I'm going to return to my earlier point: luxury apartments, by any definition of the word luxury, are few and far between in Portland. Many apartments are expensive, yes, but the words "expensive" and "luxury" don't mean the same thing (no matter what the leasing agent puts in the Craigslist ad). The finishes listed above are a pretty small portion of the construction budget, and going to a lower finish level would not suddenly make new construction project pencil at lower rent rates.
And the reason prices are going up existing apartments is just simple math. Between 2010 and 2015, 48,533 new people moved Portland. In that same time period, Portland issued building permits for 13,533 units (completions would be lower). Unless those new units were housing an average of 3.5 people, which is doubtful, then competition for the existing housing stock got a lot fiercer.
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