Oct 27, 2023 - Real Estate

You need $150K a year to afford a typical Portland-area home

Meira Gebel

Illustration of a door knocker in the shape of a dollar sign — Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

You need to earn a cool $149,000 a year to afford a typical home in Portland, up 15.6% from last year, a new report finds.

Reality check: The median annual household income in the census-designated Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metropolitan statistical area was a little more than $89,000 last year, per census data.

Why it matters: High interest rates and home prices have put homeownership out of reach for many locals.

Driving the news: Of 100 U.S. cities, Portland requires the 20th-highest income for a person to afford a median-priced home, according to recent data from Redfin.

San Francisco leads the pack, with homebuyers needing to make more than $404,000 to afford the median monthly mortgage payment.

Zoom in: In the Portland area, the median home cost $546,400 in August, Redfin found, while the median monthly mortgage payment topped $3,700.

Of note: To determine affordability, Redfin took an area's median monthly mortgage payment, then calculated how much a buyer there would need to make to spend no more than 30% of their income on housing.

The formula assumes buyers are coming in with a 20% down payment, which can be its own barrier for many buyers in Portland and elsewhere.

Between the lines: Rising monthly payments have largely been driven by increases in interest rates.

Earlier this month, rates hit 8%, the highest level since 2000, CBS reported.

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You need $150K a year to afford a typical Portland-area home

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