Good Salary in PDX? (Portland, Tigard: sales, apartment, rent)

[MtMtnMan]

What do you think a good salary is in PDX? I've had a few people ask about relocating and in terms of generic answer I say you need at least 52k a year to live in PDX. Actually, if you can get a job that pays around 80k, that would be much better.

The downsides to living in PDX are (1) high taxes, and (2) high housing costs, and (3) lower salaries (when compared to similar cities).

Your thoughts on salaries in PDX? I am not talking about someone right out of college; it's more for People in their 30s-40s wanting to relocate.

Happy Trails,

MtMtnMan

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Depends on your lifestyle.

For example, one couple, one job, two kids, one car payment, mortgage on a 200k house, food, taxes, utitlities and all the other normal things that go along with raising a family, 52k I would consider very marginal, whereas 80k would be very doable.

One person, no car, small apartment living, etc, 52k would be more than plenty.

[jjpop]

It also depends on what you define as "PDX". Is that only Portland proper, or do you include the close suburbs? What about Vancouver, WA? Even within Portland there will be a significant difference between, say, the Irvington neighborhood and the far-east side.

$52K in Tigard won't go as far as $52K in Vancouver, but will go a lot farther than $52K in the Irvington neighborhood.

[Deezus]

I was making about 52k as a single guy for several years, rented a 1 bedroom apartment in a popular area, had enough disposable income to take trips and have fun even while putting a little money away(though I don't have any loans to pay off and I've only bought used cars in my life). With my fiancee though I now have close to 95k income between both of us(though she has some debt)--and looking at buying a house--we'll have to start cutting back. Not that a mortgage might be less than our current rent, but saving up more for a down payment, having enough for property taxes at the end of the year, and so on will require a little more frugality.

Part of us are now like--screw it, let's just move to Happy Valley and buy some big 4 bedroom joint on the hill for the same price or less as we'd pay for a "highly desired" 2 bedroom craftsman bungalow(falling apart after almost 100 years of usage) in SE Portland. Homes in our neighborhood sell quick right now, there's not even much chance to make an offer after a couple weeks, so there's not a lot of room to bargain(and we're on the margins of inner SE Portland). It's a gamble to just wait to see if there will be another drop in the next couple years or just buy right now. Buying property isn't always a great intial investment unless you buy at the right time--so I'd rather buy a place for longterm living than any hopes of making a decent return on it.

[EnricoV]

Originally Posted by MtMtnMan

What do you think a good salary is in PDX? I've had a few people ask about relocating and in terms of generic answer I say you need at least 52k a year to live in PDX. Actually, if you can get a job that pays around 80k, that would be much better.

The downsides to living in PDX are (1) high taxes, and (2) high housing costs, and (3) lower salaries (when compared to similar cities).

Your thoughts on salaries in PDX? I am not talking about someone right out of college; it's more for People in their 30s-40s wanting to relocate.

Happy Trails,

MtMtnMan

The "high tax" thing is a fallacy. Everyone focuses on income tax, and forgets that's only one of many taxes that we all pay.

Here's CNN/Money's list that deals with "property taxes, personal income taxes, and sales and excise taxes."

Oregon ranks #4 on income, but #50 on sales. And the total taxes (those above listed) it's #46. Other lists, it ranks above the middle, but nowhere near the top. Do some research, and stop concentrating on income tax.

[psichick]

Originally Posted by EnricoV

The "high tax" thing is a fallacy. Everyone focuses on income tax, and forgets that's only one of many taxes that we all pay.

Here's CNN/Money's list that deals with "property taxes, personal income taxes, and sales and excise taxes."

Oregon ranks #4 on income, but #50 on sales. And the total taxes (those above listed) it's #46. Other lists, it ranks above the middle, but nowhere near the top. Do some research, and stop concentrating on income tax.

Very true and besides, "high" is only determined by where you're coming from.

Taxes here aren't high to me by any means, because I'm from CA, land of high taxes. And yet, there are places that are probably worse than CA. It's all subjective.

[psichick]

Even though I don't own a home, I have to admit, I thought I knew where things were monetarily before I moved. I was wrong...so very wrong. OR isn't easy to live in. With the rents and housing prices going up and wages not moving and being low anyways, not easy. I knew I was going to take a paycut due to COL, but I didn't realize just how low I had to go. What I thought would be "low end" is now my "high end". So, what I needed minimally, is kinda unrealistic. Scary, but true.

Many people have said it; housing prices are going up, but income is not. I wish I had seen that before I moved. I would have made vastly different choices. In some areas, rent is getting close to suburban OC, CA. Too bad income is like 40% less.

Personally, if I could make 60k here, I'd be living well.

[urbanlife78]

My wife and I should be making about $50-60K combined income when we move back to Portland and should do just fine with that income to begin with.

[NWGirl74]

Originally Posted by MtMtnMan

Your thoughts on salaries in PDX? I am not talking about someone right out of college; it's more for People in their 30s-40s wanting to relocate.

I think it's still an employer's market and salaries reflect that. I currently make mid-$50's. I'm not looking for a job right now but I do periodically check and see what's out there. The last time I checked Indeed, there were about 10 jobs in my field (accounting) that I would consider applying for that had the salary listed. Only two of them paid over $50k. Granted, there were several that didn't list the salaries so they may have been in my range as well. However, I currently live and work in Vancouver so factoring in commuting costs and income taxes, which I don't currently have, my same base pay in Portland would be a pay cut. Hence, even if a really great job came up, I likely wouldn't apply for it.

I'm living comfortably on what I make, but I struggled for many years when I first moved to Portland and had student loans, car payment, rent, etc. I don't wish to go back there.

[bler144]

Getting back to the original question, I agree with others - what you can get by on depends on your circumstances.

If I were 24 and single with no kids, renting a room (6-7k per year, including utils) and mostly getting around by bike/transit, I could get by just fine on 30k gross a year.

With a young child, renting in the current market is tight at 50-60k a year, because housing alone will eat a minimum of 12k, and probably closer to 18k in after-tax income, plus your health insurance premiums will typically be higher. If you need childcare, that's another 12k per year, and the tax credits are fairly small.

If you are that same family, but bought a house in 1999, or maybe even in 2009 (but not 2002-2007 or 2012-present), you could probably be at least getting by on 50k, provided you had good employer-provided insurance.