patrick.net

Portland was late to the housing bubble party, and prices here still have plenty of room to decrease. I've lived (and rented) here for the past 15 years, and my renting friends and I are in no hurry to buy houses any time soon. Give it a couple of years and those places going for $285K now will be more affordable still, even for those of us getting by on Pacific NW salaries. I recommend you visit http://portlandhousing.blogspot.com/ before you decide to head north.

$285,000 is high. The house will lose value, but there's not much you can do about it. I'd figure that bungalow is really worth $180-210k max.

Remember, a person can only afford a house that's 3x their annual salary, MAXIMUM. That means if you make $80k a year, you really should purchase something less than $240,000.

http://www.housingbubblebust.com/OFHEO/Major/NorthWest.html

long way to go to get back to the norm.

It would be quite a mistake to assume that instances of lower prices than SF automatically qualify as good deals.

Look at median incomes by zipcode and comparable rents.

That person overpaid significantly, as incomes have not gone up nearly that much since 2004.

Cab, what are some of the more sought-after zip codes in Portland? And in Vancouver, Washington, across the river?