Are Portland’s Apartments Unaffordable?

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

GoLocalPDX News Team

Portland rents are now among the highest of any city in America and in some neighborhoods the average rent are unattainable for the vast majority of renters. The trends continue to go in the wrong way.

The City is now the 12th most expensive rental market in America. New data from Zumper, “the small and wildly ambitious startup” focused on the rental industry, unveils the trends in the rental market in Portland. The data augments the recent Metro report that raises more concerns about affordability.

Income and Rents

More importantly, the new data continues to expose the misalignment between the affordability of rental properties in Portland and the differences in cost by neighborhoods.

Portland's rise into the top 15 most expensive rental markets surprisingly shows that the city is now more expensive than Atlanta, Denver, Austin and Dallas. To put the rise in Portland’s rental cost in deep perspective — Seattle only ranks two cities higher on the list of most expensive. Seattle’s salaries on average are more than 10 percent higher and in some sectors are 25 percent higher than their peers in Portland.

As the Metro showed in its report — “Opportunities and Challenges for Equitable Housing” — “ rents are increasing faster than incomes, leading to high cost burdens. Between 2006 and 2015, rents in the Portland metropolitan area went up by 63 percent, while renter incomes increased by just 39 percent.”

Which Neighborhoods are Most Expensive

The Slideshow below breakdown the cost of the ten most expensive neighborhoods and the map below breaks out each of the neighborhoods.

The costs and the rate of increase versus income is setting off warnings -- important warnings that could undermine the "livability" of Portland. A city can't be livable if you can't afford to live there,"Even households with moderate incomes are finding themselves priced out of neighborhoods where they work or go to school. Housing affordability and choice are not only issues of social equity; lack of equitable housing also threatens our economic competitiveness and the livability our region has worked hard to protect."