I would move to the west side...Lake Oswego, beaverton, Tanasbourne area!!! SE is not the best, and is becoming very expensive. But with portland, there are good nieghborhoods and bad nieghborhoods right next to eachother, so you kind of have to know the areas...so if you can give a budget we can better help you decide where to live.
As for water we have decent water, less then 10ppm. But I would always go with an RO/DI unit.