Penner Group Properties logo

Neighborhood Spotlight

Living in Sherwood: Old Town, the Tualatin River, and What Homes Cost in 2026

By Tim Penner · Penner Group Properties · October 2, 2026

A quiet Sherwood residential street in early October at golden hour, maples and oaks turning gold and amber, a for-sale sign in a tidy front yard, the Tualatin Valley foothills on the horizon

Old Town, the Tualatin River, and a Top-Rated District · Sherwood, Oregon

Sherwood is the Washington County town that keeps surprising buyers: a small-city feel with a genuinely walkable Old Town, a top-rated school district, a national wildlife refuge on its southern edge, and a 15-mile drive into downtown Portland. For the families we work with, it comes up again and again as the answer to a specific question: where can we get the schools and the community without paying West Beaverton prices? This note is our close look at what living there is actually like in 2026, from the neighborhoods and schools to the commute and what homes really sell for.

We cover Sherwood as one of the eight service areas we work every day, from Beaverton and Hillsboro down through Newberg, Wilsonville, and Woodburn. Everything below comes from public sources linked at the bottom of the page, and the price figures are market medians, not a promise about any single home. For the numbers on a specific neighborhood or listing, reach out and we will pull the recent sales for you.

~$631K

Typical home price, 2026

Redfin 3-month median, up 1.8% year over year; Zillow average value reads near $652K

$520K-$800K

What most single-family homes sell for

Smaller Old Town homes start lower, near $450K

~15 mi

Drive to downtown Portland via 99W

Roughly 30 minutes off-peak, longer in rush hour

~20,500

Population

A Washington County city in the Tualatin Valley, ZIP 97140

Price, market-time, and commute figures from the public sources listed at the bottom of this page, retrieved October 2, 2026.

Why Sherwood Keeps Showing Up

Sherwood is a residential city of about 20,500 people in the Tualatin Valley, roughly 15 miles southwest of downtown Portland. It has a real identity of its own: Old Town, the historic core around City Hall, hosts the Robin Hood Festival every July, a community tradition running since 1954 that draws nearly 20,000 people. The Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, 1,856 acres of protected floodplain on the town's southern edge, is one of the region's best free outdoor destinations, with nearly 200 bird species and more than 150,000 visitors a year.

What anchors the market is the school district. Sherwood School District 88J is rated an A by Niche and ranked first among Washington County districts, and Sherwood High School scores 10 out of 10 on GreatSchools, all on a campus that opened in 2021. For buyers weighing the west-side suburbs, that combination, schools, community, commute, is the whole story, and our service areas map shows where Sherwood sits in the region we cover every day.

What the Sherwood Market Looks Like in 2026

The honest headline for 2026 is a stable, expensive market that rewards preparation: prices are flat, homes still move quickly when priced right, and the entry point has shifted to condos and townhomes. Here is the real picture:

  • Prices are roughly flat, not falling. Redfin's three-month median sale price for Sherwood sits near $631,000, up about 1.8% from a year earlier, while Zillow's average home value reads near $652,500, essentially unchanged year over year. Two trackers, same story: a market that has stopped running and settled into a stable, expensive-but-predictable range. Flat is not a discount, but it is also not the wild ride of the pandemic years.
  • The market is competitive but not frantic. Redfin scores Sherwood about 71 out of 100 on its competitiveness scale, with homes drawing roughly two offers on average, going pending in about 11 days, and closing in about 29. Well-priced homes in the right neighborhoods still move fast and can still see multiple offers; the days of twenty-showing weekends are mostly behind us.
  • The range buyers actually use is $520,000 to $800,000 for most single-family homes, with smaller one-level homes in Old Town starting lower, near $450,000, and larger newer homes on the west and south edges pushing higher. Condos and townhomes keep a real entry point: our current listing at Woodhaven Crossing, a two-bedroom condo at 22862 SW Forest Creek Dr, is priced at $259,000.
  • Inventory is elevated but normalizing. Active listings in Sherwood ran in the 60s to 80s through late 2025, up from the lean pandemic years, and have been drifting down seasonally since. More choice than buyers saw in 2021 or 2022, less than the peak of 2024, and enough that a patient buyer can compare without being stampeded.

For context, the Portland metro median came in near $540,000 in August 2026, so Sherwood runs meaningfully above the regional average, and rates add to that picture: the average 30-year fixed mortgage crossed 7% in late September. Our mortgage rate note and October metro market update are worth reading alongside this one, and our what $500,000 buys guide shows how Sherwood compares with the rest of our service areas on price.

The Neighborhoods

Sherwood's housing genuinely splits into a few distinct markets. The right one depends on whether you want the historic core, the newest construction, the condo entry point, or the open-space edge of town:

Old Town

The historic heart of Sherwood, centered on City Hall at 22560 SW Pine Street, with a walkable handful of blocks of shops, antiques, and cafés around Cannery Square and the Saturday Market. It is also the home of the Robin Hood Festival, the town's signature July event. Housing here is mostly smaller one-level bungalows on modest lots, typically running from about $450,000 to $650,000.

The newer west and south edges

Where most of Sherwood's newer subdivisions sit, with larger single-family homes, newer floor plans, and higher price tags, commonly $600,000 to $800,000 and up. These are the neighborhoods buyers mean when they ask for a modern, low-maintenance home in a top-rated district.

