image via apartmentlist.com

One solution to rising Portland rents

At first tiny apartments got the shit because they went up in neighborhoods with streets jammed by normal parking.

Now the micro havens are a solution, a reason for a drop in the rent crisis.

And those bikes? Millennials and bikes and small apartments?

It happens.

Add beer blocks, food carts, and never leave the neighborhood friends and Portland rents can’t be too high.

What’s it worth to feel like you belong, that you finally fit in, that you know the names of the people who know your name.

You can’t rent that.

The safety net you hear about comes right on the block. You’ve got daycare covered, music friends, food people. All the dogs are friendly and no one rides through the flower median.

This won’t come cheap. In a move from Measure 5.

How are my property taxes calculated?

Two calculations are performed each year to determine your property tax amount. Your tax bill is always the lower of these two amounts:

1. Your Assessed Value is multiplied by the tax rate for your code area, and any Special Assessments are added.
2. Your Real Market Value is multiplied by the Measure 5 limits of $5 per $1000 for Education taxes (or .005 x RMV) and $10 per $1000 for General Government taxes (or .010 x RMV).  This amount is then added to the amount for items that are excluded from the Measure 5 limits.

Add the idea of property taxes disconnected from property values, and the numbers change.

No one pays the same property tax, but that’s cool. It’s Portland.

A lifestyle, local and rewarding, is a goal in life. College did some of that, real life gets more complicated.

The climb from dorm, to apartment, to a house with a yard to roll around on where no one’s peed recently. Who can’t believe in that?

Nothing fancy, just the basics with good plumbing, tight roof, and power that won’t burn the place down.

When it doesn’t work out that way something else happens. Something doesn’t click and people need help.

One run at cooperative living: a homeless solution with a tiny house village. The right neighbors could make it work.

Young hell raisers looking for someone looking back the wrong way? Not ideal.

The guy making his life better a little at a time? That’s the fit. He might make a neighbor’s life better, too.

Further down the line designers created a village environment for Alzheimers patients.

Institutional boxes made way for a hometown return and the confidence of familiar surroundings.

Millennials aren’t ready for that. Not today, maybe not ever.

The bigger picture for this biggest of all generations in American history asks for adaptability.

Find your tribe, your group, and stick with them. If you’re the smartest person in the room, expand the room.

Keep learning what works best for you, and just as important, what doesn’t work.

If Portland rents don’t work, talk it out and find a way to ease the burden.

Just know the houses you walk past, mansions you drive by, have the same problems in a different scale.

Balloon payments, leased cars, drowning in lifestyle debt, keeping up appearances.

They wish they were young and talking about Portland rents instead of dodging angry phone calls asking for accountability.

If they ask for your advice, give it with kindness.