QuickTake:

The largest increases in housing prices were between 2020 and 2022 and have largely plateaued in the three years since.

Cameron Metzler moved into his home in Eugene’s Jefferson Westside neighborhood about a year ago. The house was a major step up, with the neighborhood’s walkability, the home’s bigger size and a backyard for his two kids. With good schools in the area, he’s confident this could be his “forever home.”

“We intend on not ever moving again,” Metzler said. “Couldn’t ask for more from the Eugene area with this location.”

Metzler also is happy about being done with the homebuying process, an experience that left him pessimistic and stressed.

“When you’re buying, it’s this game of, ‘Well, gosh, do we just bite the bullet now?’ Because if we wait five years then we’ll definitely not be able to get anything else,” Metzler said of Eugene’s high home prices. “It seems like they’re always going to go up and everything’s just going to get more expensive, and so you just buy it now and try to make it work.”

When he purchased his home in 2024, he paid $620,000. In 2016, that same home sold for $400,000. The home’s price rose 55% over eight years. 

Metzler’s purchase may be considered a bargain. Across most neighborhoods in Eugene, home prices have almost doubled in the past 10 years.

The graph depicts data from the Zillow Home Value Index, which shows the typical value for a single-family home at a specific point in time. 

At the start of 2015, the typical value for a single-family home in Eugene was $220,000. In July 2025, the value was $460,000. 

In some neighborhoods, such as the Trainsong neighborhood, the price of a single-family home has increased by more than 150% in the last 10 years.

While Trainsong saw the highest percentage change, Goodpasture Island had the highest dollar change. There, the price of a typical single-family home grew by $394,294. 

Demand for homes in Eugene has remained high, with limited supply. Tony Losco, RE/MAX Integrity principal managing broker, has been working in the local real estate market for the last decade. He notes that the city’s livability, the benefits of a university town, and even an influx of Californians relocating here after wildfires have increased the numbers of people looking for housing in Eugene.

The city hasn’t kept up with the increased demand, and development within the urban growth boundary has lagged. 

“Why did the prices go up? Because Eugene has decided not to go ahead and expand their urban growth boundary,” Losco said.

Lindsay Selser, spokesperson for Eugene’s planning and development division, says while the city hasn’t expanded the urban growth boundary for housing since 1982, an analysis at the time showed enough land zoned for residences until 2032.

Selser said there will likely be another residential land expansion necessary in the next few years to accommodate the city’s unforeseen growth in population.

“There are many complex factors that go into the affordability of housing,” she said. “The city remains committed to working towards housing affordability solutions guided by the Housing Implementation Pipeline, including Urban Growth Strategies.” 

In the meantime, homes have grown increasingly unaffordable for new homebuyers. 

The following Zillow estimates show that it takes longer to save and it’s more expensive than it was a decade ago to buy a home.

Joe Liebersbach always envisioned buying a home in the Eugene-Springfield area after getting married. In the early stages of the pandemic, when interest rates were low, he considered making the commitment after a couple of his friends emptied out their savings and stimulus checks to buy homes. Liebersbach and his partner, however, had just started their careers and weren’t in the right financial state.

Now, five years later and with a higher salary, he still hasn’t found a property that would be a better option than his current rental.

“We have a really great rent, but we wouldn’t be able to buy the house we’re living in by any means,” Liebersbach said. “If we were to buy our own house, the quality of the house would definitely go down. Is it worth it to go thousands of dollars into debt for a house that we don’t like as much?”