My brother is moving in from Portland with me in Pittsburgh. He eventually wants to own a house, but that's not possible out there, since he works in a bookstore. He sometimes would complain about Californians moving north, and driving up real estate. Pittsburgh is vastly more affordable.

You can still buy a house in Portland for $500k. I live here. Bought in 2015. It's more expensive in 2017, but not 100% more. Once 1000sqft houses hit a $1mm average Portland will be too expensive. Until then we're doing just fine.

As a point of reference, you can buy a new 3,000+ sq ft house on 5+ acres of land just 30 minutes outside Minneapolis for that!

Not impressed.

Sure, compared the the Midwest or South it's not great, but compared to other west coast cities it's not bad. Portland is cheaper than the bay area, Seattle, LA, and San Diego. It has good culture, great nature, and a mid-sized & growing tech sector.

I dunno, developers were snapping up lots in our hood in Albina for 750, demoing them to lower the tax burden, and letting them sit empty to appreciate. Long term residents who had been renting for 30 years were getting chased out and moving to the numbers... those don't seem like great situations.

> moving to the numbers

I lived in Portland for six years and never once heard this expression and yet I know exactly what you mean.

20 years ago = 57th is bad

10 years ago = 82nd is bad

Now = 122nd is bad

I count myself lucky to live West of 82nd.

That was the same with the Upper East/West side of manhattan, (although truncate the timeframe by 1/2 and going N/S instead of E/W).

Still not as bad as Seattle, though here the rental market has started to slow, while the house market is super hot.