Portland Suburb’s Novel Housing Model Offers $250,000 Homes in Market Where Median Tops $526,000

Clackamas County development uses community land trust structure to make homeownership accessible to moderate-income buyers

In a region grappling with one of the nation’s worst housing affordability crises, a new development opening this week represents a small but innovative step toward making homeownership attainable for working families.

Shortstack Milwaukie, a collection of 15 two-story, two-bedroom cottages priced at $250,000 each, will celebrate its ribbon cutting on October 29 in the Portland suburb’s Ardenwald neighborhood. The development is being hailed as a proof-of-concept for an alternative ownership model that could help address the metro area’s deepening affordability gap.

The timing couldn’t be more critical. According to a LendingTree study released in March 2025, Portl