Neighborhood Survivability Rankings: Portland
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis ranks the best and worst neighborhoods in Portland for new businesses by survivability score. See which areas give you the best chance of lasting more than two years.
Last reviewed: September 2026 by Robert Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring
Quick Summary
- Survivability Score: the projected chance a business type lasts two or more years at a specific address
- Top neighborhood: Kenton: 82.4% best-case survivability, 78.9% average across all business types
- Most challenging: Highland: 74.1% average survivability
- 47 neighborhoods analyzed across the Portland metro
- Coverage: This ranking carries one row per business type and neighborhood. Its score is the projected chance of lasting two or more years, averaged across the price points StreetSpring scores separately in the tool (most types have 5). The 93 business types here are base types; the tool offers 500+ business types, counting each type at each of its price points. Your specific business type and address will differ.
- See our full methodology →
Table of Contents
- Summary
- 10 Best Neighborhoods to Open a Business
- Hardest Places to Open a Business
- Where Would a Business Make the Most Money?
- What Should I Consider When Opening?
- Where to Start & How to Find Data
- Advice for Landlords
- Tools for Tenant-Rep Agents
- Why Do Survival Rates Vary?
- What Is a Survivability Score?
- How Does StreetSpring Compare?
- What Each Neighborhood Specializes In
- Related Resources
Summary
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis shows Kenton is the strongest neighborhood in Portland for new businesses, with the best locations offering a 82.4% chance of lasting more than two years. Across all business types that could open in Kenton, the average location shows a 78.9% chance of lasting more than two years. However, the specific location is very important and there are some great locations in neighborhoods that might not appear to be a great fit.
What Are the 10 Best Neighborhoods in or Around Portland to Open a Business?
The top 10 neighborhoods in or around Portland to open a business are:
| # | Neighborhood | At a good address | Typical address | Best locations | Challenging locations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenton | 81.9% | 78.9% | 82.4% | 74.3% |
| 2 | Hayden Island | 81.7% | 78.9% | 82.2% | 76.0% |
| 3 | Parkrose | 80.5% | 77.7% | 81.5% | 72.3% |
| 4 | Centennial | 80.3% | 77.3% | 82.1% | 72.7% |
| 5 | Multnomah | 80.2% | 78.6% | 81.2% | 75.4% |
| 6 | Cathedral Park | 80.1% | 78.1% | 80.7% | 74.6% |
| 7 | Concordia | 79.9% | 78.0% | 80.8% | 74.3% |
| 8 | Richmond | 79.7% | 78.5% | 80.4% | 75.9% |
| 9 | Woodlawn | 79.6% | 78.1% | 80.3% | 76.0% |
| 10 | Rose City Park | 79.5% | 78.0% | 80.1% | 75.3% |
See the Survivability Score for your new business
What Are the Hardest Places in or Around Portland to Open a Business?
The hardest neighborhoods in or around Portland to open a business are:
| # | Neighborhood | At a good address | Typical address | Best locations | Challenging locations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43 | Central Beaverton | 77.2% | 75.1% | 79.3% | 70.9% |
| 44 | Goose Hollow | 77.1% | 76.1% | 77.5% | 74.7% |
| 45 | South Burlingame | 76.5% | 75.5% | 77.6% | 73.8% |
| 46 | Vose | 76.5% | 74.8% | 77.6% | 72.5% |
| 47 | Highland | 75.7% | 74.1% | 76.3% | 72.1% |
The Full Portland Neighborhood Ranking
All 47 neighborhoods we rank in or around Portland, best to hardest, on the same measure as the tables above: the projected chance a business at a good address in that neighborhood (the mean p90 score of its ranked business types, the file's neighborhood_overall_score) lasts two or more years, averaged across the 93 business types in this ranking.
