PNW Economic Atlas September 2026 Oregon · Washington

The numbers are stable.
The contradictions are not.

Monthly econometric analysis of Oregon and Washington labor markets, housing indices, and the data gaps the aggregates leave behind.

Published 2026-09-01 — Sources: BLS, FHFA, Zillow

The PNW Economic Atlas is a monthly paid report produced by Mamook LLC — an Oregon-based GIS and community planning firm. Each issue covers Oregon and Washington labor and housing conditions using primary federal data sources: BLS state unemployment series, Zillow’s ZHVI, and the FHFA House Price Index. The analysis is county-level where data permits, and the methodology is published with every issue.

Oregon unemployment sits at 5.3%, Washington’s at 4.5%. The Oregon HPI reads 640.1, and the typical Portland-area home is valued at $549,241. Two similar state averages look like a region moving together. They aren’t: county rates behind those averages run from 2.9% to 7.4% across all 75 counties — a 4.5-point spread.

The aggregates hide two things. Federal labor surveys don’t sample residents of tribal lands, so conditions in Indian Country are missing from both state figures entirely. And both averages are weighted by the Portland and Seattle-Tacoma metros, so timber- and fisheries-dependent counties can move in the opposite direction without ever showing up in the headline number. This issue breaks out both.

Produced by

Mamook LLC — MCRP-trained, Oregon-based

Data Sources

BLS · FHFA · Zillow · Tribal land overlay on every map

Methodology

Published with every issue — R script + data sources cited

September 2026 — key indicators

Five metrics from this month’s dataset, drawn from BLS, FHFA, and Zillow. Full county-level breakdown and contradiction analysis are in the paid report.

5.3% OR Unemployment -0.2pp YoY Source: BLS

4.5% WA Unemployment -0.1pp YoY Source: BLS

$549,241 Portland MSA ZHVI -0.7% YoY Source: Zillow

640.1 OR House Price Index +0.2% YoY Source: FHFA

596.1 WA House Price Index -1.0% YoY Source: FHFA

Unemployment Rate

BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics

House Price Index

FHFA Purchase-Only House Price Index (NSA)

Portland MSA Home Value (ZHVI)

Zillow Home Value Index, middle tier, smoothed & seasonally adjusted

Gap in the series: Oct 25 is missing from the BLS release underlying this issue. The chart shows a break rather than a filled-in estimate. Latest observation: 2026-07.

Full Report

Contradiction 1 — The safety program cannot see the children it failed
County unemployment ranges 4.5 points across the region — and the metro-weighted state average never shows it.

Contradiction 2 — School choice is offered as an equity remedy, and state law never promises it a bus seat
Who captures the value of an amenity economy when the people who staff it are priced out of living in it.

Contradiction 3 — A program for children who cannot walk safely funded the schools where walking was already safest
What the state figure misses when Indian Country was never in the sample frame — and why no amount of reweighting fixes it.

Contradiction 4 — Dissolving the program into a competitive set-aside converted need into administrative capacity
What the state figure misses when Indian Country was never in the sample frame — and why no amount of reweighting fixes it.

Contradiction 5 — Tribal road safety is argued from data that structurally excludes tribal roads
What the state figure misses when Indian Country was never in the sample frame — and why no amount of reweighting fixes it.

The full September 2026 issue carries the unemployment table for every county in both states (75 in total), the analysis behind both contradictions above, and methodology notes stating exactly what the headline figures count and what they leave out.

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Data Package

Every issue ships with the underlying data: county-level CSVs for labor and housing indicators, county boundaries for both states as a GeoPackage, and the methodology PDF. Formatted to open directly in Excel, QGIS, or R, so you can reproduce anything in the report rather than take it on trust. Included with a subscription.

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Data Disclaimer: This report is produced for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, financial, legal, or policy advice. All data sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and Zillow, Inc. is subject to revision by those agencies without notice. Mamook LLC makes no warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of any data or analysis contained herein. Figures reflect data available at time of publication.

Tribal Labor Data Exclusion: BLS state unemployment series structurally exclude residents of federally recognized tribal lands by design. Oregon and Washington unemployment figures do not reflect labor conditions in Indian Country. This report names that exclusion explicitly and cannot correct data the federal government chose not to collect.

© 2026 Mamook LLC — All rights reserved. Report text, analysis, and visualizations may not be reproduced or redistributed without written permission. Raw data files (CSV/GeoPackage) are licensed under CC BY 4.0 — attribution required. · Terms of Service · Privacy Policy

The numbers are stable.The contradictions are not.