Oregon vs Washington
Side-by-side cost of living, income, housing and population. Calculator, charts and shareable results — official Census data.
Keep Your Standard — How Much There?
If you earn — in State A, what do you need in State B?
Lowest rent burden (rent as a share of monthly income) — ACS 2024 5-year. How this is calculated.
Oregon blends Nike and apparel, Intel and semiconductors, timber and a Portland service economy with genuine cultural pull. There is no statewide sales tax, which residents notice daily.
Portland-area housing has become expensive, and the state income tax bites upper-middle earners to fund services. Rural Oregon stays cheap. The state fits tech and creative workers who accept the tax-for-amenities trade and do not mind gray winters.
Washington hosts Amazon, Microsoft, aerospace and a deep startup bench, paying some of the highest tech salaries anywhere, with no state income tax on top. Seattle anchors the economy; Spokane and Tacoma offer cheaper footholds.
Seattle housing now competes with California, and the lack of income tax is partly offset by high sales and property taxes. The gray winters divide opinion. Washington works spectacularly for tech workers and remote earners — and expensively for service workers in the metro.
- Washington earns more (median $94,952 vs $80,426).
- Oregon rents cheaper (median $1,450 vs $1,682).
- Oregon buys cheaper (median home $454,200 vs $519,800).
- Oregon takes it 2-1 across income, rent and home prices.
- The widest gap is Income: Washington at $94,952 vs Oregon at $80,426.
How to read this comparison
Comparing Oregon with Washington on identical measures drawn from the same federal datasets and the same survey year. Any difference you see below is therefore a genuine difference between the two places, not an artefact of how the two tables were assembled.
On income, Oregon records a median household income of $83,011 against $98,141 in Washington — Oregon is $15,130 lower, or 1.18 times as much. That income difference is the single biggest driver of how the rest of this comparison turns out.
Housing runs in the opposite direction: a median home in Oregon is $454,200 against $519,800 in Washington. This is exactly why comparing states on income alone, or on house prices alone, both mislead — it is the ratio between the two that determines whether a given salary actually buys a house.
Put as a multiple of annual median income, that is about 5.5 times in Oregon against 5.3 times in Washington. A house at 5.5 times annual income requires a far larger down payment and a longer wait than one at 5.3 times, regardless of the headline salary difference.
Tax narrows the gap in the other direction: a top marginal income tax rate of 9.9% in Oregon against none in Washington, and a median property tax bill of $3,876 in Oregon against $4,556 in Washington. Because income, sales and property tax are charged on entirely different bases, the state with the lower headline rate is not always the state with the lower total bill.
Read the components rather than a single composite score. An index is always a weighting decision; the individual figures below let you apply your own, and each one links back to the full profile for that state if you want the county detail underneath.
Frequently asked questions
What data does this page show?
Compare cost of living, salaries, housing, rent, taxes and population between Oregon and Washington. Calculator, charts and side-by-side table — official Census data.
Oregon or Washington — which is cheaper?
Compare housing, rent, taxes and pay row by row in the table above.
What matters most when moving?
Housing cost first, then take-home pay after taxes, then rent and daily costs.
How current are these figures?
Each figure carries its own measurement period and last successful refresh. Weekly series (mortgage, gas) show a week date; annual estimates (ACS, HUD) show a survey or program year; daily series (S&P 500, Treasury) show a trading date. A figure is flagged when the source has missed its normal cycle. Full vintage list: <a href="/disclaimer">Disclaimer</a>.
Where do the numbers come from?
Official U.S. government sources only — Census ACS, BLS, HUD, Freddie Mac PMMS, EIA, FRED. LifeIndexData is independent and free: not affiliated with, sponsored by, or compensated by any lender, and advertising never affects our data. Source table: <a href="/about">About</a>.
Is this financial advice?
No. Informational only — see the <a href="/disclaimer">Disclaimer</a>.