Hood River Blog · Columbia River Gorge

Living here,
and moving here.

Everything written about moving to Hood River is written by someone who profits from you moving to Hood River. This links to the city, the county and the newsroom instead.

Hood River is a town of roughly 8,500 people that a lot of people want to live in. The consequences run through everything: median house prices in the high six figures, a rental market tighter than newcomers expect, and only about 23 percent of the local workforce actually living inside city limits. Those numbers come from the city's own planning documents, not a relocation blog, and they are the real story of the place.

The reading list

Link-out only. No realtors, no relocation services, no cost-of-living aggregators.

Housing, which is the whole story

If you are thinking about moving here, read this group before you read anything about the hiking.

  1. Addressing housing needs

    City of Hood River · Primary

    The city stating plainly that housing affordability is a top policy priority, and what it has actually done: a middle housing code, a construction excise tax, and buying land to rezone for multifamily.

  2. Housing market economics FAQ

    City of Hood River · Primary document

    A city-published PDF explaining its own housing market to residents. Dry, and the single most honest document about Hood River economics you will find. This is where the 23 percent workforce figure comes from.

  3. Out-of-staters challenge Hood River's short-term rental policy in the 9th Circuit

    Columbia Gorge News · Local journalism

    The short-term rental fight is the defining local political argument, and it is now in federal appeals court. Local reporting on a live case, not a think piece.

  4. Long-term battle over short-term rentals

    Oregon Business · Journalism

    Background on how STRs went from roughly 50 to 200 since 2010 and why residents organised against them. Useful for understanding why a town this size has such fierce land-use politics.

  5. Short-term rentals

    Thrive Hood River · Advocacy

    A local land-use nonprofit with an explicit position. Read it as advocacy, but they know the county code better than almost anyone and they show their work.

Who actually runs the place

In a town where land use is the main argument, knowing which body decides what is genuinely useful.

  1. City of Hood River

    City government · Primary

    Council agendas, planning applications and the housing work. If you want to know what is about to be built, it is here before it is anywhere else.

  2. Hood River County

    County government · Primary

    The county governs everything outside city limits, including most of the orchard land. Different rules, different politics, and it matters enormously if you are buying acreage.

  3. Port of Hood River

    Public agency · Primary

    Runs the bridge, the marina and the waterfront. The Hood River bridge toll and its long-running replacement question are Port business, and the bridge is a daily fact of life for Washington-side commuters.

  4. Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area

    US Forest Service · Primary

    The Scenic Area designation constrains development across the whole Gorge. It is the reason the landscape still looks like that and part of why housing supply is so tight.

Daily life, practically

The things you check constantly once you live here.

  1. TripCheck road conditions

    Oregon DOT · Practical

    I-84 and the mountain passes. In winter this is the first thing you look at, and the Gorge closes more often than newcomers expect.

  2. National Weather Service, Portland

    NOAA · Practical

    The Gorge has its own wind regime. The forecast that matters is the one that understands the pressure gradient, not a phone app icon.

  3. Waterfall corridor timed-use permits

    Oregon DOT · Practical

    Summer permits for the western Gorge. Relevant mostly because it shows how the region now rations access to its most crowded places, and more of that is coming.