Have lived here for a few years and it’s been great! Really good location– super close to Laurelhurst park, several grocery stores and soon to be renovated library, bus stop right outside the front door. The interior is nice with big windows, good appliances and lots of kitchen storage. The heating/AC also works well. Any time we've had a maintenance issue they send people asap, way faster than any other building I’ve lived in. The walls are also pretty soundproof, and for me, noise has never been an issue. Would definitely recommend!
Kristina Barker
3 months ago
Great building, awesome location, friendly neighbors. Any time I've had the rare maintenance or building issue, property management has been extremely prompt, very communicative and very helpful. Everything is resolved quickly and fully. I love having the 15 bus stop right outside as it gets me to most places I need for work and errands on the west side. I also love being only a block away from the 75 to get me up to Hollywood for a movie or the farmer's market. Neighbors are friendly, building is very quiet, and the split A/C units are efficient and a life saver in the summer. A few minute walk to Freddy's, the Postal Annex on Hawthorne, and H Mart just down the street make walking to errands really easy. And Laurelhurst Park being on a few blocks north makes for a lovely walk. Easily the nicest apartment I've lived in, with a very friendly and helpful management company that takes great care of the property.
I've lived at the Belmont a long time and love it. It's a small building and the units are awesome. I met the owner and original project manager and they put a lot of thought and care into the building development. It's a small apartment building which I like more than the mega developments. But that might just be me.
As any apartment, issues come up, but they've been minor for me and the property manager has dealt with them quickly and effectively.
Location is awesome. A bus stop outside the front door takes you west towards and to downtown on a frequently-running bus (#15). Sometimes, the bus stop is used for shelter, and one person in particular seems to find their way back there. When that happens and the stop needs to be serviced (not frequently), it happens pretty quickly. The return stop is just a block away. North and south busses run on 39th, also a block away.
Apart from the convenience of the bus stop, The Belmont library is being renovated and is just two blocks away. It looks like it's going to be beautiful. Also Fred Meyer, Hawthorne, and Belmont pubs/restaurants are easy walking. And a great vegan restaurant, Norah's, is right across the street. They have excellent takeout. Also a Soma taproom is downstairs, as well as a hair salon.
That's it. Overall a really positive living experience for me!
I want to be completely honest: The Belmont looks great on a tour, and that’s where the positives end. The wood ceilings, cement floors, and sunlight initially convinced me this was a solid place to live. The neighbors were friendly and the unit itself had character. But once you actually move in, you realize the building is held together by wishful thinking and cosmetic charm. Nearly every part of my daily life was disrupted by issues that should never exist in a modern apartment.
The smaller frustrations started immediately. The closet is tiny. There’s no microwave. The floors were dirty on move-in with grime stuck in every groove of the cement. The washer/dryer takes one hour to wash and nearly five hours to dry, sending utility costs through the roof. All the lights burned out within the first month. There is a parking lot, but the list is consistently full—meaning street parking is the only option. In my time living here, my car was hit twice in hit-and-runs. Being next to Norah, one of the busiest Vegan restaurants in Portland, means spots around the neighborhood are wiped out every evening. I routinely had to park five or six blocks away. Cell service inside the unit is awful, with calls dropping constantly.
But those “small” issues honestly feel laughable compared to the major problems. The appliances in this building are a disaster. My AC unit leaked and flooded my floors seven separate times—sometimes in the middle of the night with water pouring across the room. Every single window leaks when it rains. Not “a few.” All of them. The corners are cracked, so water streams in during every storm. The kitchen pipes burst or leaked three different times, once destroying my table and rugs. Maintenance later admitted the pipes were never sealed correctly to begin with. My dishwasher stopped washing dishes four months in and never worked again despite multiple service attempts. The washer/dryer leaked twice, flooding the bathroom and ruining clothes and rugs. Living here felt like managing water damage full-time.
The outside environment is where things go from inconvenient to genuinely unsafe. There is a bus stop directly outside The Belmont, and what happens there is constant and unavoidable. Daily drug use, screaming matches, men exposing themselves, women being harassed, items being thrown at my second-story window, and camping directly outside the entrance and in the walkways. Walking to and from my home didn’t feel questionable—it felt unsafe. Management did almost nothing to address any of it.
And then there’s the nightly wake-up call. Every single night, PDX Street Response arrives to pressure wash the filth from the bus stop for 15+ minutes. It is extremely loud. Not “white noise” loud—jackhammer loud. I had to start sleeping with earplugs just to get a few hours of rest in my own home. Imagine paying real money to sleep like you’re in a construction zone.
To be fair, the property manager, Zach, was personally kind and responsive. But even with that, the building’s issues were not taken seriously. When my unit flooded, I was told someone could come “tomorrow.” Only after repeatedly calling and sending photos did they treat the situation with urgency. There were no check-ins, no concern for how much of my life was being disrupted, and certainly no accommodations despite repeated floods, damage, and safety issues.
I went into The Belmont wanting to love it. I liked the interior and wanted the place to work. But the truth is simple: living here became miserable. My car was damaged multiple times. My apartment was frequently wet from leaks and floods. Rain came into the windows. The environment outside was unsafe. I could barely sleep.
There are many places to live in Portland. The Belmont should not be one of them. Unless you enjoy mold, floods, broken appliances, constant noise, and feeling unsafe in your own home, look somewhere else. This building needs far more than new tenants—it needs a complete overhaul.
