News & INSIGHTS

Amid the wider housing crisis in Oregon, Tillamook County’s divided and aging housing market threatens local livability and economic vitality. Housing for year-round residents remains slack while seasonal housing is crowding out long-term rentals.

At the center of the crisis are low wages and a lack of affordable housing. While those at the bottom and middle are most affected, the housing crunch hits every demographic. Land scarcity and other factors such as permitting processes encumbered by environmental regulations means an inadequate housing stock for the area.

To address the problem, Tillamook County Commissioner Bill Baertlein formed a housing task force with key partners CARE, Inc. and the Tillamook County Creamery Association. Work began in 2015 with a study that was primarily funded by the Creamery Association. Additional studies followed.

A 2017 housing task force report titled “Creating a Healthy Housing Market for Tillamook County” outlines two distinctive elements of the area’s housing market – coastal and interior. The coastal market is strong, featuring newer, more expensive homes. The interior market is weak and needs revitalization. Not a new issue, housing concerns have been mounting for at least a decade.

The two markets are not isolated. High-end seasonal properties at the coast drive tourism, an industry that relies on low-wage service workers. Those workers are forced to find interior market housing, where they compete for need against typically low-paid agriculture workers and middle-wage earners such as education and healthcare employees. The pressure is compounded by numerous vacation rentals, and proximity to Portland adds a high demand for second homes in Tillamook County.

The absence of housing drives up the number of workers living outside the county, and leaves others paying more than they can afford. Either choice makes it harder to build the workforce in Tillamook County and harder for companies to build stable staffs. As the housing task force report said, “those with the least money have fewer housing choices and travel disproportionately further for work.”

Complicated geography and environmental protections add to a scarce land supply in Tillamook County, but the 2017 report said urban growth boundaries have helped preserve the area’s rural character and its sustainable agriculture sector, particularly dairy farming. The environmental protections and boundary constraints still limit the land supply, which may increase development costs or reduce interest altogether.

Housing mobility is also limited in Tillamook County. Those who wish to relocate within the county face economic and market challenges, resulting in low levels of housing turnover. Demand is strong enough to keep the vacancy rate low, but not strong enough to spur development, especially in the low- and mid-market price ranges.

The housing task force report cited “tired-looking housing stock” as a critical aspect, weakening confidence in would-be investors or developers considering the area. Too many homes are not well-maintained because of absentee landlords, dissatisfied but stuck homeowners, low-wage households lacking resources, and discouraged owners who see low standards around them.

According to a 2019 Tillamook County Community Development Department housing needs analysis, the county population grew consistently for the past 20 years, though Tillamook expanded only half as fast as the state average. There were 2,890 new dwellings built from 2000 to 2017. It’s projected that 2,603 new units are needed by 2040, with significant preference towards long-term housing over seasonal and short-term.

Tillamook County hovers around a zero-percent vacancy rate for long-term rental units, compared with a more typical rate of 4-5 percent found in most Oregon cities. Around 22 percent of Tillamook renters spend more than 50 percent of their income on rent, according to 2018 data, and the number of rent-burdened residents has been climbing for the past decade.

Sarah Absher, director of the Community Development Department, said Tillamook County was the first on the coast to designate a housing coordinator. Jake Davis was hired for the job of bringing together all of the interested parties and to help plan a way out of the housing crisis. He was hired as the 50-page housing needs analysis was wrapping up and he looks forward to acting on that report.

Did You Know?

Number of housing units: 18,789

11,481 nonseasonal (year-round/long-term housing), 7,308 seasonal (second homes, short term rentals)

77.6% single-family detached, 6.5% townhomes/plexes, 4.3% multifamily, 11.6% mobile home and other

Median home sales price: $323,000

Tenure of nonseasonal units: 31% renter-occupied, 69% owner-occupied

Median gross rent: $831, $736 Tillamook City

Nonseasonal vacant units: 2%

Davis said downstream effects of costly rents and limited supply are clear to employers – it’s harder to find local employees. He said around 20 percent of Tillamook’s workforce commutes 50 miles each way every day. That’s two hours of family or personal time lost to the worker, and untold revenue leaked out of the county as people eat and shop across the border.

Sagging construction statistics that haven’t bounced back to pre-recession levels are part of the problem nationwide and locally, according to Davis. He also said a trend of increasing home sizes is limiting opportunities for those seeking starter homes or affordable housing.

“There are so many people who want to be here; there’s a lot of economic opportunities and businesses that are trying to thrive here,” Absher said. “It comes back to the question of how we meet everybody’s needs, and because we have seen big change in multiple areas of our county, I think that we’ve had a hard time keeping up with meeting those needs.”

According to the housing needs analysis, a new 1,788 city dwellings would require 404 buildable acres. It’s estimated there is more than 600 buildable acres in the cities of Tillamook County, though not ever city has produced a land inventory. There are 2,000 acres of buildable residential-zoned land in the unincorporated areas in the county.

“Suffice to say, we have enough buildable land to meet our need, but the reality of developing those lots in terms of financing, engineering, etc. makes it more complicated than that,” Davis said.