Portland is listed 8th city in the nation where it is smarter to buy than rent in a recent Forbes magazine study. To rank the cities, Forbes computed the premium to buy—the spread between what a consumer would spend to rent and what they would pay for a mortgage—and also identified locales where economists predict home prices will go up the most over the next five years. ”[Portland is] a picturesque, culture-driven city with good local services and amenities,” noted the article.