Show all 47 ranked neighborhoods
| # | Neighborhood | At a good address | Typical address | Best locations | Challenging locations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenton | 81.9% | 78.9% | 82.4% | 74.3% |
| 2 | Hayden Island | 81.7% | 78.9% | 82.2% | 76.0% |
| 3 | Parkrose | 80.5% | 77.7% | 81.5% | 72.3% |
| 4 | Centennial | 80.3% | 77.3% | 82.1% | 72.7% |
| 5 | Multnomah | 80.2% | 78.6% | 81.2% | 75.4% |
| 6 | Cathedral Park | 80.1% | 78.1% | 80.7% | 74.6% |
| 7 | Concordia | 79.9% | 78.0% | 80.8% | 74.3% |
| 8 | Richmond | 79.7% | 78.5% | 80.4% | 75.9% |
| 9 | Woodlawn | 79.6% | 78.1% | 80.3% | 76.0% |
| 10 | Rose City Park | 79.5% | 78.0% | 80.1% | 75.3% |
| 11 | Sunnyside | 79.5% | 77.4% | 80.0% | 75.2% |
| 12 | Hazelwood | 79.5% | 77.2% | 81.3% | 72.8% |
| 13 | Beaumont-Wilshire | 79.4% | 78.2% | 79.9% | 76.4% |
| 14 | Mount Tabor | 79.4% | 77.8% | 80.2% | 74.4% |
| 15 | Sumner | 79.4% | 76.0% | 79.9% | 73.1% |
| 16 | Greenway | 79.4% | 75.3% | 80.1% | 71.9% |
| 17 | Laurelhurst | 79.3% | 77.4% | 79.9% | 74.5% |
| 18 | Eastmoreland | 79.1% | 77.8% | 79.8% | 75.2% |
| 19 | North Tabor | 79.1% | 77.4% | 79.6% | 74.8% |
| 20 | Powellhurst-Gilbert | 79.1% | 76.5% | 81.0% | 71.4% |
| 21 | Reed | 79.0% | 77.2% | 79.4% | 74.4% |
| 22 | Mount Scott | 78.8% | 77.3% | 79.3% | 75.0% |
| 23 | Eliot | 78.8% | 76.8% | 79.4% | 74.3% |
| 24 | Madison South | 78.8% | 76.5% | 79.4% | 73.6% |
| 25 | Parkrose Heights | 78.8% | 76.4% | 79.5% | 72.5% |
| 26 | Creston-Kenilworth | 78.7% | 77.1% | 79.8% | 74.2% |
| 27 | Arbor Lodge | 78.6% | 77.4% | 79.2% | 75.5% |
| 28 | Mill Park | 78.5% | 76.3% | 79.3% | 73.0% |
| 29 | Buckman | 78.4% | 76.7% | 79.5% | 73.8% |
| 30 | Markham | 78.4% | 76.7% | 78.9% | 74.1% |
| 31 | Hosford-Abernethy | 78.4% | 76.6% | 79.3% | 73.5% |
| 32 | Russell | 78.4% | 75.9% | 79.7% | 73.5% |
| 33 | Montavilla | 78.2% | 76.5% | 79.3% | 73.8% |
| 34 | Downtown | 78.2% | 76.0% | 81.2% | 72.9% |
| 35 | Roseway | 78.0% | 76.9% | 78.6% | 75.0% |
| 36 | South Tabor | 78.0% | 76.8% | 79.4% | 75.0% |
| 37 | Piedmont | 78.0% | 76.8% | 79.4% | 74.8% |
| 38 | Hillsdale | 77.7% | 75.3% | 80.7% | 71.8% |
| 39 | Kerns | 77.6% | 76.7% | 78.1% | 74.9% |
| 40 | Foster-Powell | 77.6% | 76.5% | 78.2% | 74.7% |
| 41 | Brooklyn | 77.4% | 75.2% | 79.2% | 72.0% |
| 42 | Corbett-Terwilliger-Lair Hill | 77.2% | 75.4% | 79.5% | 72.6% |
| 43 | Central Beaverton | 77.2% | 75.1% | 79.3% | 70.9% |
| 44 | Goose Hollow | 77.1% | 76.1% | 77.5% | 74.7% |
| 45 | South Burlingame | 76.5% | 75.5% | 77.6% | 73.8% |
| 46 | Vose | 76.5% | 74.8% | 77.6% | 72.5% |
| 47 | Highland | 75.7% | 74.1% | 76.3% | 72.1% |
Every address is unique; the neighborhood score is a guide, but your specific storefront's score may be meaningfully higher or lower. However, market conditions change daily, and it's best to use StreetSpring's live data to check the survivability score for a specific address.
