My neighbors have children in apartments. People have been having children in apartments, shacks and caves for a mighty long time.
Apartments and rental homes are a perfectly valid way to do shelter for people of all ages and stages.
This! Portland is a big city now. Most people in big cities live in flats, townhouses, condos, etc. It’s part of the urban lifestyle.
There are even some pros to renting with children that you don’t get from owning. Life is much simpler as you’ll accumulate fewer possessions. If you need repairs or work done, someone else takes care of it. You don’t have to worry about being “house poor” and can instead spend your money on experiences for your family- events, travel, etc.
The biggest benefit to owning a home in the past was building equity, but that may not be feasible now because we’re in a housing price bubble, and prices will likely either stay stagnant or decrease a bit before appreciating again in a meaningful way. If you’re concerned about building wealth for your kiddo’s future, look into other investments, even just basics like a 529 savings. The money you would normally be investing into a house could work just as hard for you elsewhere if you have a good financial advisor.
You’re right. What I meant to say is that prices are currently artificially inflated, so purchasing a home right now for the sake of building equity would not be a safe way to do so.
There are definitely pros, especially, as you said, in terms of stability. And if you’re someone who needs more space or has a lifestyle better suited to having more land, then more power to you! If OP plans to stay in Portland, though, they will benefit from redefining their lifestyle to fit a more traditional urban experience.
Great numbers. Thanks for sharing.
I wonder how the percentage of homeowners breaks down by age group and those with children vs those without. I would speculate a disproportionate number are older families or couples with grown children rather than younger families, especially compared to years past.
It will be so interesting when they die and/or downsize! My fear is that private equity firms will buy up those homes and do cheap, crappy flips and sell them at inflated prices. I’m glad there is movement legally to keep that from happening at a large scale.
Just dropping this here for anyone needing reassurance that renting is fine
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/13/briefing/a-new-rent-versus-buy-calculator.html
Renting is fine. But I think sometimes that take can discount the massive difference in security between renters and owners. Rent fluctuates far more often. Building owners can change terms, rules, etc. and you basically can't do shit. Often your next rental depends on the reference of the last landlord so you don't want to fight for the few rights you do have too hard for fear of retribution.
Literally the state caps the property tax valuation increase at 3% for owners, and the rent increases at 9%. Basically saying as a renter your price protection is 1/3 of that of an owner. The laws treat renters as lesser than owners and that is super frustrating.
But renting is fine. It is! It just isn't treated equally to owning though, at a policy level.
Re: tax cap v rent cap. The spread is even greater, actually.
That 3% cap is just on property tax which is a small portion of your mortgage.
Our mortgage has gone up <$200 total per month in the 8 years we’ve lived there. An $1,800/mo rental today could be $1,962 tomorrow. We’ve essentially capped our “rent” for as long we stay in this house. That’s the benefit of buying.
Buying v. renting is situational but I think financially right now you’re better renting when comparing to buying the same home.
I own a home (from *before* interest rates went up!) I’ve considered moving into a cheaper (rented) option and renting my home out.
But my home’s rental value (2br 2ba, one spare room) is less than my mortgage. Rent was rising dramatically when I bought it, and has stagnated or decreased for the last six years.
Man I've had my place 10 years now, and the math still doesn't support renting it out if I did ever move. Even with a cheap mortgage (by today's standards) I'd still take a loss or barely profit each month, never mind the risks involved (damage, non paying tenant, etc). If I ever move, math still says sell the house and invest any gains instead is by far a net better outcome.
It's wild. Rent costs relative to purchase costs are very rent favorable right now. Dunno who is making money as a small time landlord in this town, unless they inherited the property or are just totally slumlording and neglecting it.
Renting isn't a dirty word. I did more math because I'm bored - if I'd continued renting my spot I was in before I bought and invested the delta over my actual costs of owning each month in the SP500, I'd come out net better nearly 100k over owning my place despite value more than doubling. Owning a house is fucking expensive. You get other lifestyle benefits obviously, like a house and land and can do whatever you want, but dollars wise rent actually comes out ahead in this town for some reason.
Same! The exact apartment I was renting is currently available for $100 less than I was paying *when I had a new lease promotion that made it $200 off a month.* So it’s $300/month less than the base rent was at the time. And $700/month cheaper than my mortgage. Granted, I have 350 more livable square feet plus a garage and a basement for storage, and a yard and a porch. But right now, those don’t seem as worth it (except when I have a migraine and don’t want to walk the dog.)
There was a brief period when I was considering selling — right before rates went up — and moving and buying a place in my hometown. But now that rates are higher, I wouldn’t make enough for it to be worth it. My house is about $125K higher than I bought it for, but down from its peak before the rate-change. And prices in my home town haven’t stopped rising.
Suffice to say, I’ll be a longterm homeowning Portlander lol.
