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Despite President Donald Trump’s insistence that dwelling in Portland is “like living in hell,” there are certain advantages to life in this supposedly burning wasteland. As of September, the average rent here was $1,529 a month, according to Apartments.com; that’s actually 7% lower than the national average. Other West Coast cities are far more painful, with Seattle at $2,121 a month and San Francisco at a staggering $3,097, making them two of the country’s most expensive cities.
Plus, once you’re here, Portland has some uniquely strong legal renters’ protections. Troy Pickard is the managing attorney of Portland Defender and specializes in tenant law. (Slogan: “We sue bad landlords.”) The main law in Portland that helps tenants out is the Relocation Assistance Ordinance, passed in 2015 and tweaked in 2017, that says landlords must give tenants 90 days’ notice before kicking them out and pay between $2,900 and $4,500 in moving costs.
Plus, in 2019, Oregon became the first state in the nation to pass a statewide rent control law, Senate Bill 608, which states that the maximum allowable rent increase over a 12-month period is 7% plus inflation, or 10%, whichever is lower.
Despite these protections, Pickard says he thinks Portland is merely a “fine” place to be a renter when you consider factors outside of landlord-tenant laws, such as job and apartment availability and cost of living. (Portland’s cost of living is 16.8% higher than the national average, Apartments.com reports.)
“If I was a tenant going to pop into existence in an American city, I would feel like I had a reasonable level of protections in Portland in terms of the law,” he says. “Now, in terms of other things? I’m pretty biased because I’m from Portland, I moved away, and I came back because I love it so much. We have a wonderful climate, access to outdoor recreation…it’s a desirable place to be. If you’re lucky enough to afford to live in Portland, yeah, it’s a great place.”
Here’s an index of key Portland numbers to bear in mind when apartment hunting, or deciding whether to renew your lease for another year:
$1,253: Average rent for a studio apartment (Apartments.com)
$1,529: Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment (Apartments.com)
$1,816: Average rent for a two-bedroom apartment (Apartments.com)
-0.1%: Change in the average rent in Portland in the past 12 months, meaning prices are pretty much flat (Apartments.com)
38th: Portland’s ranking among the country’s 100 largest cities in terms of median rent across all bedroom sizes, which is $1,579. Our median rent is similar to the prices in Madison, Wis. ($1,588), and Tampa, Fla. ($1,568). (Apartmentlist.com)
$2,043: Median rent in Lake Oswego, Portland’s most expensive suburb (Apartmentlist.com)
10%: The maximum allowable annual rent increase in 2025. In 2019, Oregon passed Senate Bill 608, becoming the first state in the country with a statewide rent control law. (Oregon Office of Economic Analysis)
$58,946: Median annual income of Portland renters. The median income of homeowners was about double that, $126,117, in 2023. (Portland Housing Bureau’s 2024 State of Housing in Portland report)
47%: Portland rentership rate. This is not evenly distributed by race: 44% of white households rent homes in Portland, while 68% of Black households rent and 62% of Native American households do. (Portland Housing Bureau’s 2024 State of Housing in Portland report)
5% and up: Average rent increase in 2024 in the following neighborhoods: Centennial-Glenfair-Wilkes, Hayden Island-Bridgeton, Hollywood, Lents-Foster, Parkrose-Argay, Raleigh Hills, Roseway-Cully, Sellwood-Moreland-Brooklyn, West Portland, and Woodstock (Portland Housing Bureau’s 2024 State of Housing in Portland report)
Minus 4%: Average rent decrease in Forest Park-Northwest Hills in 2024, the largest decrease in town. The only other neighborhood that went down was Belmont-Hawthorne-Division, by 1%. (Portland Housing Bureau’s 2024 State of Housing in Portland report)
8.8%: Overall vacancy rate in Portland in 2024. That’s up from 6% in 2022 and 7.5% in 2023. (Portland Housing Bureau’s 2024 State of Housing in Portland report)
13.7%: Proportion of Portland renters who have lived in their homes for at least 10 years, up from 9% a decade ago (Redfin)
The inaugural Rental Education Week, hosted by the Portland Housing Bureau’s Rental Services Office, will be held Oct. 6–9 over Zoom. Each day will offer a one-hour webinar on topics such as conflict management, fair housing basics, disability rights, and property maintenance. Sessions are free, but the city encourages participants to register in advance.
