PORTLAND, Ore. — The pandemic has had a big impact on how much renters are paying in Portland, according to one analyst.
Steve Basham, a marketing analyst for CoStar Group, said rent is going down in some areas of Portland while it goes up in other cities outside the metro area. Basham said people are moving away from areas like Downtown Portland, the Pearl District and Northwest Portland.
A lot of people are working from home because of the pandemic, so there's no need to live in those areas right now. The motivation to move is space, Basham said.
"We're seeing a shift in renter preferences towards more suburban areas and less built up areas," Basham said.
The downtown core is usually the most expensive place to rent and Batham said the closures of restaurants, bars and other places to socialize has had a huge impact on rental prices.
"When all that is closed, renters are finding that it doesn't really make sense to keep paying these high prices," he said.
Rents have dropped in the downtown area by about 6% since the start of 2020, Basham said. An average one-bedroom apartment in Portland is listed for around $1,120 by apartmentlist.com.
In other cities in the metro area, rental prices are going up. In Vancouver, the average one-bedroom apartment is listed at $1,180, in Hillsboro it's $1,370 and it's $1,550 in Lake Oswego.
Unlike the urban core, there isn't as much new development in the suburbs or more rural areas, giving landlords more room to raise rent, Basham said.
"Not only do you have a lot of new people going there and looking for apartments, you don't really have a release valve of new construction to take up all that new demand," Basham said.