Clark County home prices surpass those in most areas of Rose City

The median sale price in the Cascade Park area was $239,900 in January 2016. The median sale price in Northeast Portland was $315,000 then. Ten years later, the median sale price was $500,000 in Cascade Park, while the price in Northeast Portland was $480,000, according to RMLS reports.

Median sale prices in Southeast Portland and North Portland were even lower in January, $425,500 and $431,900, respectively.

Only West Portland is still more expensive than most of Vancouver’s neighborhoods.

Salmon Creek, Ridgefield, La Center, Camas and Washougal, however, are all more expensive than West Portland.

Lamb said residents might be heading to cities in north Clark County for larger lots as those in Vancouver and Portland shrink.

“People want bigger yards … a place to have a couple of vehicles, maybe have a little shop and room for the kids. … There are no choices in cities anymore,” Lamb said.

But as people migrate farther into Clark County in search of larger backyards, they are driving up prices as they compete for the small pool of available homes.

January’s RMLS data shows only Portland’s southern suburbs match or surpass prices in Clark County’s more expensive outlying cities.

Part of what’s driving that cost differential is likely the volume of new construction here in Clark County, said Mike Wilkerson, partner and director of economic research at Portland-based ECOnorthwest.

Newer homes are more expensive than their older equivalents. Clark County has many more new housing developments than Portland, especially in Ridgefield.

That’s why areas like Orchards and central Vancouver historically have stayed more affordable than other parts of Clark County, Lamb said. The areas offer older and therefore more budget-friendly homes.

Migration

In Oregon, Multnomah County’s population grew 11.3 percent between 2000 and 2010. But Clark County’s population grew 23.2 percent during the same time, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Multnomah County’s population grew 10.9 percent between 2010 and 2020 — Clark County’s grew 15.5 percent.

Elsewhere in the nation, low-density commuter communities on the fringes of metropolitan areas are becoming increasingly expensive, as well.

A Wall Street Journal report earlier this month found homes in Atlanta’s outlying areas are poised to surpass the price of homes in the city sometime this year.

“Broadly, you’ve had cycles of increasing flight or suburbanization,” Wilkerson said. “Then for a period of time, pre-pandemic, you saw a lot of that revert back to the core.”

That largely consisted of people renting multifamily units in city centers. Since 2016, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Clark County has increased by more than 64 percent.

During the pandemic, preferences changed again, and more people sought homes in suburbs.

Vancouver’s median house price per square foot is $304, according to real estate website Redfin, up 1 percent compared with 2025. Portland’s, meanwhile, is $307, a 6.5 percent decrease from 2025.

Wilkerson said when he analyzed the data on home prices in Clark County and Portland, homes of similar ages, sizes and neighborhoods were roughly 30 percent more expensive in Portland.

“That basically eroded over time,” he said.