slides: What Can You Rent in Portland For $1,500?

Monday, November 24, 2014

Taya Alami, GoLocalPDX Reporter

The prices of apartments in Portland have risen in recent years, but that hasn’t stopped hordes of young people from across the country moving to the city and putting a strain on the local supply of one-bedroom flats and studio lofts.

An estimated 25,500 people moved to the Portland metro area in 2013, with approximately 28,000 people moving to the city per year, every year since 2011.

That’s made for a lot of apartment seekers, as anyone who has tried to find a rental in Portland in the last four years knows.

“It’s a super fun place to be,” Portland-area property manager Joshua Russell said of the city’s soaring reputation as a mecca for new college grads and young professionals. “You can walk out your front door on certain streets and be somewhere in five minutes.”

Portland has become an attractive destination for developers as well — the city is projected to gain an addition 112,000 united over the next 20 years, according to a report from Norris Beggs & Simpson.

Those additions may not come a moment too soon. Owner of Zad Realty & Property Management, Beh Zad, said demand in the Portland rental market more than outweighs the supply.

“It’s pretty tight,” Zad said.

The price of housing has steadily increased in Portland since 2010, according to U.S. Census American Community Survey data. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Portland in 2010 was $987, which increased to $992 in 2011, $1,012 in 2012 and $1,036 last year.

The average price for a one-bedroom apartment in downtown Portland is around $1,751, while the average one bedroom in inner Southeast Portland runs closer to $1,051,while Hillsboro apartments average $977, the Norris, Beggs & Simpson report stated.

A number of a real estate developers said prospective renters can get a lot more for $1,500 a month the further east they go for an apartment.

The reason rent in Portland may be on the rise is because vacancy rates are so low. Only 3.44 percent of residential rentals in downtown Portland are vacant. The rate for the entire metropolitan area is 2.51 percent. For comparison, the national residential vacancy rate was 6.49 percent last year.

So what can a renter get in Portland for around $1,500 a month? GoLocalPDX took to the streets (and the internet) to find out.