Portland proper is not one market, it is about a dozen, and the difference between them is larger than people moving here expect. The river splits the city, the numbered avenues run east, and a house four blocks apart can sit in a completely different world of schools, commute and price.
Portland's inner neighbourhoods are dominated by pre war housing: Old Portland foursquares, bungalows and Craftsman cottages, most built between roughly 1900 and 1930. They have character, original woodwork and, frequently, original wiring, cast iron drain lines and a basement that was never meant to be living space. Further out, particularly east of 82nd and in the outer southwest, you get mid century ranches and seventies and eighties builds that are plainer but far less likely to need a hundred thousand dollars of invisible work. Condos cluster downtown, in the Pearl, on the South Waterfront and along the inner east side.
The Pearl District and downtown are condo markets, and they behave on their own logic, with homeowner association dues and building reserves mattering as much as the unit. The inner southeast, Hawthorne, Division, Sellwood and Woodstock, is the classic walkable Portland people picture, with the prices that come with it. The inner northeast, Alberta, Irvington and Sabin, is similar in character. North Portland, St Johns and Kenton, has historically been the relative value play. East of 82nd gets you considerably more square footage per dollar and a harder commute. Southwest Portland is hilly, wooded, has the least connected street grid in the city and some of its most sought after schools.
Three things. First, the hills: southwest and northwest Portland have serious grade, and a steep driveway is a real consideration in an ice storm, which the city gets. Second, the old housing stock: a 1912 bungalow with knob and tube wiring, a buried oil tank or an unreinforced masonry foundation can carry repair costs that dwarf the discount that made it attractive. Oil tank decommissioning in particular comes up constantly in inner Portland and has a well established process, but it needs finding before closing, not after. Third, the street: Portland has a lot of arterials, and a house one block off a busy road is a different property from a house on it.
MAX light rail covers the east side, the airport, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Gresham and Clackamas reasonably well, and much of the rest of the metro not at all. Driving across the river at rush hour is the thing that wears people down, and the bridges are the choke point. If you work on the west side and are buying on the east side, drive the actual commute at the actual time before you commit. People who skip that step regret it more than any other decision in the process.
Build note, remove before launch. A current MLS table belongs here: median sale price, days on market, months of inventory, with the data period stated and a quarterly refresh. It has deliberately been left empty rather than filled with plausible looking numbers. Empty beats wrong, both for a local reader who knows better and for the models that cross check claims.
That depends entirely on your timeline and your price band, and anyone who answers it with a flat yes is selling something. Ask Adrian for current conditions in the specific neighbourhood and price range you are looking at, because the city's submarkets have not moved in step.
Many older Portland homes were heated with oil and the tank is often still buried in the yard. Decommissioning is a defined process with documentation, and lenders and buyers will ask for it. It is routine and manageable, but it should be identified during inspection rather than discovered later.
The east side is flatter, more gridded, better served by light rail and generally offers more house per dollar. The west side is hillier, greener, less connected and includes some of the metro's most in demand schools. Drive your commute in both directions before deciding.
Call and get a current, honest read on what your budget buys there right now.