Discussion: Portland development has slowed a lot.

[mhays]

Right now we have:
--High city fees
--High land costs on a per-unit or per-buildable-sf basis due to lack of zoned density
--High interest rates
--Rising and wildly uncertain construction costs due to tariffs
--A tanking economy due to tariffs and disappearing federal dollars, outside favored sectors (like via the 2022 CHIPS act)
--Many commercial/institutional construction consumers putting projects on hold for the short/mid-term for the same reasons

I don't have time to dive into a fee comparison, but Seattle has big development fees as well, and these are certainly affecting projects there. Along with fees on high incomes and various worker protections, this is a big factor in Bellevue's rise as a second downtown (though also slowing down). (On the flip side, WA requires that all significant cities/suburbs accommodate a lot of growth, and most do it by creating urban-zoned districts, which are proliferating around the region.)