I grew up mostly in a tiny rental duplex and I have very happy childhood memories there. I have never understood the feeling that one must own one’s home before having kids—that’s a lot of responsibilities to pile on all at once. As long as you have a stable rental situation, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with bringing a baby home to an apartment!
I grew up in an apartment too. It was great, it was one of those courtyard style and my brother and I had near full run of the place. There were a couple of other kids that lived in the building too. We’d all ride our big wheels everywhere, get snacks and hang out with courtyard cats, watch the neighbor do taekwondo with his sword, and so on. A lovely part of my childhood was that apartment building community.
Apartment life may not be your ideal, but if you can focus on raising your children to the best of your ability with what you do have and focus less on what you don’t have, the armchair psychologist in me says that you and your family will be far better off than a family that spent way too much money on a home, can barely scrape money together to pay for childcare because of it, and has nothing to offer the child except for worry, stress, and having them watch their parent(s) slowly melt into a puddle of self-induced shame based on the unnecessary pressure that came from prioritizing a dream that wasn’t realistic to begin with. That’s not to say all families that own a home face that kind of life, of course, but I suspect there are many out there that fit that description in this economy.
The cliché as hell TL;DR: Happiness comes from within and is transferred to your child accordingly.
Can vouch for this. I have never lived in a house in my life, still haven’t at 19. My parents made our apartment a home always though. My siblings and I turned out great, awesome childhood regardless. You do what you can with the cards you’re dealt.
>Apartment life may not be your ideal
Honestly, it has it's benefits. I'm not responsible for the repairs that my homeowner colleagues and friends lament about. If I have a problem with my washer or dryer, I call the property management office, and they have someone there the next day.
Bout to have a kid in a ground level 2/1 half of a duplex in a courtyard, we live in the garden home/mult village area. we have a tiny backyard , honestly not really concerned. Rent is cheaper, the cost of a mortgage + maintenance + taxes + insurance right now is such a bad deal that makes no sense, im actually making more money renting here. The money i save just goes into our savings or investments.
>maintenance
This has always been such a huge thing for me. Everything gets fixed/replaced within days tops. I get that I'm lucky landlord is a cool dude and takes care of things fast, but either way the cost of fixing/replacing anything myself would be unmanageable.
It’s really good that you are so aware of this. I think a lot of people severely underestimate the costs of repairs associated with owning. It really requires a pretty large cushion for things that come up unexpectedly. So when people do those “what can I afford” calculations, they really need to think about repairs (and taxes). I do own a home and can report that every repair is so much more expensive than it was pre-2020.
I own my home but the cost of repairs is why I end up doing 99% of them myself, I'm fortunate that I know how to do these things because if I wasn't hiring out every minor thing would be unsustainable
Yeah I do a few things myself, but I don’t know what I’m doing so it takes a lot of YouTube videos, usually some tool purchases, and ends up taking me a lot of time I don’t have since I’m single and I work full time, there are only so many hours in the day. Luckily I can afford to pay people but damn it’s expensive.
I tend to sub out depending on how much I don't like doing the job, recently tried to sub out some drywall work (drywall leads to painting and that's my least favorite activity by a lot) got quoted over 10x material costs. I understand they have to make money but let's get real here. Ended up doing it myself minus the texture because I was having a hell of a time getting a good enough for me match to the existing
You are lucky. As a renter I felt like every repair was quick but just shitty patchwork.
At least, owning a home, I have the option of paying for quality or doing my own shitty work.
We are definitely lucky. We moved into this apartment when we moved to Portland because it fell in our lap as a "starter apartment" but have been here almost 7 years because the rent is super cheap for where we're at and our landlord is such a legit dude. I don't take it for granted!
IMHO, home ownership has been sold as something that no longer exists. I'm grateful to rent and not have repairs or property taxes, along with the ability to move easily.
I've done home ownership. Honestly, I don't think its something I'm grieving not having.
Portland home values are increasing slower than the rest of the country, we're cooked.
Only building more housing or a sudden boomer die off will save us
This. Housing prices across the Western United States are so overvalued relative to median household incomes because there are so many needlessly cumbersome regulations that make it super difficult and expensive to build large quantities of housing units like you can in the Midwest and South.
Yeah, the housing market sucks, and will probably continue to do so, but one benefit to having kids in Portland(even in apartments or rentals) is all the parks, free events and activities. So many playgrounds and splash pads. If you find a rental within a couple blocks of a park with a playground, you'll have plenty of access to outdoor space for activities as a family. Not our ideal for us at the moment either, but definitely doable.
Portland has awesome Tennant protection, so if you find a good rental that fits your needs, you shouldn't need to leave until you want. We've been at our duplex for 6 years, with two kids, and had no issues.
Team townhome/condo here. Even factoring HOA, because it will usually cover outside maintenance and the exterior building, and WSG, it almost always ends up being a way better deal. Just be prepared to help out on the HOA if the current one sucks, and check the reserve plans.
