2013: Portland Beats SF and Seattle For Rent Growth

People's seemingly boundless hunger to live in Portland, especially its bike-friendly eastside grid, will keep the apartment construction market booming in 2014, a local real estate expert says.

But that'll keep rents from rising quite as fast as they have been, he predicted.

"It looks like 2014 will again be all apartments, all the time," Greg Frick of HFO Investment Real Estate said in a talk at the Multnomah Athletic Club, echoing his firm's motto.

The surge of new units entering the market, he added, will probably drive up vacancy rates slightly and slow the rise of rents. Market-rate rents will probably grow a bit more slowly than the 6.6 percent hike the area saw in 2013, which was the third-highest rent increase in the country.

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The Real Estate Beat is made possible by real estate broker Lyudmila Leissler of Portlandia Home/Windermere Real Estate.