What Stops and What Follows
The distinction to hold on to, because owners generalise in both directions and get it wrong each way.
Stops at the city limits: Chapter 17.106, the Deconstruction of Buildings Law. It is a Portland ordinance and it does not apply in Gresham, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Tigard, Lake Oswego, Milwaukie, Oregon City, Troutdale, Fairview or Wood Village, nor in the unincorporated parts of the three counties.
Follows you anywhere in Oregon: the assessment rules. Maximum assessed value grows at 103 per cent a year, ordinary maintenance and repair are not added to assessed value, and new improvements are an exception that is added and carried forward. The full position is on our page covering deconstruction and the tax basis.
So a Suburban Teardown Is Cheaper?
Three Counties, Many Cities
This metro spans Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties, and the incorporated cities within them each run their own permitting. Gresham, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Tigard, Lake Oswego, Milwaukie, Oregon City, Troutdale, Fairview and Wood Village are among them.
Each sets its own fees, its own processes and its own timelines, and a contractor who works constantly inside Portland may never have filed in any of them. It is a fair question to put to anyone quoting.
How Do I Confirm Which Jurisdiction I Am In?
We publish no demolition requirements, fees or timelines for the individual suburban cities. There are too many and they differ, and each will quote its own position for your address.
The Tax Consequence Is the Same Everywhere
Worth restating because it is the half suburban owners most often assume they escaped. Repairing an existing structure is maintenance and repair and does not add to assessed value. Building a new house is new improvements, an exception to the cap.
And where maximum assessed value has been reduced for fire or act of God, or for demolition or removal of a building, that reduction may not be treated as a retirement to offset the new improvements. That provision is state law and it reaches every property in Oregon.
Suburban Stock Behaves Differently
Much of the housing across these cities is post-war and later, built with engineered roof trusses and floor systems. Those come out whole once heat has compromised the connections rather than being repaired in sections, so a fire reaching the roof structure more often produces a rebuild than the same fire on older Portland stock.
Where a house sits on a slab, heat damage to it is invisible and becomes the largest unknown on the file. Where there is a crawl space or a basement, the structure can be examined from beneath.
The Suburbs in Context
Where later housing sits inside the city limits, see our page about East Portland. Where the ordinance reaches almost everything, see our page for Northeast Portland.
What the Statutes Say Across the Metro
Chapter 17.106 of the Portland City Code is municipal and stops at the city limits. Its threshold has been 1940 since 20 January 2020 under ordinance 189761, having been 1916 from 31 October 2016.
ORS 308.146, ORS 308.149 to 308.166 and ORS 308.153 are state law and reach all three counties, capping growth at 103 per cent a year and treating new improvements as an exception.
Metro Suburb Questions
Does the Deconstruction Rule Apply out Here?
Not as a Portland ordinance. Your own city may have its own demolition requirements, which is worth asking about directly.
Do the Tax Rules Still Apply?
Yes. Those are state law and they reach every property in Oregon regardless of which city you are in.
Will You Buy Outside Portland?
Yes, across the metro cities and unincorporated county. The jurisdiction affects the process and therefore the figure, and it does not stop us buying.