Name: Cascadia
Address: USA

What living here asks of you

Cascadia asks you to accept that the hard part is not buying land but being allowed to use it. Oregon's statewide Senate Bill 100 planning zones most rural parcels as Exclusive Farm Use, so a multi-household community will likely need a Conditional Use Permit and multi-year county planning engagement, and you should hire an ORS 215 land-use attorney before purchasing, not after. Land is costly here, 3 to 5 times the Alentejo baseline even in the Cascade foothills, which is why most new projects depend on a community land trust rather than outright purchase. In return you join one of the densest, most institutionally mature regen networks in North America, in a climate of mild wet winters and abundant water whose one worsening liability is the late-summer wildfire-smoke season.

Source: USDA NASS, Land Values 2024 Summary

Land standing

Whose land: Kalapuya territory (Willamette Valley) — ceded under the 1855 Treaty with the Kalapuya etc. (Willamette Valley Treaty); descendant peoples now of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde & Siletz
Tenure: Fee-simple, but most rural land is zoned Exclusive Farm Use, limiting non-agricultural dwellings
Arriving in good faith: Hire an ORS 215 land-use attorney and plan via a community land trust and Conditional Use Permit before purchasing, not after
What it asks: Acknowledge whose land this is and engage one of the continent's most mature regen networks, which expects real participation

Source: Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 215, County Planning; Zoning; Farm Land

The first gate, legal and cost

Across the slate the data shows these two as the decisive constraints, more often than soil, climate or water. They sit before everything else.

Legal & ownership

Foreign ownership: yes No US federal or Oregon state nationality restriction on rural-land purchase; AFIDA (7 USC 3501) requires disclosure of foreign agricultural acquisitions but does not restrict them.
Collective ownership path: LLC, Oregon Land Trust, 501(c)(3) nonprofit, community land trust (CLT), or limited-equity cooperative; CLT is most aligned with long-horizon community stability
Multi-household residence as-of-right: no
Planning gate for living: Conditional Use Permit (CUP) or zone exception under ORS 215 / Oregon SB 100 Goals 3 and 4 for additional dwellings on Exclusive Farm Use or Forest Conservation land
Key restriction: Most rural Oregon land is zoned Exclusive Farm Use, which limits non-agricultural residential development to one farm dwelling and forces intentional-community configurations through county Conditional Use Permits or zone exceptions.
Regulatory direction: stable New Oregon projects face a more scrutinised CUP environment than legacy grandfathered communities; Washington county implementation of WAC 365-196 remains more variable.

Source: Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 215 County Planning; Zoning; Farm Land

Land cost

Price per ha: 3,700–39,530 USD (2024)
Affordability band: very_premium
Appreciation trajectory: rising Dossier states land prices rising driven by regen-culture demand premium, climate-haven migration, and California capital.
Detail: Oregon farm real estate average 2380 USD/acre (5880 USD/ha); unimproved timber/foothills 1500 to 4000 USD/acre (3700 to 9880 USD/ha); Willamette Valley irrigated cropland 8000 to 16000 USD/acre (19760 to 39530 USD/ha). Western Oregon costs 3 to 5x the Alentejo baseline. Per-acre to per-ha via /0.4047.

Source: USDA NASS Land Values 2024 Summary (August 2024); Farmer Mac 2024 U.S. Farmland Values Report Oregon section · confidence: high

Practical fit

Hospital access

Nearest hospital: 9.3 km geodesic, see caveat
Hospitals within 50 km: 13
Hospitals within 100 km: 24
60-minute proxy: passes

Geodesic km from region centroid to nearest OSM hospital, not a 60-minute road-network isochrone. The centroid may fall on a regional hub city (Oaxaca City, Santiago, Bolzano, Taos, Evora) rather than a target rural settlement site, so a low number can reflect centroid placement more than real rural-settlement access. V2 to refine via road-time isochrones.

