Portland Home Energy Score 2026: What Sellers Must Do

Do you need a Home Energy Score to sell a house in Portland?

Yes. If your home is inside Portland's city limits and you're publicly advertising it for sale, Portland City Code 17.108 requires you to obtain a Home Energy Score and Report from a licensed assessor before the listing goes live, and to include the score in every listing and advertisement. An assessment runs $150 to $300 and takes about an hour. Vancouver, Washington and the rest of Clark County have no equivalent requirement. If you're in the cities of Hillsboro or Milwaukie, then you also need one.

By Rick Sadle | August 28, 2026

Here's the part that might be a surprise: the deadline isn't closing. It's the day your listing goes public.

I talk to Portland homeowners every week who assume the Home Energy Score is something the title company handles, or something that shows up during inspections. It isn't. There's a ton of confusion about this relatively unknow rule.  Under the city ordinance, the obligation lands on you, the seller, and it lands before your home ever hits RMLS, Zillow, or a yard sign in the front lawn.

Most of the time it's a non-event — you book an assessor, they spend an hour at the house, and you're done. But 2026 is the year a lot of Portland sellers are going to get tripped up, and it's worth ten minutes of your attention before you list.

The 2018 scores are expiring right now

Portland City Council passed the Home Energy Score ordinance in 2016, and the requirement took effect January 1, 2018. In August 2026, the city announced it had recorded more than 50,000 scores since the program began — more than 30 percent of Portland's housing stock.

A score is valid for eight years, provided nothing has changed with the home's mechanical systems, energy efficiency, or square footage.

Do the math on that. The very first wave of scores, recorded in 2018, is expiring in 2026.

So if your home was scored when you bought it, or when a previous owner listed it back in 2018, that report may no longer be good. And if you've replaced the furnace, added insulation, put in a heat pump, swapped windows, or finished a basement since then, you're required to get a new score regardless of the date — improvements invalidate the old one.

The good news: before you pay anyone, search your address on the Green Building Registry. If there's a valid, unexpired score on file and the home hasn't changed, you can reuse it. That takes about thirty seconds and saves a few hundred dollars.

Is your home even in Portland?

This one surprises people. The requirement follows the City of Portland jurisdictional boundary, not your mailing address and not your county.

There are homes with a Portland mailing address that sit in unincorporated Multnomah County and are not covered. There are homes in Clackamas and Washington counties that are inside Portland's boundary and are covered. The only reliable way to know is to enter your address at portlandmaps.com and look at the "Jurisdiction" field. If it says Portland, the ordinance applies.

Portland isn't alone in Oregon, either. As of 2026, Bend, Hillsboro, and Milwaukie have their own Home Energy Score requirements. If you're selling in Hillsboro — right in the middle of the Silicon Forest job corridor — the same homework applies.

What it costs, and what skipping it costs

An assessment from an authorized Home Energy Assessor typically runs $150 to $300. On a $600,000 Portland home, that's between 0.025% and 0.05% of the sale price. It is, without much competition, the cheapest line item in your entire transaction.

Here's what you get for it:

• A score from 1 (least efficient) to 10 (most efficient), based on the home's physical assets — insulation, windows, heating, cooling, and hot water systems
• An estimate of annual energy costs by fuel type, assuming average occupant behavior
• A list of recommended improvements, which doubles as a roadmap if you decide to invest before listing
• At least one comparison score so buyers have context for the range

Worth knowing: no city requires a minimum score to sell. A 3 is not a barrier. You are required to disclose the number, not to hit a target. I've sold plenty of beautiful older homes in Alameda and Laurelhurst that score low simply because they were built long before anyone was thinking about envelope performance, and it did not stop them from selling. In fact, I'm not really even sure that the score has ever made an impact on one of our sales.

Now the other side. Under Portland City Code 17.108.060, a first violation gets you a written warning notice. If it isn't remedied within 90 days, the city may assess a civil penalty of up to $500 — and up to another $500 for every subsequent 180-day period the violation continues. In a worst case, an unresolved violation could reach $1,000 by roughly nine months and $1,500 by fifteen months.

Put plainly: the first fine alone is between 1.7 and 3.3 times what the assessment would have cost you.

You also have a right of appeal. After a subsequent notice of violation, you have 10 days to either pay or request a hearing before the Code Hearings Officer.

Who's exempt

The ordinance carves out real exceptions, and some of them matter to people in genuinely difficult situations:

• Property type: manufactured dwellings, mobile homes, and floating homes can't be scored. Detached ADUs are excluded as long as the main home is scored. Stacked condos — units with another unit above or below — can't be scored at this time. Townhouse-style and other side-by-side attached homes that run foundation to roof are covered.
• Distressed sales: foreclosure sales, trustee's sales, deeds-in-lieu, and short sales where you've reached agreement with the lender may be exempted.
• Hardship: including tax-arrears auctions, court-appointed receivership, a senior mortgage in default, or approval for Oregon's property tax deferral program for disabled and senior citizens.
• Income: the code allows an exemption for sellers at or below 60 percent of median household income for the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metro area. Separately — and this is a different program with a different threshold — households at or below 80 percent of Portland's Area Median Income may qualify for a free score through Community Energy Project.

