Buying in Centennial: the same median as Hazelwood, and that is where the similarity ends
The short version
Centennial sold 181 homes in the twelve months to late August 2026, at a $400,000 median and $300 a square foot. Six-month trend: +2.5%.
That median is identical to Hazelwood's, two neighborhoods west. Everything underneath it is different:
Centennial | Hazelwood | |
|---|---|---|
Sales | 181 | 218 |
Median | $400,000 | $400,000 |
$/sq ft | $300 | $278 |
6-mo trend | +2.5% | +10.0% |
Same headline number, $22 a foot apart, and one of them moved four times as fast over six months. This is the clearest argument in the county for not shopping on median price alone.
Source: Multnomah County recorded sales, September 2025 through August 2026, residential property classes and warranty deeds only. Pulled 14 September 2026; county recording lags closings by about three weeks, so the window effectively ends 24 August.
Where it is
The far eastern edge of Portland, out past 148th toward the Gresham line. It is the furthest out of the city's four high-volume entry-price neighborhoods.
The housing is newer than the rest of outer east — more 1970s and 1980s subdivision stock, attached garages, full sidewalks, curving streets — which is part of why the price per foot sits above Hazelwood's despite being further from the centre. You are buying a newer house in a more uniformly single-family setting, and paying for it in distance.
What to make of the $22 a foot
Hazelwood is cheaper per foot because a meaningful share of what sells there is apartment and attached stock along the arterials. Centennial's mix is more consistently detached single-family.
So the comparison is not straightforwardly "Hazelwood is better value." It is: at $400,000, Hazelwood buys more floor across a wider range of housing types, and Centennial buys a more predictable detached house further out. Which one is the better purchase depends entirely on what you are trying to own.
The trend gap is the sharper signal. +10% against +2.5% over the same six months, both on volume high enough to trust, says demand found Hazelwood and has not found Centennial to the same degree. For a buyer, that is not a warning — a quieter market is a better one to negotiate in.
The boundary question, which is specific to here
Centennial is where Portland runs out. Addresses in this part of outer east can sit inside the Portland city limits, inside Gresham, or in unincorporated Multnomah County, and the neighborhood name does not tell you which.
That distinction is not cosmetic. It decides which city's permitting and inspections apply, which city's rules govern things like pre-listing requirements when you eventually sell, and which set of services you are paying for.
Look the specific address up before you write. Not the street, not the neighborhood — the address.
Three things to check before you write
City limits and school district. As above. The Centennial School District and the Centennial neighborhood are not the same shape, and neither matches the city boundary.
The age band of the house. Subdivision stock from the late 1970s and 1980s has its own list — original roofs at or past end of life, first-generation vinyl windows, and in some cases materials that were standard then and are an insurance conversation now.
The commute you are actually signing up for. This is the furthest out of the four. Drive it at 7:30 on a Tuesday before you decide, not at noon on a Saturday.
Where this fits
Centennial is one of four Portland neighborhoods carrying real volume at an entry price, and the case for any of them is best made against the others rather than on its own. Foster-Powell and Mt. Scott-Arleta are the closer-in comparison, and our framework for evaluating an emerging Portland neighborhood is the method for weighing them without guessing.
Address-level jurisdiction, zoning and permit history is public: PortlandMaps.
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