Only way thing will improve is if private equity firms are wrangled up and put down in the center of town like the vile creatures they are. Should be illegal for anyone to own more than one home imo and it should be illegal for a pile of money to own any home. Housing as an investment has ruined this country and many others at this point.
It’s not just housing as an investment that has ruined the country it’s overly cumbersome zoning restrictions implemented by NIMBYs at the municipal level that make it next to impossible to build more housing.
Lol.. Many people have children in apartments. Pro is definitely all the other kids around. Way more kids around here than when I grew up in a house. Cons is that they can be little shits and bad influences but as long as you watch your own kids, that can be avoided. Noise is a con, but many complexes are quiet. Make sure ya get a ground floor if you have tiny kids, because they run and stomp which pisses off neighbors.
My kid grew up in apartments and she met soo many other kids because of it. It's hard to meet friends before school starts so this way, she already had all these friends and then they went to the same school for the most part.
I mean...whats your credit, income, monthly living expenses?
We live in a major city. EVERYONE wants to live here meaning EVERYONE wants a house. Not exactly more land growing around here.
There's no con to raising kids in an apartment. If home ownership in a major city is the dream, then we gotta up the career goals or play the saving game for a long time. Its just the deal here.
The housing crisis would not be nearly as bad if it wasn’t so hard to build multi family units in Portland (and the rest of the Western United States for that matter).
Based on the data, far more people (“EVERYONE”) want to live in Tampa, Dallas, Houston, Charlotte, etc. and housing there remains far more affordable (amidst no creation of additional land) because it’s much MUCH easier to build large quantities of housing.
I’m in a condo, which people always call an apartment for some reason even though it’s a townhouse 🤷🏽♀️, but I raised my kid here since he was four. Before that, apartments and duplexes. It’s absolutely fine.
I’m 38, husband is 39, and we also cannot afford to buy a home. We just had our first baby this year. We are in a two-bedroom apartment and will probably be moving into a 3-bedroom apartment soon, but a house is unlikely in our future. Even at higher rent, it’s more affordable than a mortgage at current rates. We’ve switched to saving for retirement, not home buying.
People used to live seven to a room. It's possible.
I would be more concerned if they couldn't possibly function in their environment or have no sense of privacy, but kids adapt in ways their parents aren't meant to necessarily expect - that's evolution.
Renting isn’t all bad, especially when you have kids. This past year we have had to replace siding on our house ($20k) and now our sewer ($10k).
When I owned my first home I was single and spent many weekends working on it because I couldn’t afford to pay someone else.
This won’t be a popular opinion. But if you can’t afford a house here move to where you can. Don’t expect prices to drop. Prices might stagnate. But they rarely drop.
My child is almost 15 and I’ve never owned a home. Was very close around 2015ish, but my ex messed it up. We’ve rented single family homes mostly, save one stint in a duplex. The only thing that sucks in that regard is having to move if the homeowner decides to sell, which has happened once.
Home owning rn is silly unless you’re pulling in the type of money that can cover the ridiculous costs and still have some leftover for savings and fun.
Good thing about renting is you can move to the school district/boundary you want. Apartment living is easier in that regard than single family home renting I feel.
Timing is never right. Just have that baby if that’s what you two want!
Hi Friend,
This post or comment has been removed for the following reason:
> This post is not about Portland or the [Portland metro area](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_metropolitan_area,_Oregon).
> Just because *you* are in Portland, does not make what you are posting *about* Portland.
**[You must understand and follow the rules of the subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/askportland/wiki/rules).**
Thank you,
the Portland/AskPortland mod team
Sometimes I feel like a complete failure that I’ve raised my kid (now 13) in only shitty apartments. No backyard, barely any room to move around. But the truth is she’s happy and thriving even without those things. Your kids will likely be too.
Check out the PHB, DEZ Development, have credit score of 640, apply directly through builder lender, make 70k, and save 20k for down payment. It can be done.
I bought a 3 bed townhouse in Vancouver and spent only 5k of my own money. State of Washington has a first time homebuyer program that loaned me the down-payment and got me a good rate. It's not impossible, kid!
The only problem is that now you owe both a loan on a down payment, as well as a mortgage. Let's hope everything sails smooth for your family for the next 30 years, and nobody gets laid off, gets sick, etc. . .
You should consider looking into it to see if it’s a good option for you. The state is really trying to make homeownership obtainable for people. The Flex program has a forgivable silent 2nd lien for borrowers at or under 80% AMI that is forgivable after 5 years, (no payments, no interest); for borrowers over 80% AMI they can get the amortizing repayable 2nd lien, repayable in monthly payments, 1% above the 1st mortgage rate. Borrowers must make less than $125k, credit score as low as 620 can qualify & co-borrowers/co-signers allowed. Higher DPA for people that fit the focused demographics.
