Clackamas (OR) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

Landlords collectively own 21,636 SFR properties in Clackamas County, representing 17.3% of the total SFR market of 125,354 properties. This highlights a substantial but not overwhelming investor presence in the local housing landscape.

Individual landlords significantly outnumber and out-own company landlords, holding 17,966 properties (83.0% of the investor-owned portfolio) compared to companies owning 4,568 properties (21.1%). This indicates that the vast majority of investment properties are held by smaller, individual investors.

The structure of landlord entities further reinforces this, with 25,740 individual landlords compared to 3,804 company landlords. This 6.77:1 ratio of individual to company entities suggests a market predominantly shaped by mom-and-pop operations.

A strong focus on rental income is evident, as 21,043 of the 21,636 investor-owned SFR properties (97.2%) are designated as rented. This demonstrates that investor activity is overwhelmingly geared towards the long-term rental market rather than short-term flips or vacant holdings.

Looking at acquisition methods, cash purchases slightly exceed financed properties within the investor portfolio, with 11,544 properties bought with cash versus 10,092 properties financed. This could indicate a preference for reducing leverage or a strong presence of cash-rich buyers in the market.

In Q4 2025, landlords in Clackamas County acquired SFR properties at an average price of $592,587, securing a substantial $113,803 discount compared to traditional homeowners, who paid $706,390. This represents a 16.1% price advantage for landlords.

The landlord pricing advantage has significantly widened quarter-over-quarter; the discount increased from 5.5% ($40,751) in Q3 2025 to 16.1% ($113,803) in Q4 2025. This suggests landlords are finding increasingly better deals in the most recent quarter.

Comparing Q4 2025 to earlier in the year, the landlord average acquisition price dropped from $669,196 in Q1 to $592,587 in Q4. This downward trend in landlord prices contrasts with a less pronounced decrease for homeowners over the same period, contributing to the expanding price gap.

Looking at annual trends, the average landlord acquisition price for Year 2025 stands at $663,020, which is lower than the $700,613 average for Year 2024. This indicates a general decline in landlord purchase prices over the last year.

Furthermore, the 2025 average acquisition price of $663,020 is higher than the average of $622,215 observed during the 2020-2023 period, reflecting a sustained increase in property values despite recent quarterly fluctuations.

The consistent ability of landlords to pay less than homeowners across multiple quarters (5.5% in Q3, 7.3% in Q2, 7.1% in Q1) suggests a strategic advantage, likely due to market expertise, cash buying power, or targeting specific property types.

Landlords were significant players in the Q4 2025 market, completing 232 SFR purchases, which represents 20.3% of the total 1,144 SFR purchases in Clackamas County. This shows a notable portion of market activity driven by investors.

Mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04) overwhelmingly dominated investor acquisitions, responsible for 221 properties, or 90.6% of all landlord purchases in Q4. This highlights their critical role in the current investment landscape.

In stark contrast to mom-and-pop activity, institutional investors (Tier 09) acquired only 8 properties, representing a mere 3.3% of landlord purchases in Q4. This signals a relatively low level of large-scale corporate buying activity in the quarter.

The single-property landlord tier (Tier 01) was the most active segment, with 163 distinct properties purchased by 234 entities in Q4, accounting for 66.8% of all landlord purchases by distinct properties in the tier analysis. This indicates a strong influx of new or expanding small-scale investors.

Across all tiers, 321 entities collectively acquired properties in Q4, demonstrating widespread participation from various investor sizes. For Tier 01, 234 entities acquired 163 properties, indicating many first-time or single-property expansions within the quarter.

The remaining mid-size landlord tiers (05-08) collectively accounted for a minimal 15 properties (Tiers 11-20, 21-50, 51-100, 101-1000 bought 3, 6, 5, 1 property respectively), demonstrating limited activity compared to the smallest investor groups.

Mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04) collectively dominate the Clackamas County investor-owned SFR market, controlling a massive 95.8% of all properties held by landlords. This demonstrates their foundational role in the local rental housing supply.

Specifically, single-property landlords (Tier 01) hold the largest share, owning 17,369 properties, which accounts for 77.3% of the total investor-owned portfolio within the tier breakdown. This signifies the prevalence of individual, small-scale investors.

In stark contrast to the mom-and-pop majority, institutional investors (Tier 09) own only 42 properties, representing a marginal 0.2% of the total landlord-owned SFR in the county. This figure challenges popular narratives about large corporate dominance in this market.

Looking at Q4 transaction prices (from section 12-2), single-property landlords paid an average of $626,395, while institutional investors paid a lower average of $434,812. This indicates institutional buyers secure properties at a 30.6% discount compared to first-time or single-property buyers.

The distribution of entities across tiers (though not explicitly listed in 8-1, implied from 7-2) suggests that while there are many small entities, their combined holdings create a robust mom-and-pop segment.

While specific price trends by tier over time are not fully detailed in section 8-2's data snippet, the Q4 transactional pricing reveals distinct buying strategies between the smallest and largest investor tiers.

