House Hacking in Portland, Oregon

House hacking is an amazing way to build wealth through real estate. Are you interested in house hacking in Portland, Oregon?

In this post, we’re going to give you all the information you need to do it. We’ll look at whether Portland is in a landlord or tenant-friendly state, the six demographic data points we use to analyze a market, and the house hacking strategies that might work well in this market.


Is Portland Tenant Friendly or Landlord Friendly?

From the state level, Oregon is more on the tenant-friendly side of the scale than landlord-friendly.

Portland, the city itself, is significantly more tenant-friendly than other parts of Oregon. Portland actually rivals that of major cities in California, like San Francisco and Los Angeles, when it comes to tenant-friendliness.

With Oregon overall being quite tenant-friendly, I’d likely avoid Portland as an investor (personally, that doesn’t mean you have to).

Take some time to consider this for your own risk tolerance and determine if house hacking Portland is right for you.


Portland Demographic Data Analysis

The 6 demographic data points that we’ve learned to use when analyzing a market are population growth, income growth, property value growth, crime level, crime change, and job growth.

This was taught to us by Neal Bawa at Grocapitus and MultifamilyU.

When it comes to these six metrics, this is how Portland compares to our benchmarks:

Data PointBenchmark (since 2000)Portland
Population Growth20%23.7%
Income Growth30%89%
Property Value Growth40%187%
Crime Level< 500431
Crime Change0% or declining-4%
Job Growth> 1%5.06%

Overall, a Portland house hack looks quite good based on the 6 metrics above that we analyze. The population growth also meets our benchmark. Portland has seen an influx of top-tier companies enter the city. The other metrics such as income growth at 89% help in retaining quality tenants that have a budget to pay premiums for a place to rent.


Strategies For House Hacking in Portland, Oregon

Portland offers different types of house hacking properties. These property types include single-family homes and multifamily properties. Also, Portland is a large city with many business and vacation travelers.

This means that you can utilize nearly any of the house hacking strategies we’ve laid out. These strategies include rent-by-the-room when house hacking a single-family home, renting out additional units in a multifamily property, or even utilizing Airbnb.

The Airbnb strategy may be most successful as Portland is a popular vacation destination in the Pacific Northwest. The additional cash flow from Airbnb can help offset the higher property purchase prices in Portland.

If you can accept the fact that Portland is very tenant-friendly, then house hacking here would be a great option.

If you’re interested in house hacking Portland, be sure to check out our free house hacking calculator to analyze all your potential deals.

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Analyzed by: Cannon St Peter
I am a property manager, real estate investor, small business consultant and passionate writer of real estate investing information.

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