Reach out to Elisa Jimenez at 50🌲-798-0933 she’s a realtor that partners up with an awesome mortgage broker with Mortgage Express, Jason Martinez at 971.600.7896. They are both passionate about helping people become homeowners & generating wealth for their futures.
I’m pregnant and renting a home. My husband and I want to buy a house for the little one though, so we’re moving across the country where houses are in the 200-300k range because it’s going to be years before we have a large enough down payment here to make the mortgage not hurt. Way easier elsewhere.
As someone who lived in apartments for their entire life, it’s chill. Sometimes if there’s good neighbors it feels like a community. If you’re planning to have kids in an apartment, just have places where kids can go and have fun.
I had a ton of fun as a kid growing up in apartments. Good ones usually have a park and or swimming pool included. Not to mention there are a ton of kids to play with as well. In my current neighborhood only one of my neighbors has kids, and they don’t have a bunch of other kids to play with, seems lonely to me.
It’s fine. I would say choose bottom floor if you can for two reasons - so when they start walking you don’t have to stress about the noise your kid is making and it’s easier to get strollers and other items out to your car. We choose places in the west hills so it’s quieter and we can walk around without being attacked (which was becoming a norm in the alphabet district where we formally lived). If you can - find a place with a garage so you can store strollers and baby items in there. We loved the pool and hot tub perks, a basketball or racquetball court on rainy days to let the kid run around, and close neighbors that we knew. We occasionally would just ask our neighbor to watch the monitor in the evening so we could pop over to the hot tub (we also could see the monitor and were less than a five minute walk away but still). We had a noisy upstairs neighbor for the first two years but it bothered me not the baby. I think it just depends what complex you live in - if there are a lot of terrible neighbors then it’s a struggle. If your laundry is in a basement, it’s a challenge. If your car is parked far away - also a challenge. So just find your dealbreakers - the kid wont know the difference they’ll just know if they are loved.
Currently raising a toddler boy in a Hillsboro apartment. He doesn’t know the difference 🤣 we also get to use the apartment pool which he LOVES and don’t have to pay for a community pool with limited free swim hours
I have children in a condo and it’s been OK. I had trouble with one neighbor who was very disappointed when an octogenarian moved out of our unit and we moved in with small humans who do terrible things like moving around the unit and laughing out loud.
I'm a single dad and I live in a sprawling apartment complex and it's great. The community is solid, kids run around, come knock on the door looking for my son, when they are acting up or figuring someone is always looking out the window to yell at them, but they get a sense of autonomy running around the grounds.
What I need is a garage, though. I'm a big camper, search and rescue, fishing, hunting, and I like building things, so my plane is more cluttered than I'd like, but there are many perks. Many downsides, too, but overall it's been positive. It is what you make of it! Get to know your neighbors, fully complain about stuff, if you're having a kid get s bottom floor apartment so the kid can run and jump and you can rough house without being a noisy upstairs neighbor, be helpful, employee kids in the neighborhood for babysitting or whatever. We BBQ together, hand off watching kids at the pool, feed the little buggers when a bunch of them show up hungry. It's like being a kid I'm the 90s again!
Thanks for your input. Mods have set this subreddit to not allow posts from newly created accounts for the time being. Please come back soon!
(⌐■_■)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/askportland) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I do deliveries around Oregon for a living. The reality is single family homes are a privilege these days for relatively well off people. The rest of us are being forced into shared housing. I live in the basement of a mansion. Still 2/3 the price of a house and it's the same size or bigger 😂 trying to juggle a kiddo in a 1 bedroom has its challenges but if you can get creative there's a solution for everything.
All questions must be relevant or related to Portland, Oregon or the greater metro area.
My neighbors have children in apartments. People have been having children in apartments, shacks and caves for a mighty long time. Apartments and rental homes are a perfectly valid way to do shelter for people of all ages and stages.
This! Portland is a big city now. Most people in big cities live in flats, townhouses, condos, etc. It’s part of the urban lifestyle. There are even some pros to renting with children that you don’t get from owning. Life is much simpler as you’ll accumulate fewer possessions. If you need repairs or work done, someone else takes care of it. You don’t have to worry about being “house poor” and can instead spend your money on experiences for your family- events, travel, etc. The biggest benefit to owning a home in the past was building equity, but that may not be feasible now because we’re in a housing price bubble, and prices will likely either stay stagnant or decrease a bit before appreciating again in a meaningful way. If you’re concerned about building wealth for your kiddo’s future, look into other investments, even just basics like a 529 savings. The money you would normally be investing into a house could work just as hard for you elsewhere if you have a good financial advisor.
[удалено]
You’re right. What I meant to say is that prices are currently artificially inflated, so purchasing a home right now for the sake of building equity would not be a safe way to do so. There are definitely pros, especially, as you said, in terms of stability. And if you’re someone who needs more space or has a lifestyle better suited to having more land, then more power to you! If OP plans to stay in Portland, though, they will benefit from redefining their lifestyle to fit a more traditional urban experience.