Where in or Around Portland Would a Business Make the Most Money?
StreetSpring analyzes your specific address against comparable businesses to forecast success. In Kenton, the top-ranked neighborhood in or around Portland, a new business at a good address has about an 81.9% chance of lasting two or more years. In Highland, the last-ranked, the same figure is 75.7%. A business that is still open after two years keeps earning, so those odds are the first thing that decides how much money a location makes.
Among all variables that affect business outcomes, location has the highest predictive weight in our models. Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis for Portland, you can check the most up-to-date forecasts with StreetSpring, starting with a free 10-minute trial, to select the location that puts you in the best position to succeed.
See the Survivability Score for your new business
What Should I Consider When Opening a Business in or Around Portland?
Before signing a lease, the most important metric to evaluate is the Survivability Score of that specific address. The Revenue Capture Score at a specific address explains more about likely business success than any other available metric. Revenue Capture Score has two drivers:
1. Projected Market Share: The market share component accounts for all competition (not just direct competitors but secondary and tertiary alternatives) and factors in the actual movement patterns of consumers in that area. StreetSpring's training dataset includes millions of transactions and business lifecycle events. Clustering works when it draws more customers to the area than any single business could alone (this is why car dealerships often cluster together). However, excessive competition quickly erodes profitability and makes survival difficult.
2. Forecasted Consumer Spend: StreetSpring's spending projections are business-type-specific and address-specific: built from a proprietary model trained on hundreds of thousands of real business outcomes across the country; thus, a Dance Club will have a different forecasted spend than a Smoke Shop, a Barber Shop, a Chicken Shop, and others: and each of those businesses would receive a completely different survivability score at the same address. Each prediction draws on StreetSpring's internally built forecasting framework: the result of years of model development and validation.
Together, these produce:
Revenue Capture Score = Projected Market Share × Forecasted Spend on Specific Business
Here are the top 3 neighborhoods in and around Portland by Revenue Capture Score across all possible brick-and-mortar businesses:
- Kenton
- Hayden Island
- Parkrose
Some other important factors to consider:
Ownership Rates: Survivability Scores for service-oriented businesses improve in areas with high homeownership, where customers are more likely to become regulars rather than transient visitors. The top 3 neighborhoods in and around Portland with the highest ownership rates are: Laurelhurst, Highland, and Mount Tabor.
Employment Rates: A well-employed local population translates to higher spending power and more consistent demand, especially important for food, beverage, and retail businesses. The top 3 neighborhoods in and around Portland with the highest employment rates are: Hayden Island, Laurelhurst, and Multnomah.
Occupancy Rates: For all businesses, Survivability Scores are boosted when surrounding occupancy rates are high, since vacancies can start a domino effect of financial instability. The top 3 neighborhoods in and around Portland with the highest occupancy rates are: Parkrose Heights, Highland, and Roseway.
See the Survivability Score for your new business
Where Should I Start, and How Do I Find the Right Data for Portland?
According to StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, Kenton, Hayden Island, and Parkrose are the strongest starting points in or around Portland, but the best neighborhood for your specific business type may differ from these overall rankings.
- Best businesses by neighborhood: A full breakdown of the top business types to open in each Portland neighborhood (including survivability scores by type) is at Portland Business Survivability Rankings.
- Best neighborhoods for your business type: If you already know your category, that same guide lets you filter by business type to see which neighborhoods score highest for your specific concept.
- Address-level scores: StreetSpring's live tool shows a survivability score for any business type at any exact address in or around Portland: updated weekly.
Get your address-level survivability score →
Neighborhood-level data is directional; for your precise storefront, StreetSpring's live survivability score accounts for the latest competitive and spending conditions.
What Should Landlords in or Around Portland Know When Evaluating Tenant Success?
