If you're buying in Portland proper — Summerplace and most in-city 55+ homes — this is your county. It also carries the metro's highest tax bills. Here's how it works and how to avoid the budgeting trap.
Multnomah County's effective property-tax rate runs roughly 0.98%–1.08%, the highest dollar bills in the metro. But "effective rate" hides a lot: Portland is carved into many overlapping levy and bond districts, and the actual rate on a given parcel can swing from about 0.78% to 1.81% depending on which voter-approved levies apply where the home sits. Two homes a few blocks apart can carry different rates. Always check the specific parcel.
Oregon's Measure 50 caps how fast a home's assessed value (the figure your tax is calculated on) can grow — about 3% a year — regardless of how fast the market value rises. Over years, a long-held home's assessed value falls far below its real market value, so the owner's tax bill looks low. When the home sells, the assessed value moves back toward market value, and the new owner's bill resets meaningfully higher.
What to do: Pull the parcel's Real Market Value (RMV) and Assessed Value (AV) from the Multnomah County assessor before you make an offer. Budget your tax off the post-purchase reset, not the seller's current statement. Getting this wrong can mean hundreds of dollars a month you didn't plan for.
Multnomah is the only county here that layers income taxes on top of property tax for higher earners: the Metro Supportive Housing 1% and the Multnomah Preschool-for-All 1.5%–3%, both above $125K single / $200K joint, both applying to retirement withdrawals. A high-withdrawal retiree pays meaningfully more total tax in Multnomah than in Salem. See the full income tax guide →
Summerplace is the main 55+ community in Multnomah County. On a $400K home, expect roughly $345/month in property tax — more than an equivalent Salem home — plus the possibility of local income surtaxes if your household income is high. None of this makes Summerplace a poor choice; staying central in Portland has real value. It just means you should buy with the true Multnomah numbers in front of you.
Get matched with a Portland specialist who will pull the exact RMV and AV on any parcel and tell you the real post-purchase tax bill — before you offer, not after. General information, not tax advice.
Get Matched With a Specialist