How Old Are Clark County Homes? Housing Age by City

Key numbers

Older homes are concentrated in and around Vancouver

Older housing is concentrated in the city of Vancouver and the unincorporated areas next to it. In Hazel Dell (51.3%) and Salmon Creek (52.2%) about half of all homes were built before 1990. The cities that grew fastest in recent decades have much younger housing: Ridgefield 11.8%, Battle Ground 20.1%, Camas 29.7%. The city of Vancouver alone holds 41.8% of the county's homes. Lake Shore has the highest share of any place shown (70.9%), though as a small place its margin of error is wide (±10.5 points).

Share of homes built before 1990Clark County overall

Homes = all housing units, occupied and vacant. Owners' median = median year built of owner-occupied homes. The CSV also has the shares built before 1960 and from 1960 to 1989. ±MOE is the Census Bureau's 90% margin of error, in percentage points. Unincorporated places (Hazel Dell, Salmon Creek, Orchards and others) are Census-designated places, not cities. Woodland is left out because it lies mostly in Cowlitz County; places with fewer than 1,500 homes are in the CSV.

The 1960s to 1980s are the big middle of the county's older housing

In Clark County, 32.4% of homes were built between 1960 and 1989 and 11.1% before 1960. Portland is the other way around: 45.2% of its homes were built before 1960 and 24.4% between 1960 and 1989. Across the river, the typical house is much older.

Clark County also has a lot of new housing: 18.6% of its homes were built in 2010 or later, against 14.4% statewide. That is one reason the county's median year built (1993) is later than the state's (1985).

Owners live in older homes than renters in Vancouver

In the city of Vancouver, the median owner-occupied home was built in 1984 and the median rented home in 1992. Hazel Dell shows the same pattern (1984 for owners, 1993 for renters). Countywide the two are the same (1993). In Portland, the median owner-occupied home was built in 1954.

What this means for Clark County homeowners

• If you own a home in the city of Vancouver, there is an even chance it was built in 1984 or earlier. In a house that age, the kitchen, baths, wiring and plumbing may be original or several decades old.
• Older houses hide more. Before you plan, read what to test for in older homes (lead paint, asbestos) in our guide to signs you need a whole-house remodel, and ask any contractor how the contract handles what opening the walls turns up.
• Homes from the same decade tend to share layouts and materials. Our guide to kitchens by Vancouver home era and our post on remodeling a mid-century Vancouver home describe what to expect.
• Not sure when your house was built? County property records usually list it: look up your address on Clark County's Property Information Center.

Method

• Data: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 2020-2024 5-year estimates: B25034 (year structure built), B25035 (median year structure built) and B25037 (median year structure built by tenure), downloaded from the Census API on November 13, 2026.
• Places: every Census place (city, town or Census-designated place) that lies wholly in Clark County on the Census Bureau's 2020 place-by-county list. The chart and table show the 16 places with at least 1,500 housing units.
• Shares: housing units in the year-built groups divided by all housing units. Margins of error for the shares use the Census Bureau's formula for derived proportions.
• Medians are as published by the Census Bureau (B25035, B25037), not recomputed.

Limits

• Year built is reported by survey respondents and grouped by decade, so "before 1990" cannot be split more finely.
• ACS 5-year estimates describe 2020 to 2024 as a whole, not a single year. Homes built since then are not counted.
• Year built is when the structure was first built. It says nothing about later remodels or updates.
• Small places have wide margins of error; treat differences of a few points between them with caution.