The difference between a high-performing and underperforming tenant at the same address often comes down to business type, which neighborhood averages cannot reveal. Proactively using survivability data to screen tenants and set rents reduces the costly cycle of turnover and vacancy that erodes NOI over time.
See how landlords can use these forecasts to improve occupancy and NOI: Landlord Representatives Guide
Try StreetSpring to see the Survivability Score for 500+ business types at your storefront's address.
What Tools Can Tenant-Rep Agents Use to Find the Most Promising Locations in Portland?
Agents have historically made location decisions with limited data and gut feeling, but StreetSpring highlights which addresses offer the best odds for long-term success across every business subtype in and around Portland. For a breakdown of the AI tools agents use to select the strongest sites, see: AI Tools for Tenant Reps
Why Do Business Survival Rates Vary So Much Between Neighborhoods in Portland?
A single new competitor opening nearby can shift an address survivability score by several points: hyperlocal dynamics are the most volatile factor in the model. Each address occupies a unique position in its competitive ecosystem: shaped by the competitors around it, the customers flowing past it, and the spending patterns of the households nearby. Our research explains why U.S. business survival rates haven't risen in decades, and how location drives outcomes more than concept: Why Survival Rates Aren't Increasing
What Is a Survivability Score and How Does StreetSpring Calculate It?
Survivability Scores translate location quality into a single probability: the chance a given business type lasts two or more years at that exact address, based on competition, spending potential, and local demand. Full methodology → StreetSpring scores 500+ business types: 153 base business types, most of them at 5 price points, which is 569 type-and-price combinations you can choose in the tool.
How Does StreetSpring Compare to Other Site-Selection Tools?
Unlike traditional site-selection platforms, StreetSpring forecasts future business performance rather than describing present conditions, giving you a prediction, not just a snapshot. See how StreetSpring compares →
What Each Neighborhood Specializes In
The strongest neighborhood overall is not the best for every business, and the last-ranked one still has business types that do well there. Here are the top five for three points on the Portland list, at a good address in each:
Kenton: ranked #1 of 47 in Portland, the strongest neighborhood overall
- Veterinary Clinic (88.7% chance of lasting two or more years at a good address)
- Chicken Shop (85.0% chance of lasting two or more years at a good address)
- Salad Shop (85.0% chance of lasting two or more years at a good address)
- Dance Club (84.2% chance of lasting two or more years at a good address)
- Afghan Restaurant (84.0% chance of lasting two or more years at a good address)
Madison South: ranked #24 of 47, the middle of the Portland list
- Veterinary Clinic (84.5% chance of lasting two or more years at a good address)
- Chicken Shop (82.7% chance of lasting two or more years at a good address)
- Dermatology Clinic (82.4% chance of lasting two or more years at a good address)
- Salad Shop (82.3% chance of lasting two or more years at a good address)
- Physical Therapy Clinic (81.9% chance of lasting two or more years at a good address)
Full Madison South business guide
Highland: ranked #47 of 47, the last in the Portland list
- Physical Therapy Clinic (82.3% chance of lasting two or more years at a good address)
- Dermatology Clinic (81.1% chance of lasting two or more years at a good address)
- Veterinary Clinic (81.1% chance of lasting two or more years at a good address)
- Chiropractor Office (81.1% chance of lasting two or more years at a good address)
- Grocery Store (81.0% chance of lasting two or more years at a good address)
Use the overall ranking to find candidate neighborhoods, then check the business type you plan to open.
Related Resources
However, market conditions change daily, and it's best to use StreetSpring's live data to check the survivability score for a specific address. See the full rankings and get a live survivability score for any address in Portland.
- Portland Business Survivability Rankings: overall rankings by business type across all Portland neighborhoods
- Business Survivability in Kenton
- Business Survivability in Hayden Island
- Business Survivability in Parkrose
- StreetSpring Methodology
Technical note: Aggregated survivability rankings for Portland are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.
View technical data for Portland
StreetSpring recalculates survivability using the latest competitive, demographic, and walkability data, so the live score may differ from the static ranges shown here.