HFO Multifamily Marketwatch for Oregon and SW Washington

Today we are looking at a development model that is getting a lot more attention in Oregon and Washington right now — public-private partnerships. And we are going to get into why they are suddenly interesting to developers who wouldn't have given them much thought three years ago.

Washington saw several significant developments this week. The Ballmer Group announced one of the largest private affordable housing commitments in state history. Puget Sound housing permits fell to their lowest level in a decade while the region experienced job losses. Washington's rent cap law completed its first full year of enforcement. The Spokane Tribe of Indians continued its major expansion into the Puget Sound multifamily market, and state agencies began adapting ahead of HUD's new federal homelessness funding priorities.

This week we are reviewing a couple of events that are important for the Multifamily Market including a proposal to convert vacant Portland storefronts into housing, leadership changes at Home Forward, a major waterfront redevelopment in Ridgefield, a lawsuit involving Apartments.com's payment platform, and two federal housing policy updates.

If you've been watching Portland's apartment market for any length of time, you've probably heard the term "inclusionary zoning" thrown around a lot. Today I want to walk you through what that program actually produced over nearly a decade, what changed, and what it means for owners and investors going forward.

Oregon's multifamily housing industry brought a unified message to Salem last week and found legislators in both parties willing to listen. Today we are covering what was discussed and what it signals for the 2027 legislative session.

Today we're talking about ADUs — accessory dwelling units. Tiny detached homes quietly appearing behind single-family houses. Suddenly ADUs are becoming one of the biggest housing policy stories in the country.

For the past several years, Portland's national image has often been dominated by stories about office vacancies, homelessness, crime concerns, tax frustration, political conflict, and downtown struggles. And yet underneath those headlines, something much more complicated — and frankly much more interesting — has been happening. Institutional capital is quietly returning to Portland.

Today we're talking about a chart that may quietly define Portland's apartment market over the next several years and almost nobody outside the industry is paying attention to it yet.

Today we're talking about a question that almost nobody in Portland housing politics seems fully comfortable asking out loud. Why does subsidized affordable housing in Portland often cost dramatically more per square foot than market-rate apartment construction?

Today we're looking at Portland's housing market through the lens of city policy, development feasibility and investor confidence.

HFO partner Greg Frick recently sat down with Portland City Councilor Eric Zimmerman, who chairs the city's Housing Committee. They talked about multifamily permitting, downtown recovery, investor confidence and what it will take to get housing production moving again.