Since the end of the COVID-19 quarantine in 2021, housing prices in cities across Oregon, including Eugene, have risen steadily.
In May 2023, when the federal government ended the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Declaration, the average price of a single family home in Eugene was $466,997.
Since then, that figure has risen to $476,412, the second highest since July 2023 when the average price peaked at $480,179.
The pricy housing market in Oregon isn’t limited to just Eugene. The typical home value in Salem falls at $437,987, remaining on the market for approximately 15 days. Portland comes in at $538,295 and Bend remains the most expensive, with an average home value of $748,149.
A chart made by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows that the median listing price per square foot of a home in Eugene in May 2024 reached a peak of $313. With the median size of a single-family home at 2,233 square feet, that translates to a total median cost of approximately $698,929.
Buying a home isn’t the only difficulty potential residents are facing. According to Timothy Morris, executive director of the Springfield Eugene Tenant Association, housing in Eugene is limited due to “low housing development” and a lack in housing availability.
“Eugene has a vacancy rate of about 2%, your average city has an average vacancy of about 5-8%,” Morris said. “What that translates to is that when an apartment goes for rent within the first day there’s twenty applicants. So there’s really just a huge challenge and a barrier for renters to be able to find new housing.”
The average rent for an apartment in Eugene is $1,824, which can vary by neighborhood. Around 49% of apartments are priced at or near this amount, while only 2% of units are under $1,000, and just 1% fall below $700.
Isabella Snyder, a sophomore at the University of Oregon, said that her apartment search was “the most painstaking searching of [her] life.”
“[Apartments] are just super overpriced all over Eugene, especially the ones that are close to campus which is what me and my roommate both really needed because neither of us have a car,” Snyder said. “The most difficult part was honestly finding a place we could both agree on and settle with.”
Natalie Devina, a junior at UO, who recently moved farther away from campus, acknowledged that housing in Eugene can be difficult for students, especially ones who work multiple jobs or pay their own tuition.
“I think that the prices of apartments in Eugene is genuinely ridiculous,” Devina said. “We’re already paying an extreme amount of money for college, and now they want us to pay even more for rent.”