Clark County Dominating the Region

Parts of this article are excerpted from Urban Living in the Couv. The Columbian reported last week what commercial real estate professionals have been well aware of this year; Vancouver office space is actually in high demand, with vacancy in the mid-single digits compared to Portland’s double digit vacancy. It's more than 25% in Downtown Portland. But more interesting is the overall demographic shift since the 2020 census. Multnomah County has seen a drop in population of more than 20,000 residents as of the end of 2022 following several decades of strong growth. That’s a 2.5% drop in population in just 2.5 years. The interesting thing is that Clackamas and Washington counties have had flat growth. Washington County (Beaverton-Hillsboro-Tigard) lost a statistically insignificant 300 residents over the last 2.5 years according the Oregon State estimates and Clackamas saw a very modest gain of 0.4% over that time period. Clark County meanwhile according the Washington State estimates has seen a robust 2.7% increase in population since the 2020 census. Demand for commercial office space is high in Vancouver despite the national trends to contrary. Regionally all the residential energy is here as well from single family homes to high rise apartments and condos.

High demand for commercial space almost always has a positive impact on residential real estate in the area. Commercial activity tends to generate jobs and office jobs tend to pay well. With all the commercial construction going on in Vancouver jobs are also booming for contractors and trades people. Overall the local residential real estate market should remain solid. They days of 20 offers in ten minutes may have passed, but good healthy conditions should continue for the next 12-18 months or more if our economy can continue to grow.