Demographics

Population trend: growing Oregon's population grew 10.6% 2010-2020 per US Census 2020, driven primarily by net in-migration from California; Lane, Benton, and Linn counties all recorded positive net migration 2015-2022.
Median age band: moderate Median age in Oregon 2022: 39.7 years per US Census ACS 2022, younger than EU peer regions with a significantly younger in-migration stream.
Migration dynamic: net_in Net-attracting younger, educated migrants from California and across the US; climate-haven migration noted; not building into an ageing, shrinking community but an arriving one.
Rural density: low Willamette Valley regional average ~55 persons/km2 per JRC GHSL R2023; rural hinterland 5-30/km2 with urban cores (Salem ~2,000/km2, Eugene ~1,800/km2).

Source: accessibility.md, JRC GHSL R2023 and US Census 2020 · confidence: high

Field reality, water and soil

Water source control

Rights regime: Oregon prior appropriation doctrine (first in time, first in right)
Holder type: mixed
Single-entity control risk: moderate Water rights in Oregon operate under a prior-appropriation doctrine which matters critically for any settlement drawing surface water or large-volume groundwater; historic water rights on farm properties may be appurtenant to the land and are valuable and transferable.
Drought-priority mechanism: first-in-time first-in-right; domestic-use exemption up to 15,000 gallons/day under ORS 537.545

Source: Oregon Water Resources Department Groundwater Resources (2022); Oregon Revised Statutes 537.545 · confidence: high

Soil contamination

Known signal: none_documented
Due-diligence burden: unknown
Known data gaps: Oregon DEQ contaminated-site program and Willamette Valley agricultural-chemical legacy not addressed in dossier.

Source: Cascadia water.md and soil.md · confidence: low

Climate buffering

Structural microclimate features that hold the place steady, paired with how fast warming is eroding them. State plus trajectory, per the framework.

Buffering features (state)

Primary features: coastal moderation
Buffering strength: high
Detail: Climate.md cites NCA5 projection that the Pacific Northwest will have the fewest very-hot days of any contiguous US region through 2060 because western Cascadia marine airflow buffers inland heat.

Trajectory under warming

Direction: worsening Projected +1.5 to 2.0C by mid-century; 2021 heat dome (Portland 46.7C) attribution studies indicate such events become 2-3x more likely by 2060; AQI above 150 days increasing.
Primary vulnerability: late-summer wildfire smoke and heat-dome tail risk

Source: WorldClim CMIP6 v2.1 (2024); NCA5 Chapter 24; PRISM 1991-2020; Philip et al. WWA 2022 · confidence: high

The eight criteria, with sources

Climate trajectoryMean annual temperature, 2041–2060	13 °C	Mild maritime	WorldClim CMIP6 v2.1 · 2041–2060 SSP2-4.5 · WorldClim terms
Water stressProjected baseline water scarcity, 2050 BAU	0.1 score	Low	WRI Aqueduct 4.0 · 2050 BAU · CC BY 4.0
Soil organic carbonSOC topsoil concentration	50 g/kg	High, Willamette/forest	SoilGrids 2.0 (ISRIC) · 2020 · CC BY 4.0
Forest cover trajectoryTree cover trend, 2001–2023	-3 %/decade	Timber-harvest loss, net ~stable	Hansen Global Forest Change v1.11 · 2001–2023 · CC BY 4.0
Solar PV potentialLong-term average PV output	1,150 kWh/kWp	Moderate (cloud-limited)	Global Solar Atlas v2.7 · 2022 · CC BY 4.0
Conflict proximityFatal political-violence events 2019–2024	0 events	None	UCDP GED v25.1 · 1989–2023 · CC BY 4.0
Regenerative network densityIntentional communities and permaculture sites within ~100 km	47 sites	Densest in slate (FIC/GEN)	FIC / ic.org directory · 2024 · GEN open data; ODbL
Population densityPersons per km² (projected 2030)	55 p/km²	Moderate	JRC GHSL R2023 · 2023 · Open (JRC)

Native units throughout. Values are best-available midpoints from the cited public sources. Nothing here is composite, weighted, or scored across criteria.

Cascadia