By Nigel Jaquiss, Oregon Journalism Project
YAMHILL COUNTY, Ore. — This month, the state began acting on the results of a long-awaited Oregon Housing Needs Analysis, hoping the trove of data will help policymakers solve Oregon’s housing shortage.
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Lawmakers dug right in, inviting economists from the consulting firm ECOnorthwest to brief both the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness and the Senate Housing and Development Committee last week on their analysis, which underlies state data.
The firm’s findings: Much of Oregon, not just Portland, is experiencing a housing affordability crisis. ECOnorthwest’s data shows that half of all renters in Portland are “rent-burdened,” meaning they spend more than 30% of their gross income on rent. That’s tough, but the numbers are even higher for Salem (54%), Medford (55%), Eugene (56%) and Gresham (61%).
The reason for the affordability crisis: Oregon continues to experience a major housing shortage, having failed to keep up with population growth for more than a decade, ECOnorthwest economist Mike Wilkerson told senators. Only one state, Connecticut, has fewer homes per household than Oregon.
Oregon has just 1.07 homes per household. Another way to express that: Seven in 100 homes statewide in Oregon are vacant, a rate 36% lower than the national average. And again, data shows the vacancy rate is tightest outside of Portland.
ECOnorthwest put rural Oregon counties under its lens, stripping out second homes from the overall totals (see map below) because including them constitutes double-counting.
When economists subtracted second homes, nine counties, including Benton, Clatsop, Crook, Deschutes and Yamhill, show vacancy rates lower than Multnomah’s—with Columbia, Curry and Jackson counties just as tight as the state’s most populous county.
In other words, many Oregon counties have a lower vacancy rate than any state in the country—including Connecticut, the only state with a lower rate than Oregon’s.
Wilkerson steered clear of giving lawmakers advice, but he said the state needs to continue to remove barriers that impede development. “This moment calls for creativity,” Wilkerson said. “And that means allowing housing where we have not allowed it before.”
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