the actual shape of the decision.

Schools, If That's Part of Your Decision

Beaverton School District (48J) is the state's third-largest, serving Beaverton, Hillsboro, Aloha, and parts of unincorporated Washington County. SchoolDigger ranks it 17th out of 140 Oregon districts for the 2025 school year, solidly upper-tier statewide, though the same data shows real variation school to school within the district: some schools significantly outperform state averages while others, including Aloha High School specifically, post noticeably lower proficiency rates. That range is worth knowing if schools are a deciding factor, since "Beaverton School District" as a single label covers a wider spread of outcomes than the district-level ranking alone suggests.

As with any school content, I'd treat this as a starting point, not a final answer: district boundaries shift, and specific address-to-school assignments should always be confirmed directly with the district or Oregon's official school locator before you commit to a house based on which school you assume it feeds into.

What Homes Actually Cost Right Now

As of early 2026, Zillow's home value index for Beaverton sits around $520,000, roughly in line with the Portland metro's citywide figures. You'll see some variance depending on the data source and exact time period, Redfin's median sale price figure runs somewhat higher, which is a normal artifact of different methodologies (list-price-based indices vs. actual closed-sale medians) rather than a sign the market moved dramatically in a short window.

Within that citywide figure, the range across neighborhoods is genuinely wide: older, smaller homes in central Beaverton and Aloha sit meaningfully below the citywide median, while newer construction in Bethany, Progress Ridge, and the upper end of Cedar Mill runs well above it. If home price is a deciding factor for you, I'd rather pull current, address-specific comps for the neighborhoods you're actually considering than have you anchor to any single citywide number.

My Honest Read

If you have an actual offer in hand at Nike, Intel, or elsewhere in the corridor, Beaverton is still one of the strongest commute-to-lifestyle tradeoffs in the Portland metro, and I'd tell you that as directly as I'm telling you about the layoffs. Short drives to major campuses, transit access if you want it, and a more diverse, mature suburb than its "corporate campus" reputation suggests.

What I wouldn't do is tell a client to move here speculatively, betting on the tech corridor's growth story without a specific job already lined up, the way you might have five or six years ago. The layoffs at both anchor employers are real, recent, and large enough that "there will probably be an opening" is a weaker bet than it used to be. If you're relocating with a offer already signed, none of this changes your calculus. If you're relocating hopeful about the broader ecosystem, it's worth doing more homework on your specific field's hiring pace before you commit to a house.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Beaverton, Oregon a good place to live if I work in tech? Yes, if you have a specific job in the corridor. Most Beaverton neighborhoods offer a 5 to 20 minute commute to Nike's or Intel's campuses off-peak, along with MAX light rail access. The caveat is that both major anchor employers went through real layoffs in 2025 and 2026, so the broader hiring environment is tighter than it was a few years ago.

How many people work at Nike's headquarters in Beaverton? According to Nike's own most recent annual report, approximately 10,600 employees work at the Philip H. Knight Campus in Beaverton. Nike announced roughly 1,400 global layoffs in April 2026, including positions at the Beaverton headquarters.

How many people does Intel employ in Oregon? Intel has described Oregon as the "heart" of its global R&D operations, with more than 22,000 employees across four campuses in Hillsboro and Aloha, its largest concentration of facilities anywhere. Intel cut roughly 2,400 Oregon positions in mid-2025 and an additional 669 in November 2025 as part of a broader company-wide cost reduction plan.

What's the commute like from Beaverton to Hillsboro's tech campuses? Roughly 15 to 20 minutes off-peak via US-26, though the corridor gets genuinely congested during the 7 to 9 a.m. window, sometimes stretching to 30 to 40 minutes. The MAX Blue Line and WES Commuter Rail are alternatives if you want to avoid driving.

Is the Portland-area semiconductor industry growing or shrinking? Both are true depending on the time horizon. Intel and Nike both cut jobs in Oregon in 2025 and 2026. At the same time, the state has committed real investment (Oregon's own CHIPS Act) to secure future semiconductor expansion, and a June 2026 state report described the industry as being at a "crossroads," expanding globally but facing real competitive risk without continued investment.

Is Beaverton the same as Hillsboro? No. Beaverton and Hillsboro are separate, adjacent cities, with Beaverton sitting closer to Portland at the eastern end of the Silicon Forest corridor and Hillsboro further west, home to most of Intel's physical campus footprint. Both fall within Washington County.

Which Beaverton neighborhood has the shortest commute to Nike? Areas north of Canyon Road, like Cedar Hills and Five Oaks, sit closest to Nike's Murray Boulevard campus and also offer the most direct MAX light rail access. Neighborhoods further south, like Murrayhill and Sexton Mountain, trade a longer surface-street commute for newer construction and larger lots.

Is Beaverton School District a good school district? It's solidly upper-tier statewide, SchoolDigger ranks it 17th of 140 Oregon districts, but the district covers 57 schools with real variation between them. Confirm which specific school a property feeds into directly with the district before treating "Beaverton schools" as a single, uniform answer.