Apartments in Portland versus surrounding areas.

I'm looking to move to the Portland area from Austin with my partner later this year. I've been able to find ton's of studio apartments in Portland for around $1kish a month that seem close to the city center. The surrounding towns like Beaverton and and Vancouver, WA have no units under $1.5k that I've really come across. For me this seems weird as usually moving farther out get's way cheaper and I'd like to be able to keep my car without having to pay for parking. Just curious if this is something that's common or I'm looking at the wrong websites. We're two service industry 30 somethings so not looking for anything swanky.