Housing, income and jobs reshape Portland in the last decade

By Elliot Njus | The Oregonian/OregonLive Posted December 05, 2018 at 09:05 PM | Updated December 05, 2018 at 09:28 PM

The Portland area has grown older, better educated, wealthier and more populous over the past decade. 

At the same time, it's grown less affordable, particularly for renters, even as an economic upturn took hold, and the financial boost has not been felt equally. 

Newly released Census data offer a new glimpse at how neighborhoods in metro Portland -- Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas and Clark counties -- have changed over a 10-year period ending last year. 

The numbers split the decade in half, with the period from 2008 through 2012 capturing a period of economic bust and the period from 2013 through 2017 reflecting a boom -- and the growing pains that came along with it. 

Here are a few takeaways. If your neighborhood's mentioned here, tell us about the changes you've seen. And see the change for yourself on our interactive map. 

Population: Some suburbs booming

Despite the rapid pace of apartment construction in the city of Portland, some of the fastest-growing census tracts are in suburban areas. 

A census tract comprising much of the AmberGlen district in Hillboro added some 3,100 residents between 2012 and 2017, the most of any tract in the Portland area. That brought its total population to nearly 12,000. (A census tract is an area defined by the U.S. Census Bureau that contains between 1,200 and 8,000 people, with a target of 4,000.)

The AmberGlen tract saw intense apartment development after 2012 on vacant fields that had been eyed for earlier development but were left to sit after the economic collapse of 2008. 

Another Washington County census tract, which includes part of the Cedar Mill area north of U.S. 26, added the most population in the metro area on a percentage basis. 

The 2,400 new residents there amounted to a 53 percent increase, attributable to the construction of hundreds of new single-family houses, apartments and townhouses. 

The median age of Portland residents climbed from 36.8 to 37.8, pulled higher by the aging baby boom generation. The oldest boomers are now 72, and the youngest are 54. 

The also-large millennial generation -- sometimes called the echo boomers -- are now between 18 and 36 years old.

Income: Pay growing or flat but not falling

The median household income has grown across the Portland area as the region emerged from the Great Recession and launched an economic boom. 

Most census tracts in the four counties reflect that rising income. Most of those where incomes aren't growing are seeing them remain essentially flat. 

An increase in household income doesn't necessarily mean wages are rising. It could also show more household members are working at a time when unemployment is low.  

But Portland has attracted high-wage jobs at one of the fastest rates in the nation.

Incomes grew fastest in the area surrounding the North Portland intersection of Vancouver Avenue and Alberta Street. The median income there was $31,000 in 2012 but had climbed to $72,000 by 2017 -- up nearly 130 percent. Over the same period, the neighborhood's nonwhite population has plummeted as black and Hispanic residents were pushed by rising costs to more affordable parts of town. 

Other areas were incomes have climbed dramatically include areas of Washington County near major employers such as Nike and Intel and parts of Northwest Portland, including the Pearl District.

Housing affordability: More share of income going to pay rent

Median rents paid across the Portland metro area grew faster than wages, particularly for members of rental households.

More than half -- 53 percent -- of Portland-area census tracts aren't affordable to median-income renters living there without spending more than a third of their income on rent. That's up from a third in 2012. 

The median rent across the metro area, without regard for home size, has climbed 22 percent, from $916 to $1,118. 

Commute times: It's taking 1 ½ minutes longer

On average, reported commute times across the Portland metro area have grown longer by about a minute and a half -- a figure that, because it's based on survey results rather than direct observation, might not fully capture the impact of increasing congestion on the roads. 

But some suburban parts of the region are seeing much longer increases in reported commute times. Places where people are reporting commutes 10 minutes longer in 2017 than 2012 include parts of Gresham, East Portland, Vancouver and Charbonneau, a Wilsonville planned community anchored by a golf course.

Some of those lengthening commutes might reflect that workers are moving farther from their jobs in search of more affordable housing. 

Education: College degrees stacking up

Portland-area residents became more likely to hold college degrees.

The rising rates of college education were most dramatic in neighborhoods undergoing gentrification, including those south of Powell Boulevard (Creston-Kenilworth, Foster-Powell and Lents), inner North-Northeast Portland (Boise, Humboldt, King and Woodlawn) and St. Johns.

In Washington County, some areas with historically low levels of college-educated residents saw big gains, while some neighborhoods with high concentrations of college graduates saw an influx of less-educated residents. 

Among the former: Neighborhoods adjacent to Oregon 217, stretching from Beaverton to Tigard. On the flip side, neighborhoods such as Cedar Mill and Bethany, north of U.S. 26, saw the share of adult residents with bachelor's degrees fall significantly.

The most highly educated neighborhoods, where 80 percent or more of adults hold bachelor's degrees or higher, remained the same expensive neighborhoods on Portland's west side: the West Hills, Arlington Heights and portions of Northwest 23rd Avenue.

-- Elliot Njus

enjus@oregonian.com; 503-294-5034; @enjus

Betsy Hammond contributed reporting. 

Source: https://www.oregonlive.com/expo/news/erry-2018/12/f03ca825b27311/housing-income-and-jobs-reshap.html