Portland Houses: A Guide to Eras, Rules and Taxes

Portland housing types and eras

Most Portland houses fall into a handful of eras. Knowing which one you are looking at tells you a lot about construction, likely repairs, and which rules may apply.

• Victorians and early apartment housesQueen Anne houses and early apartment buildings from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries survive in Northwest Portland's Alphabet Historic District and in King's Hill below Washington Park, and in pockets of the older east side.
• The Old Portland foursquareThe house locals call “Old Portland style”: a boxy two-story foursquare under a hipped roof, usually with a front porch and Craftsman details such as eave brackets and built-ins. It was the economical middle-class house of the building boom that followed the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition, and it fills the inner east side.
• Craftsman bungalowsOne- and one-and-a-half-story bungalows with deep porches, exposed rafters and built-ins, across the streetcar neighborhoods of the east side, from Hawthorne and Richmond to Grant Park, Alameda and St. Johns.
• Period revival housesIn the 1920s and 1930s, English Cottage, Colonial Revival and Tudor houses took over. Eastmoreland and Laurelhurst, both National Register districts, show the style at neighborhood scale.
• Northwest Regional modernPortland's own modernism: wood, glass, open plans and the landscape treated as part of the house. John Yeon's 1937 Watzek House and Pietro Belluschi's houses of the same years defined it, and it shaped mid-century houses in the West Hills and beyond.
• Mid-century and postwar housesMinimal Traditional houses and early ranches filled the last lots of older neighborhoods and the newer edges of the city after the Second World War.
• Lofts and condominiumsThe Pearl District's converted warehouses and newer towers, and condominiums across the central city. Buying one means buying into an association, so its budget, reserves and rules matter as much as the unit.

Explore Portland neighborhoods in detail

Architectural homes in Portland

Portland gave American architecture a regional modernism of its own. John Yeon was 26 when he designed the Aubrey R. Watzek House on Skyline Boulevard, built in 1936 and 1937: a single-story, wood-framed house around a courtyard, made of Northwest materials and set into its landscape. It became a National Historic Landmark in 2011 and is now part of the University of Oregon's John Yeon Center for Architecture.

Pietro Belluschi's houses, among them the Jennings Sutor House of 1937 and 1938, set a simpler standard for the Northwest Regional style, and his Equitable Building of 1948 downtown was one of the earliest modern glass-walled office towers in the country. Earlier, his Portland Art Museum building of 1932 was among the first modernist buildings in the city. An architect-designed house has a different buyer pool, different inspection priorities and, if it is designated, different rules for change than the house next door.

Debbie Pisaro's architectural homes practice in California is documented at debbiepisaro.com, and the people behind Portland's buildings are profiled in Faces of Portland.

Before you buy

What Portland buyers should know

None of these is a reason not to buy. Each is a question to answer before you commit, and each has an official source.

• Historic, conservation and National Register districtsThe City recognizes historic districts such as Irvington, Ladd's Addition, the Alphabet District and King's Hill; conservation districts such as Kenton and Mississippi; and National Register districts such as Laurelhurst and Eastmoreland. Changes to designated properties can require historic resource review. City of Portland: historic, conservation and National Register districts.
• Demolition reviewDemolishing a City-designated landmark, or a contributing house in a historic, conservation or National Register district, requires demolition review, a land use review, before a permit can be issued. Some other listed resources are subject to a 120-day demolition delay instead. If you plan to replace a house, ask first.
• The Residential Infill Project and ADUsAdopted by City Council in August 2020 and in effect since August 1, 2021, the Residential Infill Project allows duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and expanded accessory dwelling units in the R2.5, R5 and R7 single-dwelling zones, and up to six units when half are affordable at 60 percent of median family income. City of Portland: Residential Infill Project.
• The urban growth boundaryOregon's statewide land use system, created by Senate Bill 100 in 1973, requires urban growth boundaries. Metro, the regional government, manages the Portland region's boundary; every six years it forecasts 20 years of population and job growth and decides whether the boundary needs to move. Metro: urban growth boundary.
• Oregon property taxes and Measure 50Since Measure 50 in 1997, Oregon taxes most property on its assessed value, the lower of real market value and a maximum assessed value that generally grows no more than 3 percent a year unless there is new construction or another change. Values are tied to the property, not the owner, so a sale does not reset them, unlike California. Measure 5 separately caps school and general government taxes per $1,000 of real market value. Multnomah County: property assessment FAQs.
• Paying the tax billIn Multnomah County, tax statements are mailed in October and payment is due November 15, with a 3 percent discount for paying in full or the option of paying in installments in November, February and May. Multnomah County: pay property taxes.
• Transfer taxesMeasure 79, passed in 2012, amended the Oregon Constitution to bar new real estate transfer taxes. Washington County's transfer tax, already in effect, remains; Multnomah County has none.
• Home Energy ScoresSince January 1, 2018, sellers of most single-family homes in the City of Portland must get a Home Energy Score and Report before listing and include the score in every advertisement, so buyers can compare likely energy costs. City of Portland: Home Energy Score.
• Heating oil tanksMany older Portland houses once heated with oil, and some still have a buried tank. Oregon DEQ licenses the contractors who decommission and clean up heating oil tanks, and a seller must make sure an abandoned tank is empty and give the buyer documentation. Oregon DEQ: heating oil tanks for homeowners.

Official Portland resources

The places to check facts about a specific property, straight from the source.

• PortlandMaps: property, zoning and council district lookup
• City of Portland: historic, conservation and National Register districts
• City of Portland: Home Energy Score
• Multnomah County Assessment and Taxation
• Metro: urban growth boundary
• Oregon DEQ: heating oil tanks