We’ve Got 19 New Facts About Portland’s Totally Insane Real Estate Market

Fact: Portland median home sale prices surged more than 11 percent this past year.But even more dramatic increases—24 percent in Parkrose?!—percolated along the city’s outer east side, west side, and industrial fringes. The lesson: if you want to understand Portland’s market, you have to study the whole map. To get your feet wet, we extract 19 timely findings below:

1. Find some of Portland’s biggest 1-year price jumps on its edges: Hayden Island, East Columbia, Linnton, and far southwest.
2. Citywide, median rent rose just 3 percent. But zoom in, and you’ll see spikes in commuter zones like Arbor Lodge, Eastmoreland, Southwest Hills, and South Portland. (Buckman is still your best bet for cheap rent.)
3. Where the kids are: University Park. Their elders make home in Maplewood and Hayden Island.
4. The east side’s best location for public transit fans? Kerns is just the ticket.
5. Dunthorpe (not officially a neighborhood, but starting this year we’re calling it one) fetched the city’s highest median home sale price—$1.192 million.
6. Good things come in small packages? Buying downtown costs a steep $396 per square foot.
7. In Sylvan-Highlands, median household income rose $20K in 2015—making this West Hills hood our wealthiest.
8. The City’s median 2015 sale price—$340,000—has shot up 45 percent since 2011.
9. Five percent more Portlanders commuted by bike or foot in 2015 than the previous year. (We also have a few new public transit options—hello, Orange line!)
10. 10,838 Portland homes sold in a blistering 33-day average. (That’s 11 days lessthan in 2014.)
11. Parkland covers 15 percent of Portland—making the metro areas’s largest city also its greenest. Almost. (Next year, Fairview!)
12. Out-of-towners are flocking to downtown, but also to Northeast Portland’s Argay and Parkrose.
13. Priced out of Portland’s rental market? Try Estacada.
14. Gladstone homes are market stars, with a large price spike (nearly 20 percent). Since 2011, they’ve risen 51 percent.
15. West Linn, so safe!
16. Cornelius: chock-full of young families.
17. Get the most home for your dough in Troutdale.
18. Low-density Sauvie Island lets you stretch your wings—for a price.
19. McMinnville averages 61 days for home sales—slowest in the metro area. 

Resource: pdxmonthly.com