![Portland City Councilor Eric Zimmerman: “We Stopped the Slide. Now We Have to Grow.” [5/21/26]](https://www.hfore.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1.jpg)
Portland City Councilor Eric Zimmerman: “We Stopped the Slide. Now We Have to Grow.” [5/21/26]
MICHAEL PIERCE:
Welcome back to Multifamily Marketwatch, from HFO Investment Real Estate. I’m Michael Pierce, senior data analyst at HFO.
Today, we’re looking at Portland’s housing progress through the lens of city policy, development feasibility and investor confidence.
HFO partner Greg Frick recently sat down with Portland City Councilor Eric Zimmerman, who represents District 4 and chairs the city’s Housing Committee. Their conversation covered multifamily permitting, system development charges, downtown recovery, Portland’s new form of government and what it may take to bring outside capital back into the market.
Zimmerman’s message was not that Portland has solved its problems. It was more measured than that. His view is that Portland may have stopped the slide, and now the harder work begins: creating enough stability, housing production and confidence for the market to grow again.
Permit applications may be turning a corner
Let’s start with one of the most important data points from the conversation.
According to Zimmerman, multifamily permit applications in Portland had fallen by roughly 50% over the previous two years. For any city, that kind of decline is a serious warning sign. For Portland, it matters even more because the region already has a substantial housing shortage, and the cost of building new apartments remains difficult to justify under current market conditions.
Zimmerman said October data reviewed by the Housing Committee showed a year-over-year increase in multifamily permit applications. He was careful not to declare victory. In his words, “It’s nothing to celebrate yet. But if that’s the case in a couple more quarters, I’ll feel good.”
That caution matters. One month or one quarter does not make a trend. But if permit activity continues improving over the next several quarters, it could suggest that Portland’s development market is responding to policy changes, especially the city’s system development charge waiver.
The SDC waiver is doing what it was designed to do
Zimmerman tied the uptick in permit applications directly to the city’s decision to waive system development charges, commonly called SDCs, for new residential development.
For apartment developers, SDCs are not a small line item. Zimmerman noted that they can run from roughly $20,000 to $60,000 per door. On a unit that costs $250,000 to $300,000 to build, that fee can be enough to determine whether a project pencils or stalls.
The city’s SDC waiver program was designed as a crisis tool, not a permanent solution. It launched with a three-year window and a goal of 5,000 units. At the time of Greg’s interview with Zimmerman in late March, nearly 2,000 units were already in the pipeline.
That is a meaningful response.
For owners and developers, the key takeaway is not simply that Portland reduced one cost. It is that the city sent a signal. After years of concern that Portland had become too expensive, too slow or too politically unpredictable for new housing development, the waiver told the market: We understand the math, and we are willing to move.
That does not solve interest rates. It does not solve construction costs. It does not solve insurance costs, labor constraints or investor skepticism. But it can help move projects from “not feasible” to “maybe feasible,” and in today’s market, that distinction matters.
Downtown Portland needs residents, not just office workers
The conversation then moved to downtown Portland.
Zimmerman described downtown as one of the region’s biggest conversion and redevelopment opportunities. The traditional downtown model separated office, retail and residential uses. That model has struggled after the pandemic, especially in cities where office workers have not returned at pre-2020 levels.
By contrast, neighborhoods such as the Pearl District and South Waterfront have had a stronger residential base. They have people living there after 5 p.m. That supports restaurants, coffee shops, retail, gyms, services and street-level activity.
Zimmerman’s argument is that downtown Portland needs more of that mix.
He put it plainly: “We should be the city of yes.” His point was that when a good housing or mixed-use idea comes across the permit desk, the city should not have old land use assumptions standing in the way.
The Broadway Corridor is a major example. The project, centered on the former post office site near the Pearl District, represents the kind of mixed-development model Zimmerman wants to see: workforce-affordable housing, additional residential development and the potential to attract a major employer to the remaining parcels. Prosper Portland is managing that effort.
The larger point is that downtown recovery cannot depend only on office occupancy. More residents would mean more activity, more perceived safety, more demand for ground-floor retail and a stronger sense that downtown is a neighborhood, not just a central business district trying to recover its old commuter patterns.
For multifamily investors, that is the opportunity and the challenge. Downtown has infrastructure, transit, cultural assets and major employers nearby. But it also needs a stronger residential base and a clearer path through policy, permitting and financing.
Portland’s investment reputation remains a major hurdle
One of the sharpest moments in Greg’s conversation with Zimmerman came when the councilor addressed Portland’s standing with institutional investors.
