Rethinking Portland: Is housing choice floating out of reach?

OVERVIEW • For many in the big hunt, home is where heartache is

By todd murphy

The Portland Tribune, Jun 26, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (40 Reader comments)

JIM CLARK / PORTLAND TRIBUNE

On Southeast Belmont Street and all over the metro area, new condominium buildings are going in where more traditional houses had been the norm. An increase in smaller, more closely packed dwellings is just one of the ways rising housing prices are changing the regional landscape.

There was a time in the Portland metro area, and not forever ago, when it wasn’t all about frustration. And disappointment. And displacement. And anguish.

Used to be, a blue-collar salary could buy a decent house in just about any neighborhood in the area.

Used to be, you could rent an apartment or a house without worrying about your landlord selling your home out from under you — or converting it into $350,000 condominiums.

Used to be wasn’t forever ago, exactly. But it sure seems like a long time ago these days.

See special section Rethinking Portland: Is housing floating out of reach?

The ever-increasing price of housing in the Portland metropolitan area continues to change the city and its suburban communities.

Some of us are happy in our houses, if we bought them years ago and aren’t in a hurry for a change. Especially if we’ve seen our property values rise $100,000, $200,000 or even $300,000 over the last decade.

But young people and first-time home buyers are increasingly searching in vain for a decent house, in a decent neighborhood, for a price they can afford.

Meanwhile, people who rent their homes, in some cases residents of the same neighborhood for years, increasingly find themselves displaced by landlords who can’t afford to ignore the stratospheric price they can now get for a simple house. Or the hundreds of thousands of dollars they can get for converting a small apartment building into condos.

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