Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro areas are the 12th largest metro areas that require the most weekly hours of its employed residents. Portlanders need to log 92 hours each week to afford a home, according to a study’s findings. The median (middle) hourly wage in Portland is $23.26 and the median home price is $560,474. Most people earning the median wage do not work that many hours a week.
People living on the West Coast, like Oregon, must work longer hours to afford a median-priced home that workers in other parts of the country. Portlanders need to work the 12th most hours. Portlanders have to work more hours than New Yorkers, Bostonians and Las Vegas vegans to afford a home at the average price in their city.
The general rule is that mortgage payments should only be 30% of one’s income. In Oregon, Monthly mortgage payment for a house at the average price: $2,784, Average house price: $560,474, Average hourly wage: $23.26, and the Average annual salary: $48,380. Bend is the 19th US city where residents have to work longer hours each week. Portland dropped to 47th overall. Post pandemic, home prices have risen dramatically, potentially eroding increases in pay.
To buy a home in the Portland area, you’ll need to earn more than $130,000. In the Portland-South Portland metro area, which includes Cumberland and York counties, the median home price is now $472,790, a price tag that requires a yearly income more than double the median for the area. The income required to buy a home in the Portland area jumped from $92,600 in April 2021 to $130,000 this year as median home prices went up 20 percent.
If you’re low income, in Portland, the average wait time for one of the city’s subsidized, affordable housing units is five years. As of Feb 26, 2023, the average annual pay for a Hourly in Portland is $39,610 a year. That is approximately $19.04 an hour or $3,300 per month.
Sticking to the recommended 30% for housing, a single person, with an average hourly rate in Portland, would need to find a rental for $990 a month.
