In the first installment of my How My City Scores series, I looked at the cost of renting a home in Portland, Oregon. This time around I wanted to take a look at the cost of buying a home in our fair city, and how that stacks up to other cities around the country.
The good news is that Portland is still one of the most affordable housing markets in the country. The bad news is that there are signs we may be heading in the same direction as some of those more expensive cities.
Portland has a median home price of $397,000. That’s a full 20% lower than Seattle ($504,200) and about half that of San Francisco ($1,124,900). It’s also significantly lower than any other city with a population over 500,000 – Denver ($429,500), Dallas ($227,500), Houston ($229,500), Phoenix ($257,700), Atlanta ($245,400), Miami ($359,700) and Philadelphia ($188,000).
It’s a question for the ages: How much money will I need to be able to afford a home? The answer today is the same as it’s been for the last 20 or 30 years: It depends on what your income is and where you live.
To be fair, Portland is not unique in this regard. Most major cities in America have seen rents rise over the last decade as more and more people move in and more and more developers build new homes. But Portland has become something of a poster child for this trend, due in no small part to its rapid growth and the fact that it’s become one of the most popular cities in the country.
I was in the market for a new home and wanted to compare the monthly payment for different homes. I found this really good website that will help me calculate the monthly mortgage payment for different home prices and loan terms. I even did a search to see how much the tax, insurance, and PMI would cost me. The results were very helpful.
I am looking to buy a home in Portland Oregon. The housing market is very affordable here. There are many homes with great prices, but there are also many homes that are too costly for my budget. If you are looking to buy a home in Portland Oregon, then check out this website. It will show you how much you can afford to pay for your new home.
If you have any questions about buying a home, then feel free to email me!
The real estate market has definitely changed in Portland Oregon over the last decade. The housing inventory has gone from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market and now it’s more of a split market with some areas that are moving quickly and other areas that are slow.
Some of the factors for this change were the downturn in housing prices around 2008, the influx of new residents to our area, and the low interest rates along with lenient lending.
In 2007 our real estate market was very busy and home prices were at an all time high. Then came the economic downturn of 2008 and many people lost their jobs or their home values dropped below what they owed on them. Business was slow for many years after that, but we had a lot of rental property come on the market as people lost their homes to foreclosure or short sale. It took about seven years for our real estate market to recover from this downturn because we also had very tight lending requirements during these years.
In 2015 things started to change again with an increase in home sales and home prices going up because there were not enough homes for sale. There was also an influx of new residents coming into the area from California because the cost of living was much higher there than it is here in Portland Oregon. We continued to
The housing market in Portland has been a hot topic for a while now. And the conversation around it is not one of just the real estate agents and home buyers, but also government officials, economists and many others.
Portland’s housing crisis is by no means an overnight success; it’s been building up for quite some time. In the past decade, Portland has seen substantial growth in its population, with an additional 100,000 added to the city in 2014. While this is great for economic growth and employment opportunity, it’s meant that there are many more people vying for the same number of homes.
And as demand for housing grows, so does home prices. The median price of a home in Portland is currently $351,500, compared to $253,700 in 2011 — which was already considered high at the time.* That price tag is even higher than Seattle and Los Angeles.
I wanted to share my experience on buying a home in Portland with you all. I’ve had this discussion with many friends and co-workers, so I figured that I try to share my experience with as many people as possible. This is not an advice column, rather a personal experience of how I bought a home.
I’m currently 27 years old and work as a Software Engineer for Nike here in Portland. I’ve lived in Portland since moving here from the Bay Area after graduating from UC Berkeley. My wife is originally from Corvallis and we met at Nike about 4 years ago.
Back in June, we decided to start looking for a home in the city of Portland. We were living in inner SE and really wanted to move North into the Kenton or Arbor Lodge neighborhoods. We were renting a two bedroom house that was about 900 sq ft for $1400/month. My wife and I were ready for something bigger but still located within the city of Portland.
After spending a few weeks looking at homes, we found one that we both loved. It’s a craftsman built around 1910 with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (1 full). It’s located near downtown Kenton (a couple blocks away)