A research group backed by contractors is looking to expand its presence in Oregon policy circles with studies of interest to industry.

Contractors are supporting the Common Sense Institute (CSI) as an ally able to bolster their political efforts in Salem and locally with data-driven studies.

CSI’s Oregon chapter is billed as a “non-partisan research organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of Oregon’s economy.” The chapter receives funding from groups including the Associated General Contractors‘ Oregon-Columbia chapter, Oregon Realtors and Oregon Business & Industry, an AGC official said.

CSI was founded in Greenwood Village, Colorado. The Oregon chapter was established in March 2024, according to state records.

“We’ve seen it as something helpful,” said Kirsten Adams, an AGC lobbyist.

CSI produces research on business matters, including a recent study finding “renewed weakness” in Oregon’s labor market at the end of 2025. Another study, released Tuesday, quantified the economic impact of the state’s outdoor recreation industries, such as golf and skiing.

AGC’s Oregon-Columbia chapter supported bringing CSI here after contractors in Colorado spoke positively of CSI’s role in that state, Adams said.

“We talked with our counterparts from AGC Colorado, and they saw some benefit from having a nonpartisan research group,” she said.

Cinamon Watson, the group’s Colorado-based CEO, said CSI’s research does not support either major political party.

“We are not an advocacy organization, and we are not partisan,” she said. “We are strictly nonpartisan. We deliver the facts and the data that impact jobs and the economy.”

Mark McMullen, the longtime former state chief economist, serves as CSI’s vice president of policy and research. McMullen took the CSI job after serving as the state’s point person for calculating the income tax “kicker” refund.

CSI also has chapters in Arizona and Iowa, and has done work in other states.

“When people have good facts and data instead of political spin or rhetoric, they make better decisions,” Watson said.

Some parties are skeptical of research produced by industry-backed groups — reasoning that they have an incentive to produce research that paints industry in a good light or to bury research that does otherwise.

“One has to question the findings in these types of studies given that there is a conflict of interest by the researchers,” stated Richard Clucas, a Portland State University professor of political science, in an email.

Clucas emphasized that he wasn’t familiar with CSI’s research specifically.

CSI Oregon’s board includes Tom Gerding, former CEO and current board chairman of Gerding Cos., based in Corvallis. Gerding has long been involved with AGC. Other board members include Dan Vannoy of Emery & Sons Construction Group, Angela Wilhelms of Oregon Business & Industry, Lynn Snodgrass of Drake’s 7 Dees and Jenny Pakula of Oregon Realtors.

“The board members (in Oregon) are really thoughtful about public policy and do care deeply about the state,” Watson said.

The group’s nonpartisan status does not mean that its reports don’t touch on hot political issues. Last year, as the Oregon Legislature debated a transportation bill to raise $4.3 billion over 10 years, CSI produced two reports analyzing the package’s costs and benefits.

AGC has important issues at play in Salem, including funding for the state’s megaprojects such as the Interstate Bridge replacement and the I-5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project.

As the Legislature meets for a five-week short session that began Monday, CSI will keep churning out analysis.

“We’ve got some good reports coming out,” Watson said.

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A large-scale survey of landlords and housing operators in Oregon showed a mixed picture for the multifamily market, with average rents rising across the state despite a modest increase in vacancies.

Rents rose 3 percent from a year ago to $2.11 per square foot. The vacancy rate in the Portland and Vancouver metro area grew to 5.47 percent, up from 4.49 percent a year ago.

The data comes from Multifamily NW’s biannual Apartment Report. The organization surveys 460 properties totaling 42,000 units.

Multifamily brokers saw a silver lining in the data.

“I feel like we’ve kind of hit a bottom for valuation,” said Greg Frick, co-founder of HFO Investment Real Estate, in an interview. “We have seen a pick-up in investment activity.”

Multifamily buyers have stopped expecting bargain-basement deals, said Frick, who serves on the Apartment Report’s advisory committee. “They’ve come up a little, and sellers have come down a little,” he said.

Multifamily transactions grew to 93 deals in the Portland metro area during the first nine months of the year, up from 80 for the same period in 2024. Dollar volume likewise jumped 55.3 percent to $1.53 billion. Capitalization rates hovered around 6 percent.

Little new supply is expected to come online: Only 2,000 units were under construction this fall, leaving the metro area’s pipeline at its lowest level since 2011. That should help buoy rents, but does little to address the ongoing housing deficit, analysts said.

Multifamily NW hosted a release event for the report at the Oregon Convention Center. Speakers gave a dizzying blizzard of starkly negative economic data and positive anecdotes.

Mayor Keith Wilson, in the keynote speech, gave several examples of what he calls “boom loop” thinking that will contribute to Portland’s economic revival.

Wilson pointed to proposed development at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry district and the Broadway Corridor. Visitors are coming back to Portland, with hotel occupancy up 5 percent from 2024, he said.

The James Beard Public Market is under construction downtown and efforts are underway to revitalize some of Portland’s most blighted areas, including parts of the Old Town- Chinatown neighborhood and Water Avenue in Southeast Portland.

“We are going to build back Portland better right now, with or without the federal government,” he said.

The city is also working to help developers build housing, including by waiving system development charges for housing for three years, by expanding video permit inspections and eliminating bureaucratic bottlenecks.

“We will not hold up your dreams in Portland,” Wilson said.

Wilson’s upbeat remarks were immediately followed by a notably dreary economic forecast by Mike Wilkerson, director of economic research for ECOnorthwest. By some economic indicators, Oregon and Washington are in a recession while most of the rest of the country continues to grow, he said.

The state has lost 18,300 jobs in the past year, a majority of which were in Multnomah County, he said. Portland is one of only five of the top 50 metro areas in the U.S. seeing job loss.

“We are very much the exception to the rule,” Wilkerson said. He added that Oregon and the U.S. are likely to see population begin to decline unless the nation allows more immigration.

Nationally, Moody’s Analytics recently put the odds of a U.S. recession in the next 12 months at 48 percent.

The share of cost-burdened renters in the Portland area remained unchanged in the past decade despite a well-funded push to build affordable housing. Those efforts have only succeeded in keeping the numbers stable, Wilkerson said.

“We would certainly be worse had we not done what we have done,” he said.

Industry officials said Portland must do more to attract jobs, housing and economic activity.

“We need to figure out a way to be competitive,” Frick said. “As a region, we rest on our laurels a little bit — that people will come no matter what. I think that’s changed.”

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