We were slow coming in to the housing mess. History tells us that we'll be slow coming out.

I note that Eugene / Springfield area was ninth on the list as well

I was listening to a real estate expert last year. They said due to our land use laws limiting land for development we lag the nation by ~18mos. That saves us from quick dips in property values but just delays long term declines.

I think the fact that our local economy is one of the nation's worst right now is going to keep housing down for a long time.

But it's Ok 'cause we are number 10 for a list of "fun cities" that appeared on the Huff Post today!
Some fun!

At least we're on someone's Top 10 list.

Wait a sec . . . that is a bad thing here!

The obvious bias in the thinking of Forbes is that they place the blame for Portland's weak real estate market on land use laws. The odd thing is that they say Oregon's land use laws have kept home prices artificially high. So, if unlimited building was allowed, wouldn't that lower prices?

Combined with the Case-Schiller Report's monthly list showing the Portland area with the largest decrease in prices of the 20 metro areas they survey; it's not looking good for home values in the Portland metro area this year.

Don't they know we have streetcars?

This is all George Bush's fault.

$600 million for bike lanes ought to turn things around.

Sustainable, vegan, MLS pandering, pedaled powered green politics are the only way to get ourselves out of this crisis. Let's sell some more bonds and get another line of credit.

And in the center of it all is a Creepy mayor that a whole bunch of people can't figure out how inept and dishonest he is.
Instead they think he is great.

The land of nit wits.

They said due to our land use laws limiting land for development we lag the nation by ~18mos.

Is it land use laws, or the lack of a manufacturing base?

It would seem that since we don't have any major employers here that employ thousands of blue collar workers, that Portland doesn't feel the brunt of recessions until later, when companies are forced to axe the white collar "creative class" folks who somehow get spared their jobs until the end.

After all, Clark County, Washington, has the worst economy in all of Washington because of its ties to the Portland metro area - and it is not bound by Metro's "line in the sand" planning.

What the person said was by limiting development area it artificially inflates property values. That artifical inflation in the short term will cushion our values. But, if the downtrend continues, 18mos later our property values start falling. I would guess that is what Forbes is looking at in predicting a falling value in Portland.

Well, the land use laws have not been relaxed, so I guess Portland house prices are higher than they would be if we didn't have these restrictions.

Cities in the Pacific Northwest appear on our list, in part, because some of the strictest land planning policies in the country have curbed sprawl and propped prices.

More Forbes ideological ca-ca. The alleged artificial props on home prices haven't disappeared, and it would seem to me that the Portland market would tank only if they did suddenly disappear and a new glut of exurban suburban sprawl mushroomed across Washington County farmland.

Besides, there remains some dispute about Forbes' (and the suburban development machine's) easy and lazy characterization of Portland's urban growth boundary.