Just an update on household formation in Oregon. This is particularly of importance for the housing market, as each new household needs a place to live. With vacancy rates low for both rental and ownership properties — particularly in Bend and Portland — strong growth in the number of households translates directly into new home construction (be it single family or multifamily.) Beyond household formation, by all accounts overall population growth is continuing to pick up as well. Much of this due to migration flows returning but clearly births are picking up as well, with a sample size of 1 🙂 .
And yes, I do worry about the pace of home construction relative to demand, particularly from a housing affordability perspective. See the recent post on home prices across the 50 largest MSAs, or the four part series on housing in Portland. Also, see this post for a more complete discussion on household formation in Oregon.
Mark McMullen
Josh Lehner
Oregon Office of Economic Analysis 
[…] meant there were more workers, and therefore households, out there with higher incomes, however measuring this is harder in real time given data […]
By: Portland Household Growth by Income (Housing) | Oregon Office of Economic Analysis on October 7, 2015
at 9:05 AM
[…] for housing in much of Oregon has returned in full force with population growth picking up and household formation increasing. So far the supply side of the market has not kept pace — for a variety of reasons — […]
By: Housing Inventory | Oregon Office of Economic Analysis on December 17, 2015
at 8:57 AM