Many landlords in the state will be limited to a 10% rent increase for 2024 according to calculations published Tuesday by the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis.
The cap applies to market rate housing that’s 15 years or older. Renters living in regulated affordable housing or in newer buildings could see housing costs go up by more than 10%. The cap stems from a bill passed by lawmakers in July, which also limits housing providers to one rent hike in a 12-month period.
A 'For Rent' flyer is stapled to a utilities pole in southeast Portland, Ore., on Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021
Sara Cline / AP
In 2019, Oregon became the first state in the country with statewide rent control. For market-rate housing 15 years or older, the rent increase can be 7 percent plus inflation as measured by the consumer price index, according to state economist Josh Lehner.
But as inflation spiked in recent years, so did rent. In July, lawmakers amended the limit to impose a potentially tighter cap of 10%, when the calculation of 7% plus inflation would be higher than that.
“If that number of 7% plus inflation is larger than 10%,” Lehner said, “then the cap applies.”
Next year the allowable increase would have come in at 12.6% if not for the cap, Lehner’s office found, because of high inflation.
Tenant advocates in Oregon applaud the new cap, but point out some renters will still be dealing with steeper rent increases.
“This does not apply to our newer construction apartments,” Kim McCarty, executive director of the nonprofit Community Alliance of Tenants, said. “That’s still a problem.”