Can any current students comment on housing in Portland? Where do most students live and when did you guys start looking for places? I know the price of living in Portland is a bit crazy right now....
Expanding on this: Can a current medical student say what the spend per month on rent? Trying to decide if my current place in Portland is feasible on a medical student budget...
You're right--the Portland housing market is tough. People kind of live all over the place, but I would say a majority live in SW or inner SE. There seem to be quite a few places in SW near campus that people share apartments in and pay about $700 each. Honestly there is a huge range of what people pay in rent, from $250 (if you live in the Co-Op, which is basically a dorm for health professions students that a lucky few of you might be able to get a room in) to $2000 (if you live in a fancy-schmancy one bedroom apartment in one of the buildings on the South Waterfront). If you want your own apartment, in general you should expect to pay at least $850 a month. If you are willing to share a big house, that number will drop to about $500.
I live in Milwaukie/Oak Grove, which is in deep SE. We wanted to buy a house, so that's where we could get a decent house within our budget. If you want to find a cheap house to buy or a cheap room to rent, I would recommend looking in the Milwaukie area near a MAX orange line stop. The orange line stops directly outside of the CLSB, which is where you will have classes for the first two years. It takes like 22 minutes from the far South end of the orange line (my stop) to the CLSB, which is totally doable! I actually really enjoy the time to just sit and listen to podcasts.
My main advice would be: figure out your budget, then start looking for places all over Portland. If you are depending entirely on loans, I think you get like $20,000 of loan allotment per year for personal expenses including rent/transportation/food. Use google maps to figure out how long it will take you to get to the CLSB from whatever address you are looking at via walking, biking, or public transportation. Parking on the South Waterfront is very limited and costs at least $6 a day, but can be a lot more if you don't get a spot in that lot, so I wouldn't recommend planning on driving to school unless you factor that into your budget.
Once you all are on the facebook page, upperclassmen will likely start posting housing they have available, so stay tuned for that as well.
