Urban growth boundary did not make Portland unaffordable

New Urban News Article, 3/1/2005

New figures undercut claims that the Oregon region’s housing costs have gone out of sight.

For the past several years, opponents of “smart growth” policies have insisted that Portland, Oregon’s urban growth boundary has made the region a much less affordable place to buy a house. But it now appears that the critics’ arguments relied to a large degree on figures that were wrong.

The critics have cited the National Association of Home Builders’ “Housing Affordability Index,” which is intended to calculate housing affordability based on median house prices, median income, and other factors, such as taxes. In housing affordability, Portland was near the national average in 1992, but in the following six years its ranking plummeted — from 94th to 190th, near the bottom of the list, according to the NAHB survey.

Portland remained near the bottom for five years, but then something curious happened: In 2003 Portland suddenly jumped to 65th. And in the latest survey, covering 165 metro areas, Portland ranked 78th — not as affordable as before but still in the top half of American metro areas.