The reason(s) for this gross disparity:
Portland is between Seattle to the North and San Fran to the South which are both very expensive places to live. With that said, based upon the data by the independent study, the two aforementioned cities wages are high enough to counter the high cost of housing.
People that move here apply a misguided ideology when they purchase homes, in that instead of taking into account what their pocket books can handle, they justify the income/home price disparity because Portland has lower cost housing than Seattle and San Fran.
The first time buyer tax credit is good for most of the country where incomes a-line with home values because it has stabilized those markets. The opposite is true in the Portland metro area and all of Oregon for that matter, as the tax credit is just propping up values artificially, as droves of first timers migrate to the state and pay inflated prices, driven impart by the tax credit.
If they let the tax credit expire, Portland and most of Oregon can join the rest of the country where median incomes meet median housing prices. Do the math… Portland’s median home price is $247k, right around the average of what a first time buyer is paying. If home values decline say 10% that would save the first time home buyer approximately $25k on the price of their home.
If I was a first time home buyer in Portland, I’d want the tax credit to expire, because let me see $25k vs. $8k… That’s an easy one!