The growing cost of keeping a roof over one’s head — or owning said roof — isn’t lost on many folks in Central Oregon. At what point will non-wealthy people simply not be able to afford to live here?
Jonathan Bach can’t predict the future, but the journalist analyzes some potential solutions to our region’s housing crisis in his new book “High Desert, Higher Costs: Bend and the Housing Crisis in the American West,” published by OSU Press.
Bach, who has covered the housing beat for the ‘Portland Business Journal’ and, presently, for ‘The Oregonian,’ is no stranger to the strains felt by renters and aspiring homeowners. His family members are longtime renters and residents in Central Oregon; Bach himself went to high school here. In his book, Bach weaves his family’s challenging housing history with the experiences of other people struggling to live with security, and dignity, in our region. He investigates two promising solutions that might make the path to affordable housing and homeownership less rocky.
Bach will join in conversation with local housing advocates at OSU-Cascades Saturday at 5 pm. Copies of “High Desert, Higher Costs” will be available for sale.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
The Source: This book began as an article you wrote for ‘PBJ’ about how Bend is a bellwether for America’s housing crisis.
Bach: Yeah, I wrote the “High Desert, Higher Costs: The Dark Side of Bend’s Runaway Housing Market” story in 2021. I moved around a lot as a kid. My family is from Southern California. We moved to Bend in the early 2000s. We left and came back in 2007 — my family has stayed in Central Oregon since then. I had watched the housing market in a few different phases. Both with my family being renters for much of their lives. Then The Great Recession in 2008 and the Covid-19 real estate boom. For the cover story, I was able to pick at it a little bit. And then I was able to go really in-depth with the book.
TS: Tell us about the article’s reception.
Bach: That piece resonated with a lot of folks. The housing shortage and the inability for Central Oregonians and people in communities like Bend to achieve
homeownership or a stable life. Those two factors compelled me to want to write a book.
TS: At what point does a town like Bend reach a breaking point where service industry workers, seasonal workers, simply cannot afford to live here — full stop?
Bach: I can’t predict a breaking point, but you and I can both see the cracks. The median home price is $832,000, according to Beacon Appraisal Group. [Realtor.com says $869,000.] How is a restaurant worker or a nurse at St. Charles Health System supposed to afford that? Especially at a time when the median income in Bend is around $125,000, give or take. With that, you should be spending between $400,000 and $500,000 on a house — to make it affordable. I think the cracks are showing and they’re just getting wider and wider.
TS: What are some obstacles to making affordable or low-income housing in Central Oregon?
Bach: The challenges to affordable housing here are similar to the challenges that the rest of the state, and, in many ways, the rest of nation, faces. The way we finance affordable housing — and I have a whole chapter on this — is incredibly complicated for well-meaning developers to cobble together, and it’s incredibly expensive to build affordable housing. There are investments in affordable housing that I investigate. I wanted to see what Oregonians have gotten with their investment in a particular state program called the Local Innovation and Fast Track Homeownership Program that builds income-restricted affordable housing. That chapter highlights many of those hurdles.
TS: Which chapter was the most mind-blowing for you to report on and write?
Bach: I’ve covered housing for several years — court cases, criminal trials, securities trials… One of things that surprised me the most was the chapter that covers the eviction of one of my sources in Bend. And that whole eviction trial, which pivoted this person’s life in a completely different direction, lasted less than an hour. That was very eye-opening.
TS: One of the final chapters of your book is dedicated to solutions. Can you walk us through some of those?
Bach: This book is, in part, solutions journalism. It’s not about advocating for policies or pushing certain prescriptions, but rather investigating the pros and cons of what has potentially worked in other communities or instances. Some of the things I looked at throughout the book is missing middle housing, which is the idea of building more townhomes, duplexes — dense housing that meshes with our land use system that curtails sprawl. The other is community land trusts, which is affordable housing where the homebuyer doesn’t own the land under the home; a nonprofit owns it. That takes away a lot of the costs for entering into homeownership for a new homebuyer. It’s like a steppingstone. I take those two examples and look at what the pros and drawbacks might be.
TS: How did the book come about?
Bach: The deal came when I was still at the PBJ. I actually wrote most of the book, and pretty much put a bow on it, while I was still there.
TS: So you worked on this book after writing all day?
Bach: Yeah. I would work in the mornings. On my lunch break, I’d interview a source. And I did a lot of work after work. And then obviously weekends.
TS: I think it was Raymond Carver who said something like — If you want to become a writer, you have to get used to writing at your kitchen table every night.
Bach: Oh yeah, I completely agree. I had a kind of Covid-19 living room desk setup. I punched out so many chapters from that desk hanging out with my cats.
High Desert, Higher Costs: Bend and the Housing Crisis in the American West
Saturday, May 17
Oregon State University-Cascades, SW Century Dr., Bend
Doors open at 4:30 pm; event from 5-6:30 pm
The event is free, but please RSVP at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/high-desert-higher-costs-bend-and-the-housing-crisis-tickets-1290376253109
This article appears in Source Weekly May 15, 2025.
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The City of Bend and Brooks Resources and the developers they cater to do NOT care about the problems facing this city. They simply do not. They are money hungry, corrupt and hell bent on sucking every last dollar out of this area until the wait for a dentist appointment is 8 years.
Stop this madness! Someone! Please.
Man, my reading list is overflowing, and now THIS?!
THANKS A LOT, JONATHAN.
But seriously, looking forward to picking this one up.
So his solutions are more rentals, corporate owned of course and private homes on corporate owned land?? Are you kidding? Sounds like this guy is in on the scam
Sandra: “So his solutions are more rentals, corporate owned of course…”
No. He didn’t say that at all. He did talk about townhomes and duplexes, but those can be privately owned and are not exclusive to renting.
Sandra: “…and private homes on corporate owned land??”
Again, no. He didn’t say that at all. He did mention community land trusts, which are run by a non-profit organization and overseen by a board comprised of people who live in the community; while there is a risk of power-hungry representatives misusing their positions, it’s still safer than retail banks owning the land, as the board members live in the same community and will be held in check by the residents.
Sandra: “Are you kidding? Sounds like this guy is in on the scam”
What scam? Attempting to find reasonable solutions? Offering ideas? Thinking rather than spouting off? What’s your solution, Sandra? Enlighten us.