PORTLAND — The Wall Street meltdown has made its way to Main Street in Oregon — or, in Portland’s case, Naito Parkway.

State and local governments are putting bond sales on hold as they wait to see whether a congressional bailout might calm the markets.

In Portland, the city may hold off on plans to sell $31 million in general obligation bonds later this month. About half the money was for remodeling the aging Naito Parkway firehouse.

“There aren’t a lot of buyers out there right now,” said Eric Johansen, Portland’s debt manager. “We’re one of the markets that’s being negatively impacted right now.”

State Treasurer Randall Edwards said that’s about on par with what’s happening with the municipal bond market throughout Oregon and the nation. It’s a problem, he said, because state and local governments sell bonds — government IOUs — to raise money for projects such as roads, bridges and affordable housing.

He and other state treasurers have stopped selling the bonds for the moment because of the drop in buyers and a spike in the interest rates that came with the drop. Whereas a few months ago a bond may have borrowed with a rate of about 4.75 percent, Johansen and Edwards are seeing rates at 5.5 percent. Edwards said the state might want to budget for rates as high as 6.5 percent in the coming months.

“Right now the bond market itself has just been turned upside down because the demand is not there,” Edwards said Thursday. “To sell them we have to sell them at a considerably higher price.”

Johansen estimated that 80 to 90 percent of all bond sales nationally have been suspended, and Portland lawyer Patrick Boylston said that bond markets nationally have all but frozen in recent days.

“This is an example of a city like Portland and a state like Oregon getting caught up in what is going on nationally and internationally,” Boylston said.

As for when the market will open up again and the interest rates will drop, that’s anybody’s guess. “That’s literally the question that everybody is asking,” Boylston said.

Edwards and Johansen said they’re waiting to see what Congress does with the bailout. “Hopefully this congressional action will at least bring some calmness,” Edwards said.

But even then, Edwards said, it’s possible interest rates won’t drop. If the market is saturated with suspended bonds from around the country, rates will likely remain high.