Buying a house in Portland Oregon?

Travel Info
Planning a move from Atlanta Ga. to Portland, Or. this year. The home prices comparably are surprisingly high . How in the world do people afford to buy a home? Not everyone can be Drs., lawyers and such, and making BIG money. What about the little guy? Where does he live? We should have an annual income of about 100k. Will we be living in poverty??? LOL

Travel Tips

In general in Portland, the further out you live, the more affordable. Areas like Gresham, the area between I-205 and Gresham, Milwaukie, Oregon City, Aloha, Hillsboro and Forest Grove have lower cost housing stock. You'll probably just get sticker shock in Portland, Beaverton, Lake Oswego (most expensive in Oregon), Tigard, Tualatin and West Linn. There are some lower cost areas in Portland proper, but I would not recommend them to anyone. You could also consider the Columbia County towns of Scappoose and St. Helens; they are a little further out, but there's a lot less commuter traffic.

Good luck.
Others

Yes ... We moved from Kansas and the prices in Oregon were about double. That was a bit ago. Oregon's in bad shape in a lot of ways right now due to lots of people moving in from California who are retiring here and raising up the property values. In addition, there's very little going here in the way of revenue for education. Most of the colleges are cutting staff and salaries. The universities are losing their status as quality education facilities. Oregon votes 'no' on taxes more than almost any other state. Sigh.
According to the statistics, the median home price in Portland is $201,000 and the median price for Atlanta in 2005 was $218,500. Portland, like every other city, has areas that are more affordable. Your best bet is to contact a Realtor who has access to the multi-list and tell them what price you are looking for. They can then send you photos, statistics, demographics, etc. so you will have an idea of what you are getting into.

I agree with the other poster. I live on the southern Oregon coast, and the median price of a home here is over $400,000. Retired Californians who sold their homes for a ton of money are streaming north and driving the price of real estate through the roof. Still, you can find bargains if you look hard enough. Good luck on the move.
ok, here it is....in portland, the turn around is incredible!!! so...this is how people do it...its simple finance. the average person in the south gets a 20 or 30 year mortgage. but in portland, there are people getting 50 year mortg ages. the reason is....in the south you have to wait an average of 5 years before you can even think abotu making a profit on your home. in portland, people make 50, 1000, 150k profit in a few years!!!

if you are making 100k in portland, you won't be living in poverty. but you won't be living in the kind of house you lived in, in atlanta. however, with smart buying, your potential profit is very big.
Bring lots of money if you werent' lucky enough to have purchased a home in the NW years ago......