Zimmerman said, “When Portland is 80 out of 81 markets for investment, that should scare the hell out of us.”
That line matters because it captures the reputational problem Portland still faces. The city does not just need local developers to feel better. It needs outside investors to believe that Portland is once again a place where capital can be deployed with reasonable confidence.
Zimmerman pointed out that Portland needs roughly 20,000 new housing units. That scale cannot be financed with local capital alone. The market needs regional, national and institutional investors. And those investors tend to ask a few basic questions before they return:
Is the city stable?
Is there a visible growth trajectory?
Are rules predictable?
Is public safety improving?
Is the city serious about housing production?
Can projects be entitled, financed, built and operated without constant political whiplash?
Zimmerman’s view is that investors do not need perfection. They need predictability. They need to see a path forward.
That may be the most important theme of the interview: Portland’s fundamentals may still support investment, but capital needs evidence that the city is becoming more stable.
New government, steep learning curve
Zimmerman was also candid about Portland’s new form of government.
The current 12-member City Council took office under a redesigned system, with all members arriving at once. There were no senior council members. No institutional memory. No “sophomores, juniors or seniors,” as Zimmerman put it.
That created a steep learning curve.
Zimmerman described a first year marked by symbolic gestures, reactive decision-making and some late-night budget maneuvering that he viewed as more show than substance. He did not frame the problem as ideological so much as structural: A new council, new districts, new roles and no inherited operating rhythm.
He also said some councilors initially did not understand basic divisions of responsibility, such as why Multnomah County, not the city, is primarily responsible for homelessness services, or why the Joint Office of Homeless Services was created.
That is not a small issue. If elected officials do not understand who controls which lever, they can spend political energy on the wrong targets. They can also create uncertainty for investors, property owners, service providers and residents.
Zimmerman’s takeaway from year one was that coalition building and second-order thinking matter. Governing is not just responding to the headline. It requires understanding the underlying system before trying to change it.
The question for Portland is whether that lesson is spreading across the council as members move into the next budget cycle.
Public disorder: Zimmerman says conditions are improving
Zimmerman also addressed one of the biggest concerns investors and residents have had about Portland: visible disorder.
He said several conditions that hurt Portland’s reputation are being addressed. RV camping, according to Zimmerman, has been largely cleared citywide. Measure 110, Oregon’s drug decriminalization law, has been unwound. And downtown, in his view, feels different than it did two years ago.
His message to investors was direct: “Come see it. It looks better than the last time you were here.”
That is an important point because market perception often lags reality. Investors who last visited Portland during the worst of the pandemic-era disorder may still be underwriting the city as if nothing has changed. Zimmerman is arguing that the conditions on the ground have improved enough to deserve another look.
That does not mean the city has fully recovered. It does not mean public safety, homelessness, addiction or downtown vacancies are solved. But it does mean the city may be moving from crisis management toward rebuilding confidence.
And for apartment owners, that distinction matters.
A city does not need to be perfect to attract investment. But it does need to show that problems are being managed, that leadership understands the stakes and that the operating environment is becoming more predictable.
What this means for apartment owners and developers
So what should apartment owners, investors and developers take from Greg Frick’s interview with Eric Zimmerman?
First, watch the permit data. If the increase in multifamily applications continues for the next two to four quarters, that will be one of the clearest signs that the SDC waiver and related policy changes are affecting real development behavior.
Second, understand that the SDC waiver is a temporary tool. It may help projects pencil now, but long-term housing production will require a broader package: faster permitting, more predictable land use rules, lower regulatory friction and stronger investor confidence.
Third, downtown Portland remains a major long-term opportunity. But the future of downtown likely depends less on restoring the old office-only model and more on creating a true mixed-use residential district.
Fourth, governance matters. Investors are watching not only policy outcomes but also how decisions get made. Stability, process and predictability are part of the investment climate.
And finally, Portland’s story may be shifting from decline to cautious recovery. Zimmerman is not saying the city has arrived. He is saying the slide may have stopped. Now the city has to grow.
For multifamily investors, that is the question to watch: Is Portland entering a new phase where public policy, development feasibility and investor confidence begin to line up again?
The next few quarters will tell us a lot.
You can watch Greg Frick’s full interview with Portland City Councilor Eric Zimmerman on HFO’s Multifamily Marketwatch video series at youtube.com/@HFOInvestmentRealEstate.
I’m Michael Pierce, senior data analyst at HFO Investment Real Estate. Thanks for listening to Multifamily Marketwatch. We’ll see you next time.
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