Pace of Home Building Not Keeping Up With Demand, Per HBA Presentation to Oregon Legislature

On November 15, 2021, the Oregon Home Builders Association (HBA) presented on "Increasing Access to Home Ownership" to the House Interim Committee on Housing.

According to the HBA, Oregon is already experiencing a demand backlog of 110,000 homes and would need 30,000 homes to be built annually just to keep up with the projected annual demand over the next five years. HBA's analysis showed that contractors in Oregon built an annual average of only 20,000 homes over the last five years.

Of the new homes that will need to be built to meet demand, the HBA believes 75 percent of those will be in Portland Metro and Mid-Willamette Valley areas, 10 percent in the Bend area, and 10 percent in Southern Oregon, with the remaining in other areas of Oregon.

The HBA noted that land use approval and building permit delays may be contributing to the level of production by home builders, in addition to current supply chain constraints and administrative constraints of inspections and phased permit approvals. As to ways to improve the level of production by home builders, the HBA focused on streamlining the administrative constraints, modernizing Housing Cost Impact Statements, and addressing delays at local levels in approving building permits.

With respect to building permits, the HBA found that it is taking three months or longer to secure approval, resulting in delays to the building of homes. The HBA also addressed increasing land availability to construct homes as a way to meet demand.

Click on this link and forward to 1:21:35 of the livestream to watch the HBA presentation. Please contact us if you would like any assistance with land use, permitting, contracting, supply chain, or delay or acceleration issues.