2 ms·

I wanted to add to your housing price comments. True, housing in Portland is cheaper on a nominal basis than Seattle, NY, LA, etc. but prices have been rising m

I wanted to add to your housing price comments. True, housing in Portland is cheaper on a nominal basis than Seattle, NY, LA, etc. but prices have been rising more than 10% a year for the past 5 years or so. The near eastside neighborhoods (the walkable and bikeable ones) have more than doubled in that time. Pay scales have not kept pace. If you have a $500,000+ home to sell in a different market, you'll be able to buy here. If you are moving here hoping to be a first-time homebuyer, good luck. Also,, we have plenty of sunlight. It just gets heavily filtered through a gray drizzle for 9 months a year.

p3llin0r3 9y ago
Yeah, the rising rent is totally unacceptable. There need to be more homes built YESTERDAY to keep up with demand, but that is it's OWN can of worms. I feel that ALL U.S. cities have been blind-sided by the population boom, and all of us millennials flocking to cities to find high paying jobs. I'm NOT hoping to be a homebuyer. I'd love to, but it's just not financially realistic even as a well-paid developer who recently paid off their student debt... maybe in 5 or 6 years. As an aside: I've heard the sentiment that I should lower my expectations on where I can live and buy a home, but: The most expensive home is the one you can't sell!
maxsilver 9y ago
> True, housing in Portland is cheaper on a nominal basis than Seattle, NY, LA, etc. but prices have been rising more than 10% a year for the past 5 years or so. Pay scales have not kept pace. If you have a $500,000+ home to sell in a different market, you'll be able to buy here. If you are moving here hoping to be a first-time homebuyer, good luck. I think people forget that this is a nationwide problem in basically every city, not just a Portland problem. "Prices rising 50% over the past 5 years" and "pay scales have not kept pace" equally describes five different cities in basically-nowheresville-Michigan, not to mention all the multiple dozens of other cities in other states equally effected in this exact same manner (Denver, Salt Lake, Austin, Atlanta, Phoenix, Seattle, Minneapolis, Reno, etc) Portlandia gives Portland residents a convenient spectre to point fingers at. But if that show had never existed, Portland housing would still be every bit as broken, just as it is nearly everywhere across the country right now.

p3llin0r3 9y ago

Yeah, the rising rent is totally unacceptable. There need to be more homes built YESTERDAY to keep up with demand, but that is it's OWN can of worms. I feel that ALL U.S. cities have been blind-sided by the population boom, and all of us millennials flocking to cities to find high paying jobs. I'm NOT hoping to be a homebuyer. I'd love to, but it's just not financially realistic even as a well-paid developer who recently paid off their student debt... maybe in 5 or 6 years. As an aside: I've heard the sentiment that I should lower my expectations on where I can live and buy a home, but: The most expensive home is the one you can't sell!

maxsilver 9y ago

> True, housing in Portland is cheaper on a nominal basis than Seattle, NY, LA, etc. but prices have been rising more than 10% a year for the past 5 years or so. Pay scales have not kept pace. If you have a $500,000+ home to sell in a different market, you'll be able to buy here. If you are moving here hoping to be a first-time homebuyer, good luck. I think people forget that this is a nationwide problem in basically every city, not just a Portland problem. "Prices rising 50% over the past 5 years" and "pay scales have not kept pace" equally describes five different cities in basically-nowheresville-Michigan, not to mention all the multiple dozens of other cities in other states equally effected in this exact same manner (Denver, Salt Lake, Austin, Atlanta, Phoenix, Seattle, Minneapolis, Reno, etc) Portlandia gives Portland residents a convenient spectre to point fingers at. But if that show had never existed, Portland housing would still be every bit as broken, just as it is nearly everywhere across the country right now.