“We want you to visit our state,” said Tom McCall, Oregon’s best-known governor, “but for heaven’s sake, don’t move here.” To “preserve Oregon,” he signed the 1973 law that led to the urban-growth boundaries that confine nearly all development to less than 1-1/4 percent of the state. McCall never admitted it, but by making housing expensive, this effectively discourages people from moving here.
Today, Oregon leaders must be chagrinned by the fact that Washington has outplanned Oregon. The Johnny-come-latelys up north didn’t pass their growth-management law until almost two decades after Oregon, yet Seattle housing today is considerably more expensive than Portland’s. According to Zillow, the median Seattle-area home is worth almost $100,000 more than one in the Portland area.
In an apparent effort to prevent a flood of Washingtonians from moving into more affordable Oregon, Portland and Oregon elected officials have passed numerous laws and ordinances that will make Oregon housing even less affordable than it was before — all in the name of affordable housing, of course. These include affordable housing mandates that require homebuilders to increase new home prices to pay for the below-cost homes they are required to provide, increasing property taxes to pay for affordable housing, and requiring landlords who raise rents to pay the moving costs of any tenant who moves out. Continue reading