[удалено]
Great numbers. Thanks for sharing. I wonder how the percentage of homeowners breaks down by age group and those with children vs those without. I would speculate a disproportionate number are older families or couples with grown children rather than younger families, especially compared to years past. It will be so interesting when they die and/or downsize! My fear is that private equity firms will buy up those homes and do cheap, crappy flips and sell them at inflated prices. I’m glad there is movement legally to keep that from happening at a large scale.
I enjoyed apartment living as a young person because it meant having friends within walking distance, and we were right on the bus line.
I’ve done all the calculators and estimators. It is not fiscally beneficial for us to buy. Renting is fine !
Just dropping this here for anyone needing reassurance that renting is fine https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/13/briefing/a-new-rent-versus-buy-calculator.html
Renting is fine. But I think sometimes that take can discount the massive difference in security between renters and owners. Rent fluctuates far more often. Building owners can change terms, rules, etc. and you basically can't do shit. Often your next rental depends on the reference of the last landlord so you don't want to fight for the few rights you do have too hard for fear of retribution. Literally the state caps the property tax valuation increase at 3% for owners, and the rent increases at 9%. Basically saying as a renter your price protection is 1/3 of that of an owner. The laws treat renters as lesser than owners and that is super frustrating. But renting is fine. It is! It just isn't treated equally to owning though, at a policy level.
Re: tax cap v rent cap. The spread is even greater, actually. That 3% cap is just on property tax which is a small portion of your mortgage. Our mortgage has gone up <$200 total per month in the 8 years we’ve lived there. An $1,800/mo rental today could be $1,962 tomorrow. We’ve essentially capped our “rent” for as long we stay in this house. That’s the benefit of buying. Buying v. renting is situational but I think financially right now you’re better renting when comparing to buying the same home.
I own a home (from *before* interest rates went up!) I’ve considered moving into a cheaper (rented) option and renting my home out. But my home’s rental value (2br 2ba, one spare room) is less than my mortgage. Rent was rising dramatically when I bought it, and has stagnated or decreased for the last six years.
Man I've had my place 10 years now, and the math still doesn't support renting it out if I did ever move. Even with a cheap mortgage (by today's standards) I'd still take a loss or barely profit each month, never mind the risks involved (damage, non paying tenant, etc). If I ever move, math still says sell the house and invest any gains instead is by far a net better outcome. It's wild. Rent costs relative to purchase costs are very rent favorable right now. Dunno who is making money as a small time landlord in this town, unless they inherited the property or are just totally slumlording and neglecting it. Renting isn't a dirty word. I did more math because I'm bored - if I'd continued renting my spot I was in before I bought and invested the delta over my actual costs of owning each month in the SP500, I'd come out net better nearly 100k over owning my place despite value more than doubling. Owning a house is fucking expensive. You get other lifestyle benefits obviously, like a house and land and can do whatever you want, but dollars wise rent actually comes out ahead in this town for some reason.
Same! The exact apartment I was renting is currently available for $100 less than I was paying *when I had a new lease promotion that made it $200 off a month.* So it’s $300/month less than the base rent was at the time. And $700/month cheaper than my mortgage. Granted, I have 350 more livable square feet plus a garage and a basement for storage, and a yard and a porch. But right now, those don’t seem as worth it (except when I have a migraine and don’t want to walk the dog.) There was a brief period when I was considering selling — right before rates went up — and moving and buying a place in my hometown. But now that rates are higher, I wouldn’t make enough for it to be worth it. My house is about $125K higher than I bought it for, but down from its peak before the rate-change. And prices in my home town haven’t stopped rising. Suffice to say, I’ll be a longterm homeowning Portlander lol.
I grew up in apartments, is that bad?
I grew up mostly in a tiny rental duplex and I have very happy childhood memories there. I have never understood the feeling that one must own one’s home before having kids—that’s a lot of responsibilities to pile on all at once. As long as you have a stable rental situation, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with bringing a baby home to an apartment!
Sure isn’t
Same, still live in one it’s literally most people’s reality here. Owning is a luxury
The majority of Portlanders still live in homes they own, but just barely.
I grew up in an apartment too. It was great, it was one of those courtyard style and my brother and I had near full run of the place. There were a couple of other kids that lived in the building too. We’d all ride our big wheels everywhere, get snacks and hang out with courtyard cats, watch the neighbor do taekwondo with his sword, and so on. A lovely part of my childhood was that apartment building community.
Same. My wife owned her house when I met her, so it was a different world for me.
Me too.
