How much you need to make to buy a home in Portland
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Affording a mortgage on a typical home in the Portland metro requires an income of $152,000 a year, according to a recent Redfin report — nearly triple what homebuyers needed to make just over a decade ago.
The big picture: While Portland saw a slight improvement from 2023 to 2024 in affordability among the 50 largest U.S. metros, it's still expensive to live here.
- A household in Portland making $101,200 (the median income in 2024) would have to spend 45% of their monthly earnings on housing costs if they bought a home for $551,500 (the median sale price), according to Redfin — down 1.4 percentage points compared to 2023.
- "Affordability improved ever so slightly this year because wage growth outpaced the growth in monthly housing payments," Redfin senior economist Elijah de la Campa said.
Reality check: Elevated mortgage rates, record-high prices and limited stock are still shutting many potential homebuyers out of the market.
The latest: Oregon needs to build 29,500 more homes each year in order to emerge from its housing shortage, Carl Riccadonna, the state's chief economist, told lawmakers earlier this week.
- That's below Gov. Tina Kotek's yearly goal of building 36,000 homes, but considerably more than the number of residential construction permits that have been approved in recent years.
Flashback: Last year, builders secured 14,270 residential permits for new construction — a 19% decrease compared to 2023, according to the latest census data.
- Housing production in Oregon peaked in 2005, when developers secured 30,000 permits.
Yes, but: Over 400,000 people live in the state now compared to 2010, and not enough housing has been built to keep pace with that growth, a recent Office of Economic Analysis report concluded.