Sell Your Commercial Property In Oregon

The Oregon rental market at a glance

Oregon had 630,439 renter households in the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 American Community Survey, or 36.7% of 1,718,422 occupied homes. Owners hold the other 63.3%. Oregon's population reached 4,254,293 in this period, up 3.0% from 4,129,803 in 2015-2019. Apartment-style stock is sizable: 330,160 Oregon housing units, 17.8% of the total, sit in buildings of five or more units, per ACS table B25024.

Oregon rental vacancy stood at 4.2% in the 2020-2024 DP04 housing profile. Statewide median household income was $83,011, so the $1,525 median gross rent equals about 22.0% of a typical household's gross income. Renters themselves feel more strain: 52.5% of Oregon renter households paid 30% or more of income on rent, per ACS table B25070.

Five-year trends in Oregon

Oregon median gross rent rose 37.4% between the 2015-2019 and 2020-2024 ACS periods, from $1,110 to $1,525 a month. Median household income grew 32.1% over the same span, from $62,818 to $83,011. Rents therefore outran incomes by 5.3 percentage points.

Oregon added 24,353 renter households between the two periods, a 4.0% gain. Units in five-plus buildings rose 10.8%, adding 32,307 units statewide. In percentage terms, the larger-building stock grew faster than the renter base it serves.

Growth was uneven across Oregon. Deschutes County rent rose 47.9% and Yamhill County units in five-plus buildings rose 29.7% between the two ACS periods. Multnomah County population fell 0.4%, the only decline among the seven counties profiled here.

Oregon county comparison

Median gross rent in the seven profiled Oregon counties ranges from $1,355 in Lane County to $1,849 in Washington County. Rental vacancy runs from 2.8% in Deschutes County to 5.2% in Multnomah County, per each county's 2020-2024 ACS figures.

Multnomah County leads this list on both renter share, at 46.6%, and units in five-plus buildings, at 31.8%. Deschutes County is the most owner-heavy of the seven, with renters in 30.0% of occupied homes and 8.7% of units in larger buildings.

Oregon landlord, tax and transfer rules

Oregon caps the annual rent increase statewide under ORS 90.323 and ORS 90.324; the maximum for 2026 is 9.5%, per the Department of Administrative Services' published rent stabilization percentage. Local governments cannot set their own rent caps under ORS 91.225, since the legislature made rent control a matter of statewide concern.

Oregon sets no dollar cap on security deposits under ORS 90.300, but a landlord owes the tenant a written accounting within 31 days after the tenancy ends and the unit is returned. The deposit follows the building: whoever holds the landlord's interest when the tenancy ends is responsible for it.

Oregon assesses apartment buildings under Measure 50: the taxable maximum assessed value cannot rise more than 3% a year outside a new structure or major improvement, and the taxable value used for the tax bill is the lesser of that figure and real market value.

Oregon has no statewide real estate transfer tax under ORS 306.815, aside from one grandfathered local ordinance already in effect on March 31, 1997 in Washington County. Elsewhere in Oregon, only standard recording fees apply at closing.

What this means if you sell in Oregon

Owners who sell commercial property in Oregon are priced on rent rolls, vacancy and the next tax bill. A building in Deschutes County, at 2.8% vacancy, reads differently to a buyer than one in Multnomah County at 5.2%.

Taxes deserve a close look too. Because Measure 50 caps most annual assessment growth at 3%, a strong rent year does not always show up quickly in the tax bill the way it would in a state without that cap. With no transfer tax outside Washington County under ORS 306.815, little comes off the sale price at the state level.

We review Oregon buildings of five or more units in the seven counties above and across the rest of the state. Send the rent roll and the latest Oregon tax statement, and we will set the property against these county figures.