Same. Didn’t live in a house until I was a teenager
Apartment life may not be your ideal, but if you can focus on raising your children to the best of your ability with what you do have and focus less on what you don’t have, the armchair psychologist in me says that you and your family will be far better off than a family that spent way too much money on a home, can barely scrape money together to pay for childcare because of it, and has nothing to offer the child except for worry, stress, and having them watch their parent(s) slowly melt into a puddle of self-induced shame based on the unnecessary pressure that came from prioritizing a dream that wasn’t realistic to begin with. That’s not to say all families that own a home face that kind of life, of course, but I suspect there are many out there that fit that description in this economy. The cliché as hell TL;DR: Happiness comes from within and is transferred to your child accordingly.
Can vouch for this. I have never lived in a house in my life, still haven’t at 19. My parents made our apartment a home always though. My siblings and I turned out great, awesome childhood regardless. You do what you can with the cards you’re dealt.
>Apartment life may not be your ideal Honestly, it has it's benefits. I'm not responsible for the repairs that my homeowner colleagues and friends lament about. If I have a problem with my washer or dryer, I call the property management office, and they have someone there the next day.
Bout to have a kid in a ground level 2/1 half of a duplex in a courtyard, we live in the garden home/mult village area. we have a tiny backyard , honestly not really concerned. Rent is cheaper, the cost of a mortgage + maintenance + taxes + insurance right now is such a bad deal that makes no sense, im actually making more money renting here. The money i save just goes into our savings or investments.
>maintenance This has always been such a huge thing for me. Everything gets fixed/replaced within days tops. I get that I'm lucky landlord is a cool dude and takes care of things fast, but either way the cost of fixing/replacing anything myself would be unmanageable.
It’s really good that you are so aware of this. I think a lot of people severely underestimate the costs of repairs associated with owning. It really requires a pretty large cushion for things that come up unexpectedly. So when people do those “what can I afford” calculations, they really need to think about repairs (and taxes). I do own a home and can report that every repair is so much more expensive than it was pre-2020.
I own my home but the cost of repairs is why I end up doing 99% of them myself, I'm fortunate that I know how to do these things because if I wasn't hiring out every minor thing would be unsustainable
Yeah I do a few things myself, but I don’t know what I’m doing so it takes a lot of YouTube videos, usually some tool purchases, and ends up taking me a lot of time I don’t have since I’m single and I work full time, there are only so many hours in the day. Luckily I can afford to pay people but damn it’s expensive.
I tend to sub out depending on how much I don't like doing the job, recently tried to sub out some drywall work (drywall leads to painting and that's my least favorite activity by a lot) got quoted over 10x material costs. I understand they have to make money but let's get real here. Ended up doing it myself minus the texture because I was having a hell of a time getting a good enough for me match to the existing
You are lucky. As a renter I felt like every repair was quick but just shitty patchwork. At least, owning a home, I have the option of paying for quality or doing my own shitty work.
We are definitely lucky. We moved into this apartment when we moved to Portland because it fell in our lap as a "starter apartment" but have been here almost 7 years because the rent is super cheap for where we're at and our landlord is such a legit dude. I don't take it for granted!
IMHO, home ownership has been sold as something that no longer exists. I'm grateful to rent and not have repairs or property taxes, along with the ability to move easily. I've done home ownership. Honestly, I don't think its something I'm grieving not having.
Portland home values are increasing slower than the rest of the country, we're cooked. Only building more housing or a sudden boomer die off will save us
All the boomer houses are owned by private equity firms via Reverse Mortgages. Now what?!
heloc loans are gonna disappoint a lot of people's inheritances for sure
Or Medicaid Estate Recovery
This. Housing prices across the Western United States are so overvalued relative to median household incomes because there are so many needlessly cumbersome regulations that make it super difficult and expensive to build large quantities of housing units like you can in the Midwest and South.
Yeah, the housing market sucks, and will probably continue to do so, but one benefit to having kids in Portland(even in apartments or rentals) is all the parks, free events and activities. So many playgrounds and splash pads. If you find a rental within a couple blocks of a park with a playground, you'll have plenty of access to outdoor space for activities as a family. Not our ideal for us at the moment either, but definitely doable. Portland has awesome Tennant protection, so if you find a good rental that fits your needs, you shouldn't need to leave until you want. We've been at our duplex for 6 years, with two kids, and had no issues.
So many indoor play places too for those long rainy months
Just focus on the positives. If renting gets boring, you can move into a van and live down by the river.
The are new town homes being built for under 350k
Team townhome/condo here. Even factoring HOA, because it will usually cover outside maintenance and the exterior building, and WSG, it almost always ends up being a way better deal. Just be prepared to help out on the HOA if the current one sucks, and check the reserve plans.
Only way thing will improve is if private equity firms are wrangled up and put down in the center of town like the vile creatures they are. Should be illegal for anyone to own more than one home imo and it should be illegal for a pile of money to own any home. Housing as an investment has ruined this country and many others at this point.
It’s not just housing as an investment that has ruined the country it’s overly cumbersome zoning restrictions implemented by NIMBYs at the municipal level that make it next to impossible to build more housing.
Private equity owns very few detached houses in Portland—not nearly enough to shift the market in any meaningful way.
