Yeah, houses cost a lot. I know. I assure you, it’s not my fault. That being said, it could be worse. How do I know that? Because I’ve lived places where houses cost a whole lot more than they do here. I also know because I look at statistics and studies, so you know it’s not all anecdotal.
Portland is, generally and unofficially, considered a HCOL (that’s high cost of living) city. There is such a thing though as a VHCOL city, and the V does indeed stand for “very.” Think most of Southern California, New York, San Francisco Bay Area, Honolulu, and sometimes Seattle. Housing cost isn’t the only driver of this designation, but it is the primary one. So in the grand scheme of things, where does Portland fit?
According to the latest available National Association of Realtors study of median sales price of existing homes, which is for 2025’s fourth quarter, the median price for a home in the US was $414,900. The Portland metro came in at $589,700. For all you stat geeks, this means Portland indexes at 142 and for the normal people, it means we’re 42% over the norm. To compare to similarly-sized cities, Portland is about equal to Salt Lake City, is a bit ahead of Sacramento, and a bit behind Denver.
Here’s where it gets fun. We all have a general sense that houses cost a lot more elsewhere in the western part of the US, but how much are we really talking about…
Well, a lot:
If it touches the Pacific Ocean or at least touches a bay or sound that then does, it’ll cost you. Portland is still cheaper than any of those cities above by over 20%, and a good 70% cheaper than the Silicon Valley. On a quick visit to Redfin I found the lowest-priced single-family home for sale in San Jose that isn’t a teardown, and it’s a two bed, one bath for $770k. It’s 657 square feet.
Yes, incomes can be wildly different between these cities. For 2024, census data tells us the household income in the Portland metro was $98,994. That’s higher than the median HHI in Los Angeles County ($90,845) and only 15% behind Orange County ($116,289). Things look differently in the Bay Area, particularly in (you guessed it) Silicon Valley, where the median HHI is 60% higher than in Portland.
Still, the headline is still the headline: Portland is a considerably cheaper place to buy a house than any other major West Coast city. And I’d like to sell you one, so give me a call.
