HFO Multifamily Marketwatch for Oregon and SW Washington

This week: TriMet may spend twice as much on free park-and-ride lots than affordable housing along a planned MAX line; a study by Zillow indicates that in cities with residents spending more than one-third of income on housing, homelessness increases; and local Portland governments are working on an agreement to use lodging and tourism tases for homeless services.

This week: The Seattle Planning Commission has found that restrictive single family zoning is contributing to segregation and income inequality; the Portland Housing Bureau is re-evaluating spending of the 2016 affordable housing bond with the recent passage of a recent change in state law, and a new study finds that low-income residents living in states with expanded Medicaid are less likely to miss rent and mortgage payments.

Oregon's governor released her proposed $23.6 billion budget which includes $406 million for new affordable housing units, construction financing, and programs to help the homeless; Portland State University's population research Center says Oregon grew by more than 50,000 residents in the past year, and the federal reserve signals it may less aggressive in raising interest rates over the next few years.

Angie Even of Save Portland Buildings offers a recap and update on the status of the City of Portland's regulations on unreinforced masonry buildings inside the city limits of Portland.

This week: Oregon economists are predicting that the state's economic growth will start to slow, but do not anticipate a recession; local transportation advocacy groups are supportive of Portland's Central City in Motion plan, but have expressed concerns over a recently released parking loss mitigation strategy; and a new report in the Journal of Planning Education and Research finds that Millennial first-time home buyers are more likely to purchase homes near city centers than their Gen-X peers.

This week: The cities of Portland, Tualatin, and Tigard have begun work on plans to upzone land near future SW Max Line stations. Clark County homebuilders are seeing increasing demand for attached homes as prices continue to rise but local zoning in Vancouver makes it difficult. The trade war with China is impacting Washington high tech companies. And Portland sees a second wave of a meth epidemic--mostly among the homeless.

This week: Houses in Seattle are selling below asking price for the first time in four years; a new Harvard study finds that the number of low-income renters is growing significantly faster than the number of affordable housing units; and economist Joe Cortright explains why housing can either be a good investment, or affordable -- but it can't be both.

This week: The US Treasury released new guidance for Opportunity Zone investments, which could be good news for developers; two new ECONorthwest reports find that a statewide housing shortage is contributing to regional unaffordability and homelessness; and a new survey from California reveals that voters there don't necessarily see eye to eye with academics and politicians when it comes to housing issues.

This week: Will Oregon's record low unemployment rate and increased hiring plans by employers put upward pressure on wages? The Portland metro area apartment vacancy rate remains relatively flat from a year ago according to a new report, and in Washington State, the legislature appears up for grabs in the midterm election.

On Sunday, the Oregonian newspaper endorsed Knute Buehler for Oregon's next governor. Now that the race for governor is a statistical dead heat between Buehler and incumbent Democrat Kate Brown, we're making available the audio from Buehler's speech to apartment owners from our roundtable event held earlier this year.