Oregon cannot regulate its way to affordable housing.
on livable.
When government restricts where and what people can build, housing becomes scarcer, more expensive, and harder to find.
Oregon has a housing affordability crisis. Young people struggle to buy their first home. Families pay more for less space. Renters face rising costs. Workers are pushed farther from jobs and communities. And too many Oregonians wonder whether they can afford to build a future here at all.
This crisis did not happen by accident.
For decades, Oregon has imposed one of the nation’s most restrictive land-use systems. Urban growth boundaries limit where cities can expand. Zoning rules restrict what can be built and where. Farm and forestland regulations severely limit how private property can be used. Lengthy approval processes add time, cost, and uncertainty to nearly every new housing project.
When government restricts the supply of buildable land and makes housing harder and more expensive to produce, prices rise.
Then, instead of removing the barriers that helped create the shortage, political leaders often respond with more controls. Rent control, new mandates, and additional restrictions may promise affordability, but they discourage investment and make it even harder to build the housing Oregon needs.
Cascade Policy Institute believes the way out of a government-created housing shortage is not more government control. It is more freedom to build.
What Cascade believes
- Oregon needs more housing. The most direct way to make housing more available and affordable is to allow more of it to be built.
- Property rights matter. People should have greater freedom to use and develop their property without unnecessary government restrictions.
- Land-use rules should adapt to reality. Urban growth boundaries and other restrictions should not prevent communities from responding to population growth and housing demand.
- Rent control makes shortages worse. Government price controls discourage new housing investment, reduce supply, and ultimately hurt the people they are intended to help.
- Competition creates more choices. When builders, property owners, and investors can respond to what people actually need, Oregonians gain more housing options at a wider range of prices.
What better policy looks like
A better housing market gives more Oregonians the chance to find a home they can afford in a community where they want to live.
It means making room for starter homes, apartments, family housing, and new forms of development. It means allowing cities to grow when people want to live there. It means shorter approval times, fewer unnecessary barriers, and more respect for the rights of property owners.
Most importantly, it means recognizing that housing affordability cannot be separated from housing supply. Oregon cannot make housing scarce by law and then regulate it into affordability.
If Oregon wants more people to afford a home, Oregon has to allow more homes to be built.
