Hallelujah, Rents Have Gone Down in Portland

A new report by Zumper shows the median rent for one- and two-bedroom apartments has decreased since last month.

Good news, Portland apartment-dwellers: the city's skyrocketing rents appear to be going down.

In a sign that the crowded Portland apartment market may finally be seeing a smidgen of daylight, median rents for two-bedroom apartments fell significantly in September.

The median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Portland is now $1,600, down 4.1 percent from last month's median rent, according to Zumper's National Rent Report for October 2016. That sharp drop means the median rent for a two-bedroom unit in Portland is down slightly over 2016, Zumper says.

Meanwhile, one-bedroom units now have a median rent of $1,390, an 0.71 percent drop from last month.

For months, Portland was the 15th most expensive city for renters. But now, it's only the 16th most expensive, bumped down the list by Philadelphia.

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According to Zumper's data, the decrease reflects a broader trend, with rent also falling in San Francisco, New York and Atlanta, among other cities. Nationwide, rent for a one-bedroom apartment fell 0.9 percent last month, while two-bedroom units had a 0.6 percent decrease.

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