Portland is listed 8th city in the nation where it is smarter to buy than rent in a recent Forbes magazine study. To rank the cities, Forbes computed the premium to buy—the spread between what a consumer would spend to rent and what they would pay for a mortgage—and also identified locales where economists predict home prices will go up the most over the next five years. "[Portland is] a picturesque, culture-driven city with good local services and amenities," noted the article.

 

A family hoping to put down roots there would normally pay a 62% premium to go from renting to buying. In the third quarter of 2009, however, that premium shrank by 16 percentage points. At the same time, Moody's Economy.com anticipates that home prices will jump 19% over the next five years.