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I strongly agree with your emphasis on addressing supply; other interventions, such as vouchers and housing navigators, don't work well when we're short 140,000 housing units in Oregon. But one question on your numbers. In your first sentence, you say that Oregon ties for having the worst housing deficit in the US; what's the source on that, and what metric are you using? In the graphic just below that, attributed to Freddie Mac and author calculations, you show Oregon having a housing stock deficit equivalent to 8 percent of current supply, and on the map that appears to be the highest in the country by a good margin based on your figures. Is that your source and if so, what state is tied with Oregon for having the highest percentage deficit?

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Thank you for your question Nicholas. The tie for last in housing supply was calculated through an analysis that ECONorthwest did based on Census data in 2019. They compared the number of housing units to the number of households. Oregon and Washington had the lowest ratios. Their method is different from the Freddie Mac method which is based on a target vacancy rate and target households to estimate housing demand which is then subtracted from the Census estimate of housing supply -- both show dramatic deficits, though in different ratios. More detail on the Freddie Mac calculation is available in their Insight publication dated, February 27, 2020 - The Housing Supply Shortage: State of the States.

Greg

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