The 10 Worst Portland Suburbs

The 10 Worst Portland Suburbs To Live For 2024

We’ll get the ball rolling with Woodburn, the absolute worst place to live around Portland according to the data.

And in the world of worst rankings, Woodburn beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 2nd worst in the Portland area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 2nd worst when it comes to home values.

But hey, at least it’s cheap to live there. But there’s a reason for that… it’s Woodburn.

You won’t feel bad about not having a great income for the area. There aren’t a bunch of places to spend your money anyway.

Welcome to Gresham. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.

This city is 10.4 miles to Portland. Income levels here are the 3rd lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $69,437 a year, which only goes so far even on a shoestring budget.

But on the bright side, there are a lot of fast food joints in the area.

Back up the highway we go for the third worst Portland suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Estacada on here. While the cost of living is low, your entertainment and work options are limited. And that’s an understatement.

In terms of numbers, it’s in the worst 15% for insurance, and the adult high school dropout rate is poor compared to other Portland suburbs.

But at least there are lovely parks to bring the kids during the day.

If you live in Woodland, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the 11th lowest Portland suburb for median household incomes.

Not only that, but this is the 5th worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Portland. Remember, we looked at 37 cities for this study.

Woodland is about 26.8 miles to downtown.

Fairview has the distinction of being a Portland suburb. Which means that’s about all it has going for it.

All snarkiness aside, Fairview has the 6th lowest home values in the metro Portland area, where the median price is $456,132. The median income is $134,116.

Fairview has an unemployment rate of 4.28% which ranks 26th worst.

Vancouver has 190,700 residents that probably know it’s a pretty crummy place to live when you look at the data. (Or, if you’ve ever been there, you don’t need to look at the data.)

Incomes are towards the bottom, and the poverty rate sits at 12.332576256076074%.

Ah, St. Helens. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Portland.

It’s the place with the 18th most out of work residents in the Portland metro area (4.75%).

Columbia is a city about 26.1 miles from Portland, but Portland probably wishes it was further away. It ranks as the 8th worst burb for 2018.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a worse place to live. Columbia has the 32nd most uninsured people, worst incomes, and has the 27th highest unemployment rate (4.21%) in the entire Portland metro area.

Homes only cost $250,459 for a reason. That’s cheap for Portland standards.

If you absolutely have to live near Portland, then Cornelius might be a place for you to consider as it’s only the 9th worst Portland suburb.

About 4.36% of residents are out of work.

Rounding out the ten worst Portland suburbs to call home is Molalla.

Located 26.8 miles outside the city, Molallas is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 3rd highest unemployment rate (6.99%), and poverty is far above the area average.