Oregon’s housing crisis—long one of the most severe in the country—has reached another alarming benchmark. A new State-by-State Housing Report Card from Realtor.com® gave Oregon an “F,” underscoring how deeply affordability has eroded and how far behind the state has fallen in producing new homes to meet demand.
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The assessment is part of the Let America Build campaign, which evaluates how well each state balances affordability today with its potential to increase future housing supply. For Oregon, the data paints a stark picture: home prices are rising faster than incomes, construction is failing to keep pace with population needs, and long-standing regulatory barriers continue to choke new development.
The housing crisis remains a national issue, prompting commentary from political leaders—including President Donald Trump. In early October, he called for a nationwide construction surge, criticizing major homebuilders for limiting development. On Truth Social, he claimed, “They’re my friends ... but now, they can get Financing, and they have to start building Homes. They’re sitting on 2 Million empty lots, A RECORD.” Trump urged federal housing agencies to intervene and “get Big Homebuilders going” to “restore the American Dream.”
Realtor.com’s report gave Oregon a total score of just 29.8—one of the lowest in the country. At the core of the failing grade is a widening affordability gap. In 2024, the state’s median listing price hit $563,896, while the median household income was $78,022. Oregon’s Affordability Score of 0.46 reflects the shrinking pool of homes attainable for typical middle-income families.
Oregon’s construction performance was equally troubling. The state accounted for only 1.0% of U.S. housing permits, despite making up 1.3% of the population. That translates to a permit-to-population ratio of 0.77—evidence that Oregon is underbuilding relative to its need. While the state’s new-construction premium was just 2.0%, analysts note this isn’t due to affordable new homes; rather, it underscores how high both new and existing home prices have become.
Economists point to a rigid regulatory environment—expensive land, restrictive zoning, complex permitting, and environmental constraints—as the primary culprits. Without significantly more production, they warn, the affordability crisis will only deepen.
The challenges facing Oregon mirror broader struggles across the Western U.S. Even as much of the country benefits from increasing new construction and more competitive pricing, western states are trapped in a cycle of high costs, limited supply, and complex regulatory landscapes.
Nationally, the Realtor.com New Construction Insights report shows new-build prices at $450,797, with resale prices rising 2.4%. The national new construction premium fell to its lowest point ever at 7.8%. But the West continues to lag behind: fewer listings, more homes stuck in development pipelines, and persistent shortages of skilled labor and materials.
Realtor.com senior economist Joel Berner said, “New builds continue to become more available and more affordable to the American homebuyer despite subdued single-family construction trends. But in the West, elevated costs and zoning challenges have slowed progress, keeping affordability out of reach.”
Oregon is a textbook example. Cities such as Portland, Bend, and Eugene have experienced intense demand fueled by migration and lifestyle appeal, yet new housing construction has not kept up—driving prices higher every year, even as population growth shows signs of slowing.
Shannon McGahn, chief advocacy officer at the National Association of Realtors®, emphasized the national scale of the crisis: “America is short more than 4.7 million homes, and every new home built helps close that gap while fueling local economies. NAR research shows that the U.S. has faced a persistent housing shortage for more than a decade, driving up prices and limiting options for buyers. Expanding housing supply creates jobs, supports small businesses, and affords families the opportunity to build generational wealth.”
Governor Tina Kotek is trying to change Oregon’s trajectory. In July 2025, she signed five bipartisan housing bills designed to accelerate construction, reduce red tape, and address long-standing barriers to development. Her administration calls the effort one of the most significant statewide housing reforms in decades.
Kotek framed the issue as central to Oregon’s social and economic wellbeing. “Families struggling with the high cost of living are forced to make impossible choices between staying in the communities they love or finding a place they can afford. This affordability crisis is the stubborn engine of our homelessness crisis,” she said.
“Solving this decades-old problem demands creative, practical solutions to increase the supply of all kinds of homes as fast as we can. We have to cut red tape and get out of our own way. We have to invest in affordable housing projects. We have to help our cities and counties build the infrastructure they need to start building new homes.”
The legislation includes:
Legalizes and speeds up middle housing production, allowing more duplexes, triplexes, and townhomes throughout Oregon.
Creates pre-approved building plans to shorten approval times for small apartments, duplexes, and other modest-scale housing.
Establishes the Housing Infrastructure Project Fund, providing loans and grants for transportation, water, wastewater, stormwater, and site development projects tied to new housing.
Introduces the Construction Revolving Loan Fund, offering long-term financing for mixed-income housing.
Allocates $25 million to expand factory-produced housing through the LIFT program. Modular and manufactured homes can be produced faster and cheaper, offering a potential breakthrough in Oregon’s historically slow housing pipeline.
Rep. Pam Marsh, who championed HB 3145, said the state must embrace innovation. “Getting out of this housing hole requires us to re-examine our conventional ideas on so many fronts, including land use, permitting, design, and financing,” Marsh said. “The use of factory-based components that can get homes on the ground more quickly and, perhaps, more inexpensively, needs to be a pillar in our state’s housing strategy. House Bill 3145 provides Oregon developers, builders, factory operators, and communities the chance to test new approaches that could help break through barriers to housing production.”
Even with sweeping reforms, Oregon’s path forward remains uncertain. Housing advocates argue the state must sustain an aggressive, multi-year strategy to reverse more than a decade of underbuilding. Supply-chain bottlenecks, labor shortages, and local opposition could still undermine momentum.
But the stakes are clear: Oregon cannot achieve affordability, economic stability, or homelessness reductions without dramatically increasing housing supply.
Originally reported by The Realtor.com Team in The Realtor.com
