88 Cheap Apartments for rent in Portland, OR
June 2020 Portland Rent Report
Welcome to the June 2020 Portland Rent Report. Portland rents declined over the past month. In this report, we'll evaluate trends in the Portland rental market, including comparisons to cities throughout the metro, state, and nation.
June 2020 Portland Rent Report
Welcome to the June 2020 Portland Rent Report. Portland rents declined over the past month. In this report, we'll evaluate trends in the Portland rental market, including comparisons to cities throughout the metro, state, and nation.
Portland rents declined slightly over the past month
Portland rents have declined 0.2% over the past month, and are down slightly by 0.4% in comparison to the same time last year. Currently, median rents in Portland stand at $1,121 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,322 for a two-bedroom. This is the second straight month that the city has seen rent decreases after an increase in March. Portland's year-over-year rent growth lags the state average of 0.5%, as well as the national average of 0.8%.
Rent trends vary across the Portland Metro
While rent prices have decreased in Portland over the past year, the rest of the metro is seeing varying rent trends. Of the largest 10 cities that we have data for in the Portland metro, half have seen increases, while the other half have been decreasing. Here's a look at how rents compare across some of the largest cities in the metro.
- Over the past year, Tualatin has seen the biggest rent drop in the metro, with a decline of 3.0%. Median two-bedrooms there cost $1,892, while one-bedrooms go for $1,604.
- Forest Grove has seen the fastest rent growth in the metro, with a year-over-year increase of 2.3%. The median two-bedroom there costs $1,452, while one-bedrooms go for $1,231.
- Hillsboro has the most expensive rents of the largest cities in the Portland metro, with a two-bedroom median of $2,062; rents went down 0.9% over the past month and 1.3% over the past year.
- Portland proper has the least expensive rents in the Portland metro, with a two-bedroom median of $1,322; rents decreased 0.2% over the past month and 0.4% over the past year.
Portland rents more affordable than many comparable cities nationwide
As rents have fallen slightly in Portland, many similar cities nationwide have seen prices increase, in some cases substantially. Portland is also more affordable than most other large cities across the country.
- While Oregon as a whole logged rent growth of 0.5% over the past year, other cities across the state have seen rents decline moderately. For example, rents have fallen by 0.1% in Eugene and 2.1% in Salem.
- Portland's median two-bedroom rent of $1,322 is above the national average of $1,194. Nationwide, rents have grown by 0.8% over the past year compared to the 0.4% decline in Portland.
- While rents in Portland fell slightly over the past year, many cities nationwide saw increases, including Phoenix (+2.3%), Austin (+1.3%), and San Diego (+0.8%).
- Renters will find more reasonable prices in Portland than most similar cities. For example, San Francisco has a median 2BR rent of $3,071, which is more than twice the price in Portland.
For more information check out our national report. You can also access our full data for cities and counties across the U.S. at this link.
Methodology - Recent Updates:
Data from private listing sites, including our own, tends to skew toward luxury apartments, which introduces sample bias when estimates are calculated directly from these listings. To address these limitations, we’ve recently made major updates to our methodology, which we believe have greatly improved the accuracy and reliability of our estimates.
Read more about our new methodology below, or see a more detailed post here.
Methodology:
Apartment List is committed to making our rent estimates the best and most accurate available. To do this, we start with reliable median rent statistics from the Census Bureau, then extrapolate them forward to the current month using a growth rate calculated from our listing data. In doing so, we use a same-unit analysis similar to Case-Shiller’s approach, comparing only units that are available across both time periods to provide an accurate picture of rent growth in cities across the country.
Our approach corrects for the sample bias inherent in other private sources, producing results that are much closer to statistics published by the Census Bureau and HUD. Our methodology also allows us to construct a picture of rent growth over an extended period of time, with estimates that are updated each month.
Read more about our methodology here.
About Rent Reports:
Apartment List publishes monthly reports on rental trends for hundreds of cities across the U.S. We intend these reports to be a source of reliable information that help renters and policymakers make sound decisions, and we invest significant time and effort in gathering and analyzing rent data. Our work is covered regularly by journalists across the country.
We are continuously working to improve our methodology and data, with the goal of providing renters with the information that they need to make the best decisions.