User:Luvstosmile/sandbox/Housing costs in Portland Oregon

Portland: Oregon’s most populous city, has a housing market that is unequally balanced for lower income levels. From 2000 to 2008, growth in median home values (89 percent) far outstripped median income growth (22 percent) for Portland’s residents, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD, 2004). With population numbers only continuing to grow, the Portland City Council adopted a new affordable housing program in 2004 called “The Living Smart Program”. This housing program was designed to help balance several issues the city was facing. With the growing demand for housing and the scarcity of land suitable for development, builders turned to “skinny lots”, townhouse style homes that are to be erected on 25 to 33 ft wide and 100 ft deep lots around the Portland area. With the cost of the home prices in the Portland area only increasing, the Living Smart homes help to address the affordability issue of selling Living Smart homes between $290,000 and $320,000, on average. The city’s population is expected to grow from 1 million during the next 20 years to 2 million during the next 40 years. This is only going to continue to escalate the increasing demand for affordable housing in the Portland metroplex.

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/casestudies/study_101711_1.html