Source: Kristian Foden-Vencil, Oregon Public Broadcasting

Portland house prices grew by 13 percent over the last year, according to new figures from Case-Shiller.

But while Portland is becoming more expensive, it’s also getting more segregated — by income.

Portland home prices rose at about the same rate as the nation’s between August 2012 and August of this year. The average Portland home price went from about $270,000 to $310,000.

But Josh Lehner with the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis says when you map income and profession in Portland, you find people of similar incomes living together.

“If you look at say 2000, Portland was one of the most integrated large metropolitan areas in the country based on income levels. We had a lot less segregation,” he said. “But with the development that we’ve seen in the last decade in Portland, that is not the case any more.”

Lehner says economists have found that when people live in an area that’s income-segregated, their ability to climb the income ladder diminishes.

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