Hood River County, Oregon

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 3.4% above the national average, so the nominal median of $88,947 is worth $86,022 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 5.3 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.

• Largest private-sector industry: Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting employs 2,207 workers (19% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $36,839. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,398 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.8B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $114,275 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $30,818, a 3.7x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Crop Production concentrates at 36.50x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 6 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 40.1% of the employment across them, the largest being resource and agricultural commodities. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 7.4x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 13.1% of housing units are vacant, above the Oregon rate of 7.5%, and down from 13.3% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 33.4% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 11.5% of the vacant stock, or 1.5% of all housing units against the 13.1% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Affordable rent tiers: 1 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $55,063 can pay without cost burden (~$1,377/mo), and 40.9% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 22.2% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 68% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Short commutes: 18.3-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Hood River County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Hood River County shows strong potential for crop production attraction, with a 36.50x concentration and 1,804 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.2% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans crop production, beverage and tobacco product manufacturing, and amusement, gambling, and recreation industries, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 40.1% of the employment across them, the largest being resource and agricultural commodities. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.