By Josh Lehner Oregon Office of Economic Analysis Blog Just a quick update on new construction and housing activity. While one hears and reads much about the current, so-called construction boom, it can be helpful to place the recent numbers in perspective. Within the Portland MSA, only one county – […]

Ater Wynne LLP NW Law frim Central Oregon’s residential property values rose faster in the mid-2000s’ housing bubble and fell harder in the 2008 crash than those in other Oregon areas. Bend, especially, has been a boom-and-bust kind of town since at least the late 1970s. The bust cycle has […]

By Jan Meekcoms Oregon NFIB According to the chief economist for America’s most important group of employers – small-business owners – a normal level of economic activity may finally be here, but the Oregon state director for the same association said today it isn’t due to anything happening in Oregon. […]

By Taxpayer Association of Oregon Foundation A study on the revenue potential of recreational marijuana that was promoted during Oregon’s legalization ballot push last fall is $60 million less than the state’s most recent budget projection. That figure gap is even bigger if one accounts for the costs associated with […]

Associated Oregon Industries Oregon’s largest business advocate The issue of corporate tax disclosure – embodied in HB 2077 – continues to rear its ugly head as the bill gets continually scheduled for committee work in the waning weeks of session. The amendments being considered for HB 2077 require the public […]

Marcus Mariota scores the number #1 NFL jersey sales in recent ranking. By Oregon Small Business Association The NFL’s online store reported that May jersey sales reveal the surging popularity of former Oregon Duck’s champion Marcus Mariota as his new Tennessee Titans jersey became the top selling jersey of all […]

By Josh Lehner Oregon Office of Economic Analysis Blog The fact that Oregon has below average income, by any conventional measure, has been well documented. See the Employment Department’s report or the library of work from ECONorthwest on the subject. Below, I simply update the standard per capita income figures […]

Fred Thompson, Oregon Economics Blog A quick Google search suggests that the phrase “politics makes for strange bedfellows” first appeared in an ancient Sanskrit text and was probably in fairly wide usage when Charles Dudley Warner in My Summer in the Garden (1870) punned “raspberries are sprawled all over the […]

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden Press Release, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., urged lifting the federal ban on industrial hemp, which has a wide variety of uses and economic benefits in Oregon and nationwide. Hemp-based products contributed about $620 million to the U.S. economy in 2014, but current federal regulations prohibit farmers […]

Paid sick leave mandate, SB 454, to cost Oregon small business a half billion By Oregon Small Business Association, Oregon small businesses are about to be hit with a half billion government mandate. The paid sick leave mandate, SB 454, is advancing in the Oregon Legislature and will cost businesses […]