What Is The Cost Of Living In Hillsboro, Oregon?

Hillsboro, Oregon, is located in Northwest Oregon, just along the Oregon and Washington border. Hillsboro is on the Columbia River, making it scenically beautiful and a place with a lot of opportunities to enjoy the outdoors. With that in mind, what is the cost of living in Hillsboro? Is it an expensive place to call home?

Currently, in Hillsboro, the median listing price for a home is $419,500. The median sales price of a home in Hillsboro is $405,000, and the median listing price per square foot is $255. The average rent in Hillsboro is $1,544 a month currently. Hillsboro has a cost of living index of 122, which is based on a national average of 100. That means the cost of living in Hillsboro is higher than the national average, and it’s also higher than the rest of Oregon.

So how much money do you need to live in Hillsboro? We explore what the cost of living is and what you can financially expect in this Oregon city.

Housing makes up the majority of your monthly expenses in most cases, no matter where you live and whether you rent or buy. So how much would it cost to buy a house in Hillsboro?

Hillsboro’s cost of living index for housing is 126, while the national average is 100. Oregon’s housing cost of living index is also 126. That means it’s significantly more expensive to buy or rent a home in Hillsboro than the average for the rest of the country.

The median list price of homes in Hillsboro is around $419,500, with a median listing price per square foot of $255. Hillsboro is considered a seller’s market, which means the inventory is limited, and there are more buyers than there are available properties.

Around 56% of homes are owner-occupied, and 44% are renter-occupied.

In Oregon, there is a progressive state income tax, and it’s one of the highest in the country. The average effective property tax rate for the state as a whole is around the national average, and there’s no sales tax in Oregon.

The Oregon tax rate is 4.75% to 9.9%, depending on income.

There are some Oregon state tax credits available. For example, there’s the Working Family Household and Dependent Care Credit, which allows low and moderate-income families to claim a credit on qualifying childcare expenses. There’s also a residential energy credit for homeowners who install alternative or energy-efficient devices in their homes.

There’s a retirement income credit for people 62 and older and a tax credit for political contributions.

While there’s not a general sales tax in Oregon, the state does have a tax on the sale of alcohol, which is the second-highest in the country. The state gas tax in Oregon is 36 cents per gallon of both regular gasoline and diesel.

For residents in Washington County, where Hillsboro is located, there is an average property tax rate of 1.050%, so if you had an assessed home value of $250,000, you might expect to pay $2,625 in property taxes annually.

On the cost of living index, Hillsboro has an 82.7 for utilities. This means in Hillsboro, the cost of utilities is below the national average, although it’s higher than the rest of Oregon.

If you were to pay for a month of utilities in a small apartment of around 900 square feet, you might anticipate paying an estimated $97 a month. This would include electricity, heating, cooling, water, and garbage. The average cost of monthly utilities ranges from $93 to $100.

Hillsboro’s average residential rate for electricity in Hillsboro is 10.72 cents per kWh, which is less than the national average rate of 11.88 cents per kWh. The average monthly residential electric bill in the state of Oregon is $94, and that’s more than 12% less than the national average, which is $107 per month.

There are some public transportation options in Hillsboro, as it is part of the Portland metro.

The TriMet system provides public transportation including bus, light rail, and commuter rail throughout the entire Portland metro. TriMet fare is $2.50 for adults for 2 ½ hours of riding. Monthly pass options are no longer available from TriMet.

The Max Blue line is the light rail line specifically serving Hillsboro. There are also TriMet bus routes, and there’s the North Hillsboro Link. The North Hillsboro Link is a shuttle service for employees to the North Hillsboro Industrial Area.

The closest airport is Portland International Airport (PDX), which is only around 30 miles from Hillsboro. PDX has direct connections to most hubs in the U.S. and non-stop international flights to countries including England, Mexico, Germany, and Japan.

The average price of a plane ticket from PDX to Chicago is around $270, and the average price is similar for a ticket to New York City.

The average cost of car insurance is around $828 a year in Oregon, which is about $69 a month.

Whether or not Hillsboro, Oregon is a good place to live depends a lot on your preferences and priorities. As far as safety, it’s rated as having a crime index of 25, meaning it’s safer than 25% of all U.S. cities. Your chances of being a victim of a violent crime are statistically lower in Hillsboro than in other parts of Oregon and there are very few reported violent crimes.

If you were thinking about moving from a city like Seattle, known for a very high cost of living, to Hillsboro, you would, for example, see a decline in your cost of living around 15%. One of the most expensive things about living in Hillsboro is housing, and median housing prices have gone up quite a bit in the past year. A few things, such as utilities, are lower on average in Hillsboro than in the rest of the country.