One building, 105 homes.
This month North Bend opens what the housing authority calls the first building of its size on the South Coast in decades. It opens into a rental market where not one listing rents at what a household at half the can afford. It is good news. It is also small next to the need.
The rent, the benchmark, and what a household can pay
Three buildings, drawn to scale by monthly rent: what half the median income can pay, HUD's , and the median listing today. Pick a size.
A household at half the median income can pay $941 a month for a two-bedroom. The cheapest two-bedroom listed today is $1,000. The typical one is $1,450.
On every size, even the single cheapest listing costs more than half the median income can pay.
What a typical renter earns, and what a typical listing needs
Start with every listing. Apply what a household needs. Watch them go.
On October 15, 177 rentals were on the market across Coos and Curry. Each gold square is one.
Seven had no rent for a home: one RV space, three commercial spaces and three with no usable price. 170 remain: 148 in Coos, 22 in Curry.
Five gave no bedroom count, so they can't be matched to a rent limit. 165 remain.
132 rent above HUD's Fair Market Rent for their size. 33 remain, about one in five. Statewide, 57% of listings are at or under FMR (10,664 of 18,781). Here it is 20%.
None of those 33 rents at what a household at half the area median income can pay. 0.
At 30% of the median income, also none.
listings is within reach of a voucher's payment standard at Fair Market Rent.
A Housing Choice Voucher pays the difference between 30% of a household's income and the rent, up to the authority's . A family that receives one has 120 days to find a unit.
The Section 8 voucher waiting list has been closed since December 2022. affordablehousingonline.com, checked Oct 2026
The coast sits at the bottom of the state
The share of listings at or under FMR for their size. Inland neighbors run about 3.3 times the coast.
Tillamook, the lowest, has 4 of 56.
4,315 households live closest to the edge
Renter households at or below half the median income, from HUD's . Each dot is one household. The data is older than the listings: a scale, not a queue.
Thirteen years without, then 105 homes at once
built 432 units in Coos and Curry from 1987 to 2013. Over 2015–2024 the rest of Oregon placed 8,359 in service. Here: none. Each building is one year. Select one.
Inside Phase I
The housing authority calls it “the first major affordable housing development on the South Coast in over 40 years.”
50 of the new homes are for households at 30% of the median or below. There are 2,025 such renter households in the two counties.
Its rents, against the market
172 homes in the pipeline
The one-minute version
Where the distance is widest
Where the data shows the biggest gap between need and supply. These describe gaps, not recommendations.
50 new homes at 30% of median or below, for 2,025 households at that income.
20% of listings at or under FMR here, against 57% statewide.
No tax-credit units from 2014 to 2024. 172 homes now opening or in the pipeline.
Coos-Curry Housing Authority waitlist · waitlistcheck.com/OR386
Through Coordinated Entry: Compass Outreach, The Salvation Army, Oregon Coast Community Action, Alternative Youth Activities
For partners, funders and officials working on housing in Coos and Curry.
Methodology and sources
Every figure prints from the frozen dataset of 2026-10-15.