High Desert, Higher Costs (Paperback)

Jonathan Bach

ISBN 10: 1962645282 / ISBN 13: 9781962645287

Published by Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 2025

About this Item

Paperback. Nestled against the Cascade Mountains, former lumber town Bend, Oregon, entices residents who long to live in a wonderland of sagebrush and forests. But like so many other communities across the West, Bend has too few homes for everyone clambering for access. In High Desert, Higher Costs, Jonathan Bach takes a closer look at the housing crisis in this mid-sized city that is both the population center for rural Central Oregon and a major recreation area. Bach uses Bend as a lens into the growing housing crisis in the region, where residents and tourists alike prize access to outdoor recreation, and housing issues have been brewing for decades. Like other cities in Montana, Idaho, and Colorado, Bend serves as a gateway to popular natural areas while also suffering from a limited amount of new housing, increasing populations, amenity migrants in the age of remote work, depressed or stagnating wages, and a widening gulf between homeowners and renters. High Desert, Higher Costs introduces us to regular peoplefrom the former political candidate evicted during COVID-19 to the nonprofit worker hoping to build apartments for the houselesswho struggle to call Bend home. Bach explores the causes of these issues and the political, legal, economic, and cultural factors influencing them, and also offers potential solutions for current and future residents to build their lives now, and in the years to come, in Bend and throughout the American West. In High Desert, Higher Costs, Jonathan Bach takes a closer look at the housing crisis in this mid-sized city that is both the population center for rural Central Oregon and a major recreation area. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781962645287

Bibliographic Details

• Title: High Desert, Higher Costs (Paperback)
• Publisher: Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1962645282
• ISBN 13: 9781962645287
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Nestled against the Cascade Mountains, former lumber town Bend, Oregon, entices residents who long to live in a wonderland of sagebrush and forests. But like so many other communities across the West, Bend has too few homes for everyone clambering for access. In High Desert, Higher Costs, Jonathan Bach takes a closer look at the housing crisis in this mid-sized city that is both the population center for rural Central Oregon and a major recreation area. Bach uses Bend as a lens into the growing housing crisis in the region, where residents and tourists alike prize access to outdoor recreation, and housing issues have been brewing for decades.

Like other cities in Montana, Idaho, and Colorado, Bend serves as a gateway to popular natural areas while also experiencing a limited amount of new housing, increasing populations, amenity migrants in the age of remote work, depressed or stagnating wages, and a widening gulf between homeowners and renters. High Desert, Higher Costs introduces us to regular people—from the former political candidate evicted during COVID-19 to the nonprofit worker hoping to build apartments for the houseless—who struggle to call Bend home. Bach explores the causes of these issues and the political, legal, economic, and cultural factors influencing them, and also offers potential solutions for current and future residents to build their lives now, and in the years to come, in Bend and throughout the American West.

About the Author

Jonathan Bach covers housing and commercial real estate for the Oregonian. He previously wrote for the Portland Business Journal, where his reporting on home-lending disparities received an honorable mention from the nonprofit Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. Jonathan lives with his wife, Makenna, near Portland, Oregon.