Woodhaven Crossing and the condo corner

The town's entry point. Communities like Woodhaven Crossing, off the Forest Creek corridor, offer condos and townhomes that start well below the single-family median, which matters more in a 7% rate world. Our current listing there, 22862 SW Forest Creek Dr #203, is a three-level two-bedroom at $259,000, zoned for Middleton Elementary, Sherwood Middle, and Sherwood High.

The Tualatin River edge

Sherwood's southern boundary is the Tualatin River floodplain, home to the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge. The neighborhoods closest to the refuge trade a little commute distance for genuine open space, and the refuge itself is one of the best reasons to live here.

Schools

  • Sherwood sits in the Sherwood School District 88J, a public district with four K-5 elementaries (Archer Glen, Hawks View, Middleton, and Ridges), Sherwood Middle School for grades 6-8, Sherwood High School for grades 9-12, and Sherwood Charter School, a public K-8 charter. Every elementary feeds into the same middle and high school, and students are assigned by home address, so the exact boundary for a specific house still matters.
  • The district is one of the strongest in Washington County. Niche gives it an overall grade of A and ranks it first among Washington County districts, and GreatSchools scores Sherwood High at 10 out of 10 and Sherwood Middle at 9. The high school moved into a brand-new campus in 2021. As always, we look up the exact feeder school for any address before recommending a home.

For families, the school district is usually the deciding factor between Sherwood and its neighbors, and it is the reason homes here hold their value in a flat market. The honest caveat is the same one we give everywhere: the exact feeder school for an address matters more than the district name, so we always check the boundary map before recommending a home. Our current Woodhaven Crossing listing is a good example, zoned for Middleton Elementary, Sherwood Middle, and Sherwood High.

How the Commute Actually Works

  • Sherwood's main artery is Highway 99W, which runs straight into Tigard and then downtown Portland, about 15 miles and roughly 30 minutes off-peak, longer in rush hour. Beaverton is about 11.6 miles and 19 minutes by car, which makes Nike's Beaverton campus and the west-side tech corridor a practical commute, and Intel's Hillsboro campuses are reachable across the west side.
  • For transit, TriMet routes 94 and 76 connect Sherwood to the Tigard Transit Center, where the MAX and WES Commuter Rail lines fan out to Beaverton, Hillsboro, and downtown Portland. The honest note: transit is workable but not fast, and most Sherwood commuters drive.
  • The trade-off is the point. Sherwood trades a few extra minutes on 99W for a top-rated school district and a price that, while not cheap, runs below West Beaverton and much of Tigard for comparable homes. For families that value schools and a small-town feel with metro access, that is frequently the right trade.

The best test is the drive itself, on a weekday morning, in both directions. If Sherwood is on your shortlist, take the trip from the office you would actually commute to, and time it during rush hour, not on a Sunday afternoon. That single experiment settles more debates than any market stat we could quote.

Where Locals Go

A short list of the spots we send clients and relocating families to when they are in town. These are real local businesses, parks, and landmarks with their own sites:

Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge

The 1,856-acre refuge on Sherwood's southern edge, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and home to nearly 200 bird species and more than 150,000 visitors a year. Free, family-friendly, and the town's best-known natural asset.

Robin Hood Festival

Sherwood's signature event, held in Old Town every third weekend of July since 1954. The 73rd annual festival runs July 17-18, 2026, and draws nearly 20,000 people for the parade, knightly ceremonies, and medieval fun.

Fat Milo's

A local favorite at 16147 SW Railroad St serving breakfast and lunch in a friendly, old-town setting, and a good first stop for getting a feel for Sherwood.

Symposium Coffee

The neighborhood coffee shop at 22461 SW Pine St in Old Town, with a loyal local following.

Stella Olsen Memorial Park

A longtime community park at 22256 SW Washington St with playgrounds, sports fields, and green space in the middle of town.

Who Sherwood Is Right For

The short answer: families who want a top-rated school district and a genuine small-town community within a reasonable commute of the west-side tech corridor, and buyers who are comfortable paying a premium for that combination. Sherwood is not the affordable entry point on our map, Woodburn holds that title, but it is the market where the schools-and-community math works best for many of the families we serve.

First-time buyers in Sherwood usually start with condos and townhomes, which is exactly why our Woodhaven Crossing listing at $259,000 matters in this market, and why the state down payment programs we wrote about in our Oregon down payment assistance note can help here too. If you have been reading about Sherwood and want to see it in person, the best next step is a visit: Old Town on a Saturday, the refuge on a clear morning, and a look at the recent sales in the neighborhood you have your eye on. We cover Sherwood as part of our regular service area, so see the full map of our service areas for the whole range we cover, and our current listings for what is actually on the market right now.

Sources

The figures in this note come from these public sources, retrieved October 2, 2026:

Thinking about Sherwood?

Let us pull the recent sales in the neighborhood you are eyeing, line up a school-feeder check, and walk you through the numbers for your budget. Call (971) 777-3137, write to Concierge@pennergroupproperties.com, or send a note through the contact page. You can also follow Penner Group Properties on Facebook for listings, market notes, and local events.

Talk to the Team