PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — House prices in the Portland area are starting to become a little more affordable.

The Regional Multiple Listing Service reports that the median home price in August was $280,000 — a 7.3 percent decline from the more than $300,000 median price in August 2007.

It’s the biggest one-year decline since the listing service began keeping such records in 1992.

Area home values soared in recent years, but Portland housing economist Jerry Johnson says prices can’t keep rising forever when incomes are relatively flat.