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Washington County planners review 2024 American Community Survey data showing modest population uptick and housing pressures
Summary
Senior planner Ken Rencher briefed the Washington County Planning Commission on 2024 American Community Survey results, highlighting a small population increase, growing racial and linguistic diversity, rising rents and a notable drop in multifamily permit activity.
Ken Rencher, a senior planner in Washington County Planning and Development Services, briefed the Washington County Planning Commission on 2024 American Community Survey (ACS) estimates and other county data during the commission’s Oct. 1 meeting.
The presentation covered population, economic, housing and transportation measures drawn from the 2024 one-year ACS and related building permit reports. Rencher said births exceeded deaths in Washington County from July 2023 to July 2024 and that the county recorded positive net migration overall, producing a modest population increase in 2024 after several flat years.
The presentation explained why ACS estimates come with margins of error and how smaller geography slices yield wider uncertainty ranges. Rencher noted the county is more racially and ethnically diverse than in earlier decades: “Census records show that the number of people who identify as Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, some other race, or some combination thereof … has increased from at least 22% of Washington County’s population in 2000 to at least 39% of the population in 2020,” and said the county is now the most racially diverse county in Oregon.
On housing, Rencher highlighted two contrasting trends: rents have risen more than 20% from 2021 to 2024, and about half of renter households in the county were cost-burdened (paying more than 30% of income on rent) in 2024. He also flagged a recent drop in multifamily building permits reported through the Census building permit survey, while single-family permit counts have remained relatively flat.
Commissioners asked whether the multifamily decline reflected shifts to “missing middle” housing types or broader financing and construction-cost issues. Rencher said many middle-housing code changes are recent and may not yet appear in permit data; he added that financing and construction costs have affected developers’ willingness to build new apartment complexes. A commissioner added that dedicated affordable-housing bond funds that supported multifamily permits in earlier years had tailed off and that some state affordable-housing funding changes also reduced multifamily permit activity in 2024.
Rencher also reviewed education, income, health insurance coverage and commuting patterns from the ACS. He noted Washington County’s median age remains lower than state and national medians and that roughly a quarter of residents five and older speak a language other than English at home; Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese are the most common languages among those who report speaking English less than very well.
The presentation closed with staff offering to provide additional disaggregated construction data the county collects to answer specific follow-up questions about new middle-housing units and permit counts.
Ending: Commissioners thanked staff for the overview and asked staff to continue tracking how recent policy changes and funding shifts affect permit activity and housing production.
