Market screen · county data · updated October 18, 2026

Portland, OR: a typical house comes in at 0.55x; houses under about $247,500 clear 1.20x

At the HUD 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent ($1,878 a month), a house at the area's typical value ($558,600) has a full monthly payment of $3,420: principal and interest on a 75% loan at 7.5% over 30 years, plus property tax and insurance. The rent covers 0.55x of it. At the 3-bedroom figure ($2,550) it would be 0.75x. Run the house you are looking at on its own rent.

The numbers

Typical home value

$558,600

County medians weighted by households (Census ACS).

Rent: HUD 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent

$1,878

A government floor, not a house rent.

Rent: HUD 3-bedroom Fair Market Rent

$2,550

The high end of the range.

Payment that clears 1.20x

$1,565

Rent ÷ 1.20, taxes and insurance included.

Price that clears 1.20x

$247,500

At this rent, 25% down, 7.5%, 30 years.

Rent-to-price

4.0%

A year of rent over the typical value.

Effective property tax

0.87%

Median tax over median value, owner-occupied homes (Census ACS); a rental can be taxed higher.

Insurance, median

$1,030 a year

What owners report paying (Census ACS); a landlord policy can differ.

Rental vacancy

4.5%

Unemployment

4.9%

Jobs up 0.1% over a year (federal labor statistics).

New homes permitted

8.2 per 1,000 households

Census Building Permits, latest year.

Flood insurance claims

882

NFIP claims since 2005 across the area's counties.

The typical house, worked out

Price$558,600
Loan (75%)$418,950
Principal and interest (7.5%, 30 years)$2,929
Property tax$406
Insurance$85
Full monthly payment$3,420
Rent (HUD 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent)$1,878
DSCR: rent ÷ full payment0.55x

DSCR is the monthly rent divided by the full monthly payment. We use 1.20x as a cushion; many DSCR lenders accept as low as 1.00x. A lender sizes the loan on the lease or the appraiser's rent estimate for the specific house, often the lower of the two, not on an area figure.

The 7 counties in this area

  • Multnomah County, OR349,803 households
  • Washington County, OR235,406 households
  • Clark County, WA196,017 households
  • Clackamas County, OR163,845 households
  • Yamhill County, OR39,247 households
  • Columbia County, OR20,928 households
  • Skamania County, WA5,019 households

How this screen is made

A market screen is built from official county data only: the HUD 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent and its 3-bedroom figure, Census household-survey values, taxes, insurance and vacancy, Census building permits, federal unemployment statistics and NFIP flood claims. It updates when those sources do. Owner-occupied homes can carry a homestead exemption or assessment cap that a rental does not get, so a rental's tax can run higher, notably in states such as Florida and Texas. It carries no monthly interpretation; markets with a monthly hub get that on their own page. The rent is the HUD 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent, which can sit below what a single-family house rents for, so the ratio here is cautious.