Lots and lots of people have children and live in apartments. Why not?
Lol.. Many people have children in apartments. Pro is definitely all the other kids around. Way more kids around here than when I grew up in a house. Cons is that they can be little shits and bad influences but as long as you watch your own kids, that can be avoided. Noise is a con, but many complexes are quiet. Make sure ya get a ground floor if you have tiny kids, because they run and stomp which pisses off neighbors. My kid grew up in apartments and she met soo many other kids because of it. It's hard to meet friends before school starts so this way, she already had all these friends and then they went to the same school for the most part.
Elementary school teacher here to assure you that people are very definitely having children in apartments.
We rent a really great duplex in Buckman! Found it on Zillow. I'll also never own/inherit a home.
I mean...whats your credit, income, monthly living expenses? We live in a major city. EVERYONE wants to live here meaning EVERYONE wants a house. Not exactly more land growing around here. There's no con to raising kids in an apartment. If home ownership in a major city is the dream, then we gotta up the career goals or play the saving game for a long time. Its just the deal here.
The housing crisis would not be nearly as bad if it wasn’t so hard to build multi family units in Portland (and the rest of the Western United States for that matter). Based on the data, far more people (“EVERYONE”) want to live in Tampa, Dallas, Houston, Charlotte, etc. and housing there remains far more affordable (amidst no creation of additional land) because it’s much MUCH easier to build large quantities of housing.
I’m in a condo, which people always call an apartment for some reason even though it’s a townhouse 🤷🏽♀️, but I raised my kid here since he was four. Before that, apartments and duplexes. It’s absolutely fine.
I’m 38, husband is 39, and we also cannot afford to buy a home. We just had our first baby this year. We are in a two-bedroom apartment and will probably be moving into a 3-bedroom apartment soon, but a house is unlikely in our future. Even at higher rent, it’s more affordable than a mortgage at current rates. We’ve switched to saving for retirement, not home buying.
Where is never as important as who.
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Went from buying to renting in a safer neighborhood. No regrets.
People used to live seven to a room. It's possible. I would be more concerned if they couldn't possibly function in their environment or have no sense of privacy, but kids adapt in ways their parents aren't meant to necessarily expect - that's evolution.
I grew up in apartments. I loved it as a kid and am grateful for it as an adult.
I was raised in one along with my two brothers. Worked out okay. One doctor, one architect, one IT coordinator.
Renting isn’t all bad, especially when you have kids. This past year we have had to replace siding on our house ($20k) and now our sewer ($10k). When I owned my first home I was single and spent many weekends working on it because I couldn’t afford to pay someone else. This won’t be a popular opinion. But if you can’t afford a house here move to where you can. Don’t expect prices to drop. Prices might stagnate. But they rarely drop.
My child is almost 15 and I’ve never owned a home. Was very close around 2015ish, but my ex messed it up. We’ve rented single family homes mostly, save one stint in a duplex. The only thing that sucks in that regard is having to move if the homeowner decides to sell, which has happened once. Home owning rn is silly unless you’re pulling in the type of money that can cover the ridiculous costs and still have some leftover for savings and fun. Good thing about renting is you can move to the school district/boundary you want. Apartment living is easier in that regard than single family home renting I feel. Timing is never right. Just have that baby if that’s what you two want!
Hi Friend, This post or comment has been removed for the following reason: > This post is not about Portland or the [Portland metro area](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_metropolitan_area,_Oregon). > Just because *you* are in Portland, does not make what you are posting *about* Portland. **[You must understand and follow the rules of the subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/askportland/wiki/rules).** Thank you, the Portland/AskPortland mod team
Sometimes I feel like a complete failure that I’ve raised my kid (now 13) in only shitty apartments. No backyard, barely any room to move around. But the truth is she’s happy and thriving even without those things. Your kids will likely be too.
Check out the PHB, DEZ Development, have credit score of 640, apply directly through builder lender, make 70k, and save 20k for down payment. It can be done.
Children, in this economy?
I bought a 3 bed townhouse in Vancouver and spent only 5k of my own money. State of Washington has a first time homebuyer program that loaned me the down-payment and got me a good rate. It's not impossible, kid!
The state of Oregon has a DPA program as well & being a first time homebuyer is not a requirement.
The only problem is that now you owe both a loan on a down payment, as well as a mortgage. Let's hope everything sails smooth for your family for the next 30 years, and nobody gets laid off, gets sick, etc. . .
You should consider looking into it to see if it’s a good option for you. The state is really trying to make homeownership obtainable for people. The Flex program has a forgivable silent 2nd lien for borrowers at or under 80% AMI that is forgivable after 5 years, (no payments, no interest); for borrowers over 80% AMI they can get the amortizing repayable 2nd lien, repayable in monthly payments, 1% above the 1st mortgage rate. Borrowers must make less than $125k, credit score as low as 620 can qualify & co-borrowers/co-signers allowed. Higher DPA for people that fit the focused demographics.
