Andy Green

Award-winning master planner and development company, Costa Pacific Communities, recently announced that it has moved office locations from 4724 SW Macadam Avenue in Portland to 11416 SW Barber Street in Wilsonville, Oregon's Villebois Village Center.

Since 1990, Costa Pacific Communities has been building communities up and down the West Coast that enrich the lives of residents. Costa Pacific has been recognized nationally for excellence in design, master planning and marketing and is the most awarded builder/developer in the history of Oregon. Most notably, Costa Pacific received a Gold Nugget Award for Best on the Boards Site Plan for Villebois at the Pacific Coast Builders Conference in 2005. The master planner's Orenco Station community in Hillsboro, Ore. received the prestigious "Master Planned Community of the Year" award in 1999 from the National Association of Home Builders.

Additionally, Costa Pacific has been named Developer of the Year by Oregon's environmental watchdog group, 1000 Friends of Oregon, and twice been named Oregon's Builder of the Year by the Oregon Building Industry Association.

Costa Pacific Communities chose to move its corporate headquarters to better serve buyers searching for homes in the Villebois neighborhood and to oversee the continued development of the industry-touted Villebois Village Center.

To learn more about Costa Pacific Communities, visit www.costapacific.com. You may also call 866.580.2836 or email Blog@CostaPacific.com.

A recent study of all the major cities around the world found Portland, Oregon to be No. 42 when it comes to exceptional quality of life. Mercer's 2009 Quality of Living Ranking surveyed 215 cities and ranked them on a point-scoring index.

Vienna, Austria scored the highest and Baghdad, Iraq was the worst-ranking city of those studied. Mercer compiles the information for companies who must place workers in various parts of the world. Click here to read more about the quality of life survey.

This study further solidifies the decision more and more individuals are making to move to Oregon and the Portland metropolitan area, specifically. The Portland real estate market is ripe with opportunities for buyers looking for affordably priced homes in exceptional neighborhoods.

There is no neighborhood in the Portland area more exceptional that the award-winning master-planned Villebois community in Wilsonville.

Inspired by traditional European villages, Villebois, which is French for "village near the woods," is a 500-acre community that offers something for everyone. At the heart of Villebois sits the Village Center. Condominiums and row homes are the first homes to grace the Village Center, which will eventually also host a stunning piazza, with splashing fountains, majestic old-growth trees and ground-level retail and commercial space.

Surrounding the Village Center are three distinct neighborhoods, each with exquisite attention to detail, like stacked stone walls, lush gardens, and stunning architecture. At completion, Villebois will feature diverse housing types, including apartments and condominiums, attached row and town homes, as well as single-family detached homes on lots of varying sizes. The entire community is connected by more than 130 acres of trails and open green spaces, including parks and nature preserves that join to trails that lead well beyond Villebois.

Villebois will truly change how you live.

For more information about Portland, Oregon metropolitan area, please call 866.580.2836 or email Blog@CostaPacific.com. For details about the Villebois neighborhood, visit www.ChangeHowYouLive.com.

Monsters, fairies, witches and clowns: Join neighbors in Wilsonville, Oregon's Villebois community for the best parade in town! On Halloween, all costumed Villebois residents and anyone else who cares to join - kids or adults - are invited to congregate at the Sofia Park Pavilion in the Villebois neighborhood to march, stroll, ride or roll on a short parade route to kick off the Halloween festivities. The parade starts at 6 p.m. and ends with refreshments and activities. The Villebois community hopes you can join in a ghoulishly good time!

Homeowners throughout the Villebois neighborhood regularly come together for a variety of fun and exciting community activities.

Here are just a few of the many events planned at Villebois:

• Villebois Sunday Market - Wilsonville's only farmers market runs every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May through October

• Easter Egg Hunt - Bring the kids and search for treats in Sofia Park

• Community Garage Sale - Feel good about getting rid of the items you no longer want

• 4^th of July Parade - Watch neighbors get creative with floats and decorations as you celebrate our nation's independence

• Campout Movie Night in the Park - Join neighbors as you watch old favorites on a projection screen in Palermo Park

• Oktoberfest - Enjoy German fare while celebrating the festival with friends

• Potluck Concert in the Park - Bring your favorite side dish and dine al fresco with other Villebois homeowners while listening to local musicians

• Christmas Caroling - Celebrate the holidays by caroling throughout the neighborhood

• Bunco and Poker Nights - Try your hand at game night with one of the many groups in the community

• Ladies Night Out - Meet new friends while you tour area restaurants and bars or meet at neighbors' homes each month

• Book Clubs - Join one of the community book clubs and catch up on the latest bestsellers

• Weekly potluck block parties

Call 866.580.2836 or email Blog@CostaPacific.com today to learn more about life in Villebois. Or visit www.ChangeHowYouLive.com.

At Costa Pacific Homes, we created an expansive network of online social media and other websites that showcase the extraordinary Villebois neighborhood. The Villebois experience is now only a click away.

Become our Friend on Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn and keep in touch with friends and neighbors. Stay up-to-date on the latest news and events happening within the community by following our Blog at blog.costapacific.com, Twitter page at twitter.com/villebois or Facebook Fan page.

Send us your videos of the neighborhood and we'll link them on our YouTube page. You can even share your photos of Villebois with us and we'll post them to our online photo galleries on Flickr and Picasa. Help us capture the breathtaking beauty and picturesque qualities of Villebois throughout each of the seasons - from the dog days of summer to the snow-filled days of winter.

Join the Villebois Social Network and get connected today! For more information about the Villebois Social Network, call 503.855.4661 or email Blog@CostaPacific.com. Or visit GetConnectedVillebois.com.

Award-winning developer Costa Pacific Communities is renowned for designing transit-oriented, master-planned neighborhoods on the cutting edge of New Urbanist Planning. The most current community Costa Pacific has developed under a New Urban Design is Villebois in Wilsonville, Oregon. However, prior to developing Villebois, Costa Pacific saw tremendous success in its award-winning mixed-use community Orenco Station located in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Sociology professor Bruce Podobnik of Lewis and Clark College in Portland, conducted a research study over the past five years about New Urban living, surveying residents living in Orenco Station in addition to three other Portland-area neighborhoods. Two of the well-established neighborhoods were urban - one poor and one middle-class. The third neighborhood studied was a suburban middle-class development of cul-de-sacs. Orenco Station was the fourth neighborhood.

The survey found that residents living in Orenco Station believed their community to be friendlier, that it offers more of a sense of community than other places they have lived, that they walk more often to stores, and that they use public transportation.

According to the study, the percentage of residents living in the other three neighborhoods studied "came nowhere close to saying they were as sociable and community-oriented as those in Orenco Station".

This survey is evidence that Costa Pacific's New Urbanist philosophy of high-density, multiple use, walkable neighborhoods can foster more socially connected, healthier lifestyles within urban environments. Click here to read the complete article.

Costa Pacific's newest community, Villebois, was founded on the same basic New Urban fundamentals. Located near the Westside Express Service commuter rail and plans to feature a town center with retail space and high density housing products, Villebois will soon offer its residents all that Orenco Station has and more.

To learn more about Orenco Station or Villebois, call 866.580.2836 or email Blog@CostaPacific.com. You may also visit www.CostaPacific.com.