Milwaukie

Milwaukie is a city mostly in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States; a very small portion of the city extends into Multnomah County.¹ The population in 2024 was 21,620, making it the 31st most populated city in the state of Oregon.² Founded in 1847 on the banks of the Willamette River, the city, known as the Dogwood City of the West, was incorporated in 1903 and is the birthplace of the Bing cherry.¹ The city is now a suburb of Portland and also adjoins the unincorporated areas of Clackamas and Oak Grove.¹ Milwaukie has an area of 4.8 square miles.³

The city experienced a significant boost in its housing market following the opening of the MAX Orange Line light rail in 2015. In 2015–2016, Milwaukie saw a boom in real estate and was named the ninth hottest real estate market in 2016 by realtor.com.¹ A year after the opening of the Orange Line, housing prices had risen 12.2% and city officials said there were no vacancies for retail storefronts in Milwaukie’s downtown area.¹

Housing Statistics#

Milwaukie’s housing consists of 9,876 units, with 67.7% being detached single-family homes.⁵ Attached options, including duplexes and townhouses, make up 3.2%, while multifamily buildings are also present in the area, and non-traditional options like mobile homes account for 1.2% of the housing landscape.⁵ The median construction year in Milwaukie is 1967.⁵ The Milwaukie housing market is very competitive, scoring 86 out of 100.⁴

Zoning and Land Use#

Creating and supporting housing opportunities, primarily middle housing options in all neighborhoods, has been a key goal for Council and the community. The adopted Comprehensive Plan policies call for expanded housing opportunities throughout the city and Oregon House Bill 2001 (HB 2001), passed by the state legislature in July 2019, required cities to allow for the development of middle housing throughout residential areas.⁷

When City Council updated the code in 2022 to comply with House Bill 2001, they chose to allow attached and detached plexes.⁸ The new code applies to all residential zones and became effective on June 3, 2022.⁹ Middle housing types permitted include duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, townhomes and cottage clusters.⁹

The outcome is a package of code amendments that balance the city’s goal for a 40% tree canopy, provision of off-street parking, and implementation of the housing policies outlined in the plan in compliance with HB 2001.⁷ The amendments allow detached single dwelling and middle housing (except cottage clusters) on 3,000 square foot lots.¹⁰ A multi-disciplinary consultant team, led by Urbsworks, assisted city staff with this project.⁷

The city created the Comprehensive Plan Implementation Committee (CPIC), a 15-member volunteer group of Milwaukie residents, to help inform city staff and its consultants about updates to land use code during Phase 1.⁷

Buildable Land#

According to the city’s 2023 Housing Capacity Analysis (HCA), prepared by ECONorthwest:

Milwaukie has about 51 buildable acres in residential plan designations within the city limits.¹¹ The City is planning to accommodate the city’s forecasted growth of 1,670 new dwelling units over the 2023–2043 planning period.¹² It seems likely the City will have more than the estimate of 600 units of middle housing infill and redevelopment to supplement capacity on vacant land.¹³

Milwaukie’s existing housing mix is predominantly single-dwelling detached. In the 2015–2019 period, 67% of Milwaukie’s housing was single-dwelling detached, 2% was single-dwelling attached, 6% was multi-dwelling housing (with two to four units per structure), and 25% was multi-dwelling housing (with five or more units per structure).¹²

These factors suggest that Milwaukie needs a broader range of housing types with a wider range of price points than are currently available in Milwaukie’s housing stock, including single-dwelling detached housing, townhouses, duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, and multi-dwelling buildings with five or more units.¹¹

Key constraints on remaining buildable land include Milwaukie’s position as a largely built-out inner-ring suburb with limited vacant parcels, flood risk along Kellogg Creek and Johnson Creek, and the city’s goal of maintaining a 40% tree canopy.