Individual investors predominantly own smaller portfolios, controlling 85.8% of single-property (Tier 01) holdings and 74.8% of two-property (Tier 02) holdings. This highlights the entry point for most private landlords.

The ownership landscape shifts dramatically at the small landlord (6-10 properties) tier, where companies become the majority owners, holding 54.2% (270 properties) compared to individuals at 45.8% (228 properties). This marks a key crossover point in portfolio scale.

Beyond this crossover, company ownership increasingly dominates larger tiers: 85.3% in the 11-20 property tier and 77.0% in the 21-50 property tier. This concentration suggests that larger portfolios are primarily managed and expanded by corporate entities.

Even within the medium-large (51-100 properties) tier, companies maintain a strong majority, owning 69.2% of properties. This pattern indicates that as portfolio sizes grow, the operational and financial structures favor corporate management.

While the exact split for institutional investors (1000+ properties) is not provided, their scale strongly implies corporate ownership, aligning with the trend seen in the higher tiers. This reinforces the idea of a clear individual-to-company transition as portfolio size increases.

The data underscores a clear segmentation: individuals form the backbone of the small-scale rental market, while companies drive the growth and management of larger investment portfolios in Clackamas County.

Within Clackamas County, specific zip codes show significant concentration of investor-owned properties, with OR-Clackamas-97045 leading the county with 2,598 investor-owned SFR properties (15.2% ownership rate).

Following closely in terms of sheer volume are OR-Clackamas-97222 with 1,566 investor-owned properties (16.9% ownership rate) and OR-Clackamas-97055 with 1,359 properties (20.9% ownership rate), demonstrating hot spots for investor interest.

A striking pattern emerges in several smaller zip codes where investor ownership rates are extremely high: OR-Clackamas-97215, OR-Clackamas-97030, and OR-Clackamas-97223 each show a 100.0% investor ownership rate. These are likely smaller, specialized zones predominantly consisting of investor-held units.

While OR-Clackamas-97045 has the highest count of investor-owned properties, its ownership rate of 15.2% is lower than OR-Clackamas-97055 (20.9%) and several other zip codes with 100% rates, indicating that high property count does not always correlate with the highest penetration rate.

OR-Clackamas-97068 also shows significant investor activity, with 1,319 properties and a 13.3% ownership rate, rounding out the top five areas by property count and highlighting a broad geographic distribution of investor interest across the county.

The presence of zip codes with 100.0% investor ownership rates suggests specialized or potentially niche market segments where traditional homeowners may be scarce or non-existent, indicating a fully investor-driven micro-market.

Landlords in Clackamas County are consistently net buyers, demonstrating a robust accumulation strategy over time. In Q4 2025, they bought 337 properties while selling 116, resulting in a net gain of 221 properties and a buy/sell ratio of 2.91x.

Across Year 2025, landlords remained strong net buyers, acquiring 1,564 properties against 433 sells, achieving a buy/sell ratio of 3.61x. This trend continues from Year 2024, which saw 1,632 buys versus 444 sells (3.68x ratio), indicating sustained investor confidence.

While overall landlords consistently buy more than they sell, institutional investors (1000+ tier) show a more volatile pattern. In Q4 2025, they were net buyers (8 buys versus 2 sells, 4.0x ratio), contrasting with their net seller position in Q2 2025 (5 buys versus 7 sells) and significantly in Year 2024 (2 buys versus 12 sells).

The average buy and sell prices for landlords are not provided in this section, preventing an analysis of implied profit margins or pricing strategies over time.

Transaction volumes for all landlords have remained relatively stable year-over-year, with 1,564 buys in Year 2025 compared to 1,632 in Year 2024, suggesting a consistent level of market engagement.

The percentage of landlord-to-landlord transactions for all landlords is not available in section 11-1. However, Q4 2025 data (from section 12-2) indicates that for single-property landlords, 7.2% of their transactions were from other landlords.

Landlords accounted for a significant 17.6% of all SFR transactions in Q4 2025 in Clackamas County, completing 337 out of 1,910 total transactions. This demonstrates their continued active role in shaping the market.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) dominated Q4 transaction volume, with 237 recorded transactions. In contrast, institutional investors (Tier 09) had a minimal presence with only 8 transactions.

A notable pricing disparity exists between investor tiers: institutional investors (Tier 09) paid an average of $434,812 per property in Q4, which is a substantial 30.6% less than single-property landlords (Tier 01), who paid $626,395. This highlights a significant pricing advantage for larger, more sophisticated buyers.

Inter-landlord trading activity varied by tier. Single-property landlords (Tier 01) sourced 17 of their 237 transactions (7.2%) from other landlords. Conversely, institutional investors (Tier 09) acquired 0% of their properties from other landlords in Q4.

Other smaller tiers, such as two-property landlords (18.2%) and medium-large landlords (20.0%), showed higher percentages of transactions originating from other landlords, suggesting active internal market dynamics among these segments.

The wide price spread of $386,486 between the highest ($626,395 for Tier 01) and lowest ($239,909 for Tier 21-50) average purchase prices across tiers suggests diverse investment strategies and target properties within the landlord market.