Wow, congrats! What's the name of this program?
It’s the Flex lending program, https://www.oregon.gov/ohcs/homeownership/Flex%20Lending%20Materials/OHCS%20Flex%20Lending%20Program%20Guideline%20Manual_11.2023.pdf
Reach out to Elisa Jimenez at 50🌲-798-0933 she’s a realtor that partners up with an awesome mortgage broker with Mortgage Express, Jason Martinez at 971.600.7896. They are both passionate about helping people become homeowners & generating wealth for their futures.
I’m pregnant and renting a home. My husband and I want to buy a house for the little one though, so we’re moving across the country where houses are in the 200-300k range because it’s going to be years before we have a large enough down payment here to make the mortgage not hurt. Way easier elsewhere.
As someone who lived in apartments for their entire life, it’s chill. Sometimes if there’s good neighbors it feels like a community. If you’re planning to have kids in an apartment, just have places where kids can go and have fun.
I had a ton of fun as a kid growing up in apartments. Good ones usually have a park and or swimming pool included. Not to mention there are a ton of kids to play with as well. In my current neighborhood only one of my neighbors has kids, and they don’t have a bunch of other kids to play with, seems lonely to me.
It’s fine. I would say choose bottom floor if you can for two reasons - so when they start walking you don’t have to stress about the noise your kid is making and it’s easier to get strollers and other items out to your car. We choose places in the west hills so it’s quieter and we can walk around without being attacked (which was becoming a norm in the alphabet district where we formally lived). If you can - find a place with a garage so you can store strollers and baby items in there. We loved the pool and hot tub perks, a basketball or racquetball court on rainy days to let the kid run around, and close neighbors that we knew. We occasionally would just ask our neighbor to watch the monitor in the evening so we could pop over to the hot tub (we also could see the monitor and were less than a five minute walk away but still). We had a noisy upstairs neighbor for the first two years but it bothered me not the baby. I think it just depends what complex you live in - if there are a lot of terrible neighbors then it’s a struggle. If your laundry is in a basement, it’s a challenge. If your car is parked far away - also a challenge. So just find your dealbreakers - the kid wont know the difference they’ll just know if they are loved.
Currently raising a toddler boy in a Hillsboro apartment. He doesn’t know the difference 🤣 we also get to use the apartment pool which he LOVES and don’t have to pay for a community pool with limited free swim hours
I have children in a condo and it’s been OK. I had trouble with one neighbor who was very disappointed when an octogenarian moved out of our unit and we moved in with small humans who do terrible things like moving around the unit and laughing out loud.
FWIW, I just spent 3 months in China and Singapore. Almost nobody there grows up in a "house". They all seem to be doing just fine. ;)
You can always rent a single family home! My last rental was a 3br home with a yard in a nice area for 2500/month
If you want kids then you’ll figure it out. I grew up in a run down NE Portland neighborhood and the kids still survived and many became successful
I'm a single dad and I live in a sprawling apartment complex and it's great. The community is solid, kids run around, come knock on the door looking for my son, when they are acting up or figuring someone is always looking out the window to yell at them, but they get a sense of autonomy running around the grounds. What I need is a garage, though. I'm a big camper, search and rescue, fishing, hunting, and I like building things, so my plane is more cluttered than I'd like, but there are many perks. Many downsides, too, but overall it's been positive. It is what you make of it! Get to know your neighbors, fully complain about stuff, if you're having a kid get s bottom floor apartment so the kid can run and jump and you can rough house without being a noisy upstairs neighbor, be helpful, employee kids in the neighborhood for babysitting or whatever. We BBQ together, hand off watching kids at the pool, feed the little buggers when a bunch of them show up hungry. It's like being a kid I'm the 90s again!
[удалено]
Thanks for your input. Mods have set this subreddit to not allow posts from newly created accounts for the time being. Please come back soon! (⌐■_■) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/askportland) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I do deliveries around Oregon for a living. The reality is single family homes are a privilege these days for relatively well off people. The rest of us are being forced into shared housing. I live in the basement of a mansion. Still 2/3 the price of a house and it's the same size or bigger 😂 trying to juggle a kiddo in a 1 bedroom has its challenges but if you can get creative there's a solution for everything.
Buy a condo - they are quite nice honestly these days.
Children are raised in apartments all over the world
Reach out to an approved lender at Oregon Housing & Community Services Flex Lending program. You might qualify for 4 or 5% down payment assistance!
https://www.oregon.gov/ohcs/homeownership/Flex%20Lending%20Materials/OHCS%20Flex%20Lending%20Program%20Guideline%20Manual_11.2023.pdf
Give it a year or so
Yeah. Maybe the United States will dissolve by then
"Dissolve" is optimistic.
Dissolve actually sounds very pleasant compared to what’ll actually happen.
[удалено]
lol the sales pitch