One more: a private, never-publicly-advertised sale between two parties falls outside the ordinance entirely. But "publicly advertised" is broad — online listings, print, and a sign in the yard all count.

Across the river, Vancouver has no such requirement

If you're selling in Vancouver, Camas, Washougal, Felida, Salmon Creek, or anywhere else in Clark County, there is currently no Home Energy Score obligation. Washington has no statewide residential energy labeling mandate in force.

There is a bill — House Bill 1015 — that would let Washington cities and counties adopt their own energy labeling requirements. As of this writing it remains in committee and has not become law, and the bill's own structure would delay any local requirement until a year after adoption. I'll update this post if that changes, but nothing about it affects a Clark County listing today.

That's one more line in a growing ledger of cross-river differences. If you're weighing both sides, it's worth reading through the real cost difference between selling in Vancouver and Portland and how property taxes actually compare, because the energy score is a rounding error next to excise tax and holding costs.

And to be clear about what this is not: the Home Energy Score is a separate obligation from your property condition disclosure. In Oregon you still complete the Seller's Property Disclosure Statement, and in Washington you still complete Form 17. I've written a full breakdown of what Oregon and Washington sellers must disclose — the energy score sits alongside that, not inside it.

 

I feel honestly like this was well intentioned when the scores were adopted, but the impact has been almost nothing that i can see.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a Home Energy Assessment take?

The assessor needs access to the home for roughly 45 minutes to an hour, including the attic and crawl space. Clear anything blocking those areas beforehand. You don't need to be present, and you'll get the report by email once the data is modeled.

Can I list my home while I wait for the score?

No. The ordinance requires you to obtain the report prior to publicly listing the home. Build the assessment into your pre-listing timeline alongside photos and any repairs — schedule it a week or two before you plan to go live so a slow turnaround doesn't delay your launch.

Does a low score hurt my sale price?

There's no minimum score required to sell, and a low number doesn't disqualify a home. It can become a negotiating point with an energy-conscious buyer, which is exactly why the report's improvement recommendations are useful — you get to decide whether a fix is worth doing before you list or better handled as a credit. That call depends on your home, your timeline, and your price point.

Who is responsible if the score is missing from the listing — me or my agent?

The legal obligation rests with the seller. Your listing agent should be handling the RMLS upload and putting printed copies in the home for showings, and a good one will, but the city holds the seller accountable for compliance. Confirm it's done rather than assume.

I'm selling a stacked condo in the Pearl District. Do I need a score?

Units in a stacked configuration, with another unit above or below, cannot be scored at this time and so aren't required to have one. Townhouse-style attached homes that run from foundation to roof are covered. If you're unsure which category your unit falls into, check with the program before you list.

Before you list

The Home Energy Score is a small, cheap, entirely solvable item — but only if you handle it before your listing goes public rather than after. Search the Green Building Registry first, confirm your jurisdiction on portlandmaps.com, and if you need a new assessment, book it early enough that it never touches your launch date.

If you're getting ready to sell on either side of the river and want to walk through your specific timeline — what needs to happen, in what order, and what it costs — I'm happy to sit down and map it out with you. That's the conversation I have with every seller before we list, and it's usually the difference between a clean launch and a home that sits.

This article is general information about a Portland city ordinance and is not legal or tax advice. I'm a licensed real estate broker, not an attorney or a CPA. For advice on your specific situation, including exemption eligibility, consult a qualified professional or contact the City of Portland's Home Energy Score program directly.

Sources

• Portland City Code Chapter 17.108 — Residential Energy Performance Rating and Disclosure
• City of Portland — HES for Home Sellers
• City of Portland — Over 50,000 Home Energy Scores Recorded in Portland (August 5, 2026)
• Oregon Real Estate Agency — Home Energy Scores Required for Select Oregon Cities (March 2026)
• Washington State Legislature — HB 1015 bill summary

About Rick Sadle

Rick Sadle is the Principal Broker and CEO of The Sadle Home Selling Team at Keller Williams Realty Professionals, serving the Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington real estate markets. With more than 20 years of real estate experience, over 3,500 homes sold and more than $1 billion in team sales volume, Rick is one of the Portland area's most experienced real estate professionals. He is also a weekly real estate expert on KXL 101 FM, where he discusses the Portland and Vancouver housing markets, mortgage rates, housing trends and the economy. Rick is an Oregon-licensed Principal Broker and Washington-licensed Broker.