For better or worse, change is afoot in Oregon.
Anecdotally, that fact is obvious to anyone who has watched rent skyrocket or urban growth boundaries expand. But now, thanks to the number crunchers at Lending Tree, an online lending credit marketplace, we have the hard data to back it up.
That data shows that three out of the top five cities rated for rapid change nationwide are in Oregon.
The site used a number of factors — including rent, home value, percentage of foreclosed homes that were purchased, influx of new businesses and changes in diversity — to assign each city a “change score.”
At the top of the list, with a score of 43.92, was Bend.
“Bend…has seen one of the most dramatic shifts in its quality of living,” Lending Tree wrote. “From new small businesses to transportation projects focused on walkers and bike riders, Bend has seen an increase in its amenities as well as housing market growth.”
Right behind Bend in second place, with a score of 38.29, was Salem. Slightly farther down the list in fifth place, with a score of 36.24, was Portland. In ninth place was Eugene, with a score of 33.74.
The data got more interesting, however, when parsed into individual categories.
As far as rent increases go, Oregon came in tops on that list too. Bend and Prineville took the top two spots with increases of 54 and 45.7 percent, respectively, between 2011 and 2016. In Bend, that means renters are paying an additional $562 and, in Prineville, that number was close to $395.
That’s nothing compared to San Francisco, the nation’s most expensive market for renters, where the median cost to rent was around $3,500 a month.
Oregon also made a showing in the measure of “city wide value,” which looks at the percentage of homes in a given community that have increased in value. Milwaukie, Beaverton and Portland all made the list — in third, fourth and eighth place, respectively — with all three seeing increasing values for more than 97 percent of homes within city limits.
The only other spot Oregon showed up in the individual categories was for diversity, and not because we have a ton of it. Salem made the list of cities with the most change in racial makeup, but for a lack of diversity. Between 2010 and 2016, the city became 25 percent less diverse, according to Census figures.
You can read the full report here.
— Kale Williams
kwilliams@oregonian.com
503-294-4048
@sfkale
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