slides: What Jobs You Would Need to Afford These 25 Portland Neighborhoods

Monday, December 15, 2014

Taya Alami, GoLocalPDX Reporter

The cost of living in Portland varies greatly by neighborhood.

The average cost to buy a home is East Portland's Centennial neighborhood at $161,000, while the average home price in Forest Park runs $721,500, according to data released by Portland Monthly.

Despite recent growth city-wide, the price of a home is decreasing in some areas, like Lents, which experienced a $38,000 decrease in median home prices over the last five years.

"A lot of the business coming into Portland are coming in on the West side of town," Portland-area real estate developer Jeff Nelson said. "Out of the east side of the river, you're typically going to get a lot more value as far as space."

Portland's housing market is riding an economic boom, according to realtors. An estimated 25,500 people moved to the Portland metro area in 2013, with approximately 28,000 people moving to the city per year, every year since 2011.

“It’s a super fun place to be,” Portland-area property manager Joshua Russell said of the city’s soaring reputation as a new mecca for new college grads and young professionals. “You can walk out your front door on certain streets and be somewhere in five minutes.”

Although it's referred to in pop culture as 'the city where young people go to retire,' Portland, and Oregon, is home to a number of high-salary, skilled workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The jobs required for a person to afford a house in Portland, also varies by neighborhood.

HSH.com, an online mortgage and consumer loan information website, calculated how much someone would have to earn in order to buy a home in the largest 25 metro areas around the country. To do so, they calculated the annual before-tax income required to cover the mortgage's principal, interest, tax and insurance payment.

"We used standard 28 percent 'front-end' debt ratios and a 20 percent down payment subtracted from the median-home-price data to arrive at our figures," the report stated. "Loans with less than a 20 percent down payment will incur mortgage insurance, which would in turn increase the required salary."

Based on the HSH estimations and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, GoLocalPDX created a loose outline of which careers a Portlander could work in order to afford a home in a given neighborhood.

SEE SLIDESHOW BELOW: What Jobs You Would Need to Afford These 25 Portland Neighborhoods

These are 'loose' estimations based off a 30-year fixed mortgage rate of 4.28 APR and the average home price in a given neighborhood. It's not an exact science - many homes can be purchased for different prices by people earning a diverse range of rages. It should be noted that property taxes vary by property and by neighborhood. If a person's personal debt exceeds 8 percent, the salary requried to buy a home would increase.

Homeowners in Portland pay shocking different amounts for property taxes for homes with similar value.

There are also a number of details specific to an individual property or buyer that can effect the price of a home, realtors said.

Here are some jobs that could possibly allow you to afford a home in 25 Portland Neighborhoods:

slides: What Jobs You Would Need to Afford These 25 Portland Neighborhoods

Related Slideshow: What Jobs You Would Need to Afford These 25 Portland Neighborhoods

Homestead

Buckman

Mt. Tabor

Montavilla

Sellwood Moreland

Brentwood-Darlington (SE)

Centennial (East)

Cully (Mid Northeast)

Concordia (NE Portland)

Irvington (Inner NE)

Boise (Inner North)

Humboldt (Inner North)

Overlook

Pearl

Portmouth

St. Johns

Hayhurst

Forest Park

Lents

Kerns

Hazelwood

Oldtown / Chinatown

South Portland

Brooklyn

Madison South

Enjoy this post? Share it with others.

Most Popular Articles

Sign Up for the Daily Eblast

Sign Up for the Daily Eblast