Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.
I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.
And while every neighbhorhood in Portland might be more expensive than living in rural Oregon, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.
What exactly are those Portland neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?
Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Portland are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.
What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in Portland for 2024? According to the most recent census data, Sunderland looks to be the cheapest Portland neighborhood to live in.
At this point, we should make it clear that you do get what you pay for — some of these neighborhoods might not be the best places to live in Portland. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Portland that deserve a little bragging rights, or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in Portland.
For more Oregon reading, check out:
- Best Places To Live In Oregon
- Cheapest Places To Live In Oregon
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Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table
The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Portland For 2024
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Population: 492
Cost Of Living Index: 109 (5th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.5 (2nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.01 (3rd cheapest)
More on Sunderland: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 565
Cost Of Living Index: 104 (2nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.5 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.015 (16th cheapest)
More on Haden Island: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 7,933
Cost Of Living Index: 114 (14th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.8 (3rd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.017 (22nd cheapest)
More on Saintjohns: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 12,150
Cost Of Living Index: 113 (12th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.1 (5th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (32nd cheapest)
More on Pleasant Valley: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 5,466
Cost Of Living Index: 115 (16th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.8 (22nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.015 (15th cheapest)
More on Argay: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 17,712
Cost Of Living Index: 128 (38th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.6 (11th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.012 (8th cheapest)
More on Maplewood-Ashcreek: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 3,556
Cost Of Living Index: 117 (2cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.6 (13th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.017 (24th cheapest)
More on Cathedral Park: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 9,784
Cost Of Living Index: 111 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.6 (12th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.019 (39th cheapest)
More on Mill Park: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 7,552
Cost Of Living Index: 126 (35th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.4 (8th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.017 (25th cheapest)
More on Arbor Lodge: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 20,735
Cost Of Living Index: 110 (6th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.0 (24th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.02 (43rd cheapest)
More on Lents: Data | Real Estate
Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest Portland Hoods In 2024
To rank the cheapest places to live in Portland, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.
Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:
- Overall Cost Of Living
- Rent To Income Ratio
- Median Home Value To Income Ratio
We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 63 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.
Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.
And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Portland.” We’re lookin’ at you, Sunderland.
We updated this article for 2024. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Portland. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.
Summary: Lowest Cost Places To Live In Portland
If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Portland where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.
The most affordable neighborhoods in Portland are Sunderland, Haden Island, Saintjohns, Pleasant Valley, Argay, Maplewood-Ashcreek, Cathedral Park, Mill Park, Arbor Lodge, and Lents.
As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Portland aren’t all cheap. Far Southwest takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Portland.
The most expensive neighborhoods in Portland are Far Southwest, King, Northwest, Kerns, and Lloyd.
We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.
For more Oregon reading, check out:
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