Recent Housing Developments#

• Hillside Park Redevelopment: The phased project will ultimately convert 100 aging homes built in 1942 into 500 beautiful new affordable apartment homes with modern amenities.¹⁴ The demolition of the initial 54 public housing units located to the south of Hillside Park has been completed, making way for the construction of 275 new units of amenity-rich affordable housing, located in three adjacent buildings. Construction began in Summer 2024 and completion is expected in the first half of 2026.¹⁵ The three buildings are funded in part with $41.7 million from the voter-approved Metro affordable housing bond leveraged by Clackamas County.¹⁶ The new buildings will offer studio to three-bedroom homes for households earning less than 30% to 60% of the area median income. Twenty-one apartments will be permanently supportive homes that come with case management and wraparound services for households leaving homelessness.¹⁶

• Shortstack Milwaukie: Shortstack Milwaukie is the first of six affordable homeownership projects that have received Metro affordable housing bond funds to reach completion. The new development includes 15 free-standing houses in a ‘cottage cluster’ design. The two-story homes are priced at $250,000 each and available to households with incomes at or below 80% of the area median income.¹⁷ The development team explored an innovative process using mass panelized timber to construct the homes quickly and efficiently, and construction took only about a year.¹⁷

• MIRL Program: In December 2025, dozens of residents and developers urged Milwaukie council to adopt an originating ordinance to participate in the state Moderate Income Revolving Loan (MIRL) program so the city can remain eligible for roughly 44 affordable for-sale homes and future allocations.¹⁸

• Downtown Mixed-Use: A mixed-use project located in the heart of downtown Milwaukie with 110 market rate apartments with above ground floor retail was completed in 2019.¹⁹

Key Housing Challenges#

The City of Milwaukie has identified housing affordability as a key issue. Many households in Milwaukie are struggling to afford housing. Housing costs for both rental and ownership units are much higher than many residents can afford.²⁰

• Cost burden: About 38% of households in Milwaukie are cost burdened (paying 30% or more of their income in rent). Cost burden is higher for renter households, 52% of whom are cost burdened.²⁰
• Income gap: 72% of Milwaukie’s households have income below the regional median.²¹ About 39% of Milwaukie’s households have incomes below $48,450 and can afford $1,200 or less in monthly rent, which is below the average asking rents in Milwaukie.²¹
• Wage-housing disconnect: The cost of renting and owning a home have increased sharply over the last 10 years. As housing costs rise, many Milwaukie residents pay so much for housing that they have difficulty affording their basic needs. Others, including many who work in Milwaukie, cannot afford housing in the city at all. While wages in Milwaukie have increased, they have increased at a much slower rate than the cost of housing.²²
• Limited buildable land: With only about 51 buildable acres in residential plan designations, the city must rely heavily on infill and redevelopment.¹¹
• Housing diversity deficit: The City has a deficit of some affordable housing types, such as government-subsidized housing, existing lower-cost apartments, and smaller-scale housing like townhouses and quad-plexes.²²
• Flood risk: 17% of properties are at risk of severe flooding over the next 30 years. 501 properties in Milwaukie are likely to be severely affected by flooding over the next 30 years, representing 17% of all properties in Milwaukie.⁴

Local Housing Policies#

Milwaukie Housing Affordability Strategy (MHAS): The MHAS is a blueprint for providing equitable affordable housing opportunities and is intended to help increase the amount of affordable housing in the city. Adopted on July 17, 2018, this strategy contains 31 action items for short, mid-term and long-term implementation within three main housing goals: increase the amount of housing affordable to people across the income spectrum.²³

Housing Capacity Analysis & Housing Production Strategy: The HCA and HPS documents were adopted by City Council on June 6, 2023.²⁴ The HCA includes an assessment of current and future (20-year) demand for housing units across a range of prices, rent levels, locations, housing types, and densities, and compares these needs with the community’s 20-year supply of buildable residential land. The HPS outlines the specific tools, actions, and policies that the city plans to take to address the housing needs identified in the HCA.²⁵

Construction Excise Tax (CET): City Council adopted the CET Ordinance No. 2154 on November 21, 2017.²⁴ The City of Milwaukie already collects a CET and has plans to use existing funds to support new affordable housing units, including a multi-unit development with 275 units affordable to households that earn between approximately $30,000 and $60,000 per year and a middle housing courtyard development, which will be operated as a land trust.²⁶

Urban Renewal District: Milwaukie’s Urban Renewal Area, which allows for tax increment financing (TIF), was established in 2016.²⁷ Milwaukie has an Urban Renewal District that covers downtown and the city’s Central Milwaukie area. The purpose of the District is to encourage improvements to this area by funding infrastructure development, economic development, and housing development. Over the next five-year period, the City expects to have $2 million in its Urban Renewal Fund to support housing development.²⁶

ADU Code Updates: The city hired Cascadia Partners to provide an assessment of the existing zoning code standards and fees related to ADUs and develop recommendations aimed at enabling the development of more cost-effective ADUs in the city.²⁴

Sources#