Portland State University’s Population Research Center puts out an annual report on population. Looking at Multnomah County, we added 8,480 people between 2006 and 2007 and 49,549 since 2000. That’s a steady 1% increase per year. Obviously not everyone one of them is a home buyer but the vast majority do need somewhere to live. There’s no way to predict how many of them are potential buyers so I’m not going to bother with even some conservative math by guessing how many people per family, job status, ability to qualify for a loan, etc. If the stats showed a decline in population this would be an entirely different post. One more thing before I hit “post.” My working definition of “good for the housing market”- a positive indicator for a stable market without sharp spikes in either direction. It’ a piece of the puzzle, not the complete picture.Portland Real Estate Blog