Whether you’ve lived here forever or are just visiting, the Pacific Northwest’s beauty is pretty obvious from the get go. Having been building homes here for over 20 years, we might be biased — but we think it’s pretty great.

As home prices in the region skyrocket, many are turning to more unconventional housing like tiny homes or are looking for more rural areas to buy land on which to build their own home. In the latter case, there are many things to consider, questions to ask, and important details you should know.

Let’s dive into it:

Why the PNW?

The appeal of the Pacific Northwest is obvious, whether you’ve been here for generations or are a newcomer. There’s natural beauty all around, diversity of geography from the sea to the mountains to the desert, Palouse and Okanogan, and generally speaking somewhere for everyone.

Property taxes in the region are very low as well — Washington has particularly regressive taxes including no state income tax and below average property taxes, which can cause issues elsewhere for public infrastructure funding but has the silver lining of making land a bit more accessible (although this doesn’t necessarily offset the high cost of housing in the area depending on where you are). Washington also has a property tax exemption program for disabled individuals, veterans, and seniors and Oregon, while still having a state income tax, doesn’t have sales tax.

Further, depending on your interests for your land and future homeownership, there are other appealing aspects of buying land to live on in the PNW.

For one, much of the region has really fertile soil if you’re interested in doing any sort of homegrown farming or gardening. And outside of urban designations, there are fewer restrictions on private land use in Washington and Oregon than in much of the country, other than environmental regulations.

Just across the Washington border in Central Oregon, the city of Bend has become a highly desirable place to live, offering a unique blend of high desert climate and endless outdoor recreational opportunities. Meanwhile, Western Oregon offers its breathtaking coastline and forests, where towns like Cannon Beach and Newport offer both adventurous and peaceful coastal living.

Prices to expect for land in both Washington and Oregon

This varies depending on where you’re looking — generally, land gets quite expensive the closer you get to the main cities and their metropolitan areas.

Oregon tends to have more land that’s less expensive than Washington. Per Landboss.net, rural Oregonian land tends to start at around $1,000 per acre. If you’re looking to have lots of space and be further from “the grid,” rural land can be a really appealing option.

Washington’s rural land tends to be more expensive, starting around $2,500 to $5,000 per Landboss — often for parcels in eastern Washington and other parts of the state with less population density. The median price is about $7,500 — of course, this price goes up significantly the closer you are to the cities and, through extension, the Puget Sound.

What should you consider when buying land?

Beyond simply identifying your own budget, there are other details you should keep in mind and explicitly identify before committing to a parcel of land or even, ideally, before you start looking.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when considering land:

• What surveying will have to be done? Have previous structures existed on this parcel, and can property lines be identified?
• What are your intentions, and what are the zoning and permitting regulations that will affect that?
• What does the road access and utilities situation look like?
• What environmental tests will need to be done regarding building?
• Further, what vegetation is on the land? Will it have to be cleared? How?
• Are there any environmental hazards from nearby developments or past structures?
• What is the state of the soil? Has testing been done?
• What is the average home value in the area or neighborhood?
• Lastly: What are the flood, wildfire, and other environmental risks of the area?

These are all questions you should seriously consider before and during your search for the right land parcel.

The last one especially is a huge factor in the American and Canadian west, including Washington and Oregon. For example, while we mentioned above that many rural areas in eastern Washington and Oregon have much more affordable land than places west of the Cascades which are closer to metropolitan areas, these areas are also increasingly under threat of wildfire as climate change increases the conditions that allow wildfires to start more frequently and spread faster.

At the same time, many rural areas in western Washington and Oregon have increasing flood risk — and if you’re on the western slope of the Cascades foothills, that comes with increased landslide risk, which is often one of the last environmental risks we think of but the most deadly.

For this reason, if you’re new to the area, we really recommend researching the realtors local to where you’re looking as well as your home builder options. (We’re biased, but for much of the PNW, Reality Homes is a pretty good resource in that regard.)

Economical options for land in Washington and Oregon

As we discussed above, much of your options here are dictated by simply where land is available — or at least, where land is available that won’t cost you an arm and a leg (and then the remaining arm and leg, too).

The vast majority here will be east of the Cascades in Washington’s case, or some further out parts of western Washington.

If you’d like to have easier access to a metropolitan area or city, you have options like land near(-ish):

• Spokane
• The Tri-Cities
• The Yakima Valley
• Parts of Clark County outside of Vancouver, WA, which also makes you relatively close to Portland
• The counties surrounding Portland and Multnomah County on the Oregon side, including parts of Clackamas, Washington, and Columbia Counties

Otherwise, if looking for space that’s more purely rural, there’s:

• The rest of southwest Washington
• The Olympic Peninsula
• The Columbia Plateau, Columbia Valley, and Palouse
• The Okanogan and Selkirks in northern and northeastern Washington
• Southern Oregon coast near Coos Bay
• Most of central and eastern Oregon, much of which is the high desert

When you look at it that way, there are really so many options. There are places not too far from cities or, at least, mid-sized population centers; there are places where you could go miles before seeing someone. There are climates that are damp and bright green, near the sea, sunbelts; there are deserts, steppe, highlands, and even some mountains.

Purchasing land is obviously a big decision and the details need to be considered accordingly — but if that’s your goal, the Pacific Northwest has somewhere for almost everybody.