Not Enough Housing Being Built in Oregon Post-Recession, Say State Economists

Across the state, the construction industry isn't building housing in the numbers seen during previous booms, according to numbers crunched by the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis.

Housing construction isn't keeping pace with population growth either. That's bad news for tenants in the state that has seen sharp increases in their rent bills.

"In recent years the lack of construction has become a big issue in terms of eroding affordability, which is a national and a statewide problem," writes economic Josh Lehner.

The silver lining (if you want to look at it that way) is that the problem isn't Oregon's or Portland's alone. That means it's not merely local policies that are holding us back. (Lehner promises more analysis of what underlies the issue in coming weeks.)

Portland metro area underbuilt by 27,000 units relative to population growth over the last decade, Lehner shows in a graphic (below).

Portland has seen lower increases in average rent in the city this year versus last. As The Oregonian reported earlier this month,  the abundance of high-priced apartments coming on the market means developers are offering incentives, such as free month of rent, but it doesn't yet mean that people renting in the lower end of the market have seen any relief.

Here are two different graphics that show the outlines of the problem (the first statewide).