Sherman County is Oregon’s second least populous county, with approximately 1,940 residents spread across 831 square miles of rolling wheat plateau between the Columbia River to the north, the John Day River to the east, and the Deschutes River to the west. The county is defined by its agricultural character — wheat and barley fields across the Columbia Plateau’s wind-blown glacial silt, cattle ranching, and the dramatic canyon landscapes where its bounding rivers cut through the plateau edges. Six small communities — Biggs Junction, Rufus, Wasco, Moro, Grass Valley, and Kent, each roughly nine miles apart along historic Oregon Trail routes — provide basic services for the county’s residents.
The residential rental market in Sherman County is extremely thin. The county has no incorporated city of meaningful size; Moro, the county seat, has approximately 320 residents, and Wasco, the largest community, has approximately 400. Almost all rental transactions involve individual homes or manufactured housing units serving agricultural workers, county government employees, school district staff, and occasional seasonal or recreation workers. All landlord-tenant matters are governed by ORS Chapter 90. Eviction actions are filed in the Sherman County Circuit Court in Moro. No local rent control exists.
Oregon state law applies throughout — no local ordinances beyond ORS Chapter 90
Category
Details
Rental Registration
No rental registration or landlord licensing requirement in Sherman County or any of its communities. ORS Chapter 90 disclosure requirements apply — landlords must provide tenants with the name and address of the property owner or authorized manager and the person authorized to receive service of process at lease commencement.
Rent Control / Stabilization
No local rent control. Oregon’s statewide stabilization under ORS 90.323 applies — annual increases capped at 7% + CPI (9.5% for 2026), with 90 days’ notice for increases under 10% and 180 days for 10% or more. New construction (certificate of occupancy within 15 years) is exempt. In a market as thin as Sherman County, rent stabilization is rarely a practical constraint — rents are low and stable, driven by what the local agricultural economy can support, not by upward market pressure.
The Rental Market: What Exists
Sherman County’s rental market is among the thinnest in Oregon. With fewer than 2,000 residents across 831 square miles, the total rental housing stock is limited to a relatively small number of individual homes, farmhouses, and manufactured housing units scattered across six small communities and the surrounding agricultural landscape. The primary tenant population consists of agricultural workers (wheat farm employees, ranch hands), Sherman County government employees, Sherman Junior/Senior High School teachers and staff, county road department workers, and the occasional seasonal worker drawn by Columbia River recreation at Biggs Junction or Rufus. There is no multi-family rental market of any meaningful scale in the county.
Agriculture & the Wheat Economy
Wheat and barley farming on the Columbia Plateau’s deep silt soils is the foundation of Sherman County’s economy. The rolling fields of winter wheat that make Sherman County so visually distinctive in Oregon’s landscape are worked by a small permanent agricultural workforce supplemented by seasonal labor at harvest. Farm tenant screening should focus on employer verification with individual farm operators (many of whom are the same individuals as the property owners in this closely-knit agricultural community) and annual income documentation reflecting the full crop cycle.
Recreation Economy: Columbia River Corridor
Sherman County’s northern edge along the Columbia River — particularly at Biggs Junction and Rufus — sits within one of the premier windsurfing and kiteboarding corridors in North America, drawing visitors to the Deschutes River confluence and the lower Columbia Gorge area. This recreation economy supports a small hospitality and service workforce at Biggs Junction’s truck stop and travel services, but does not generate meaningful long-term residential rental demand. The John Day Dam, located on the county’s eastern border, and Deschutes State Park to the west provide additional recreation access.
Security Deposits & Rental Assistance
No statutory deposit cap in Oregon. Return within 31 days with written itemized accounting (ORS 90.300). Double damages plus attorney fees for wrongful withholding. Rental assistance notice required with every 72-hour nonpayment notice (ORS 90.395). Oregon 211 is the primary referral resource for rental assistance in Sherman County. Include Oregon 211 contact information with every nonpayment notice.
ORS Chapter 90 statutes, notice requirements, and landlord rights that apply in Sherman County
⚡ Quick Overview
10
Days Notice (Nonpayment)
30
Days Notice (Violation)
30-60
Avg Total Days
$$88-270
Filing Fee (Approx)
💰 Nonpayment of Rent
Notice Type10-Day Notice of Nonpayment (or 13-Day if served on day 5)
Notice Period10 days
Tenant Can Cure?Yes
Days to Hearing7-14 days
Days to Writ4 days
Total Estimated Timeline30-60 days
Total Estimated Cost$200-600
⚠️ Watch Out
CRITICAL: 4-day grace period before notice can be served. 10-day notice can only be served on or after 8th day of rental period. 13-day notice can be served on or after 5th day. Must include mandatory Eviction for Nonpayment of Rent notice per HB 2001 (2023) with rental assistance info in multiple languages - court dismisses without it. Accepting partial rent may invalidate notice. Court MUST dismiss FED if tenant pays all rent or rental assistance is received before judgment. Statewide rent control (SB 608): 7%+CPI cap (max 10% per SB 611). Just cause eviction required after first year of occupancy.
Serve the required notice based on the eviction reason (nonpayment or lease violation).
Wait for the notice period to expire. If tenant cures the issue (where allowed), the process stops.
File an eviction case with the Circuit Court - FED (Forcible Entry and Detainer). Pay the filing fee (~$$88-270).
Tenant is served with a summons and has the opportunity to respond.
Attend the court hearing and present your case.
If you prevail, obtain a writ of possession from the court.
Law enforcement executes the writ and removes the tenant if necessary.
⚠️ Disclaimer: This page provides general information about Oregon eviction laws and does not constitute legal advice.
Eviction procedures can vary by county and may change over time. Local jurisdictions may have additional requirements or tenant protections.
For specific legal guidance, consult a qualified Oregon attorney or local legal aid organization.
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including background checks, credit history, income verification, and rental references — is one of the most
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Underground Landlord
🏙️ Communities in Sherman County
Six small communities serve the county’s ~1,940 residents
Moro (county seat) Wasco Grass Valley Rufus Biggs Junction Kent
📍 Sherman County at a Glance
Oregon’s second least populous county — wheat and barley plateau between three river canyons (Columbia, John Day, Deschutes). Extremely thin rental market serving agricultural workers, county government, and school staff. Six tiny communities ~9 miles apart. Columbia River corridor offers world-class windsurfing at Biggs/Rufus. No local rent control.
Sherman County
Screen Before You Sign
Verify income at 3x rent. Sherman County government employees, Sherman Junior/Senior High School staff, farm operators and agricultural workers with verified full-year employment, and county road department workers are the most stable profiles in this very local market. Include Oregon 211 with every nonpayment notice.
A Landlord’s Guide to Renting in Sherman County, Oregon
Sherman County is Oregon distilled to its most elemental agricultural form: rolling hills of winter wheat on glacial plateau silt, deep river canyons on three sides, fewer than 2,000 people in 831 square miles, and a way of life that has not changed fundamentally in more than a century. Named for Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman, the county was carved from Wasco County in 1889 and has always been among Oregon’s smallest communities. It is not a rental investment market in any conventional sense — it is a very small community where some people own property and some people rent, where the rules of ORS Chapter 90 apply exactly as they do everywhere else in Oregon, and where anyone who owns rental property is probably already deeply embedded in the community and well aware of who their neighbors are.
The Six Communities and What They Offer
Sherman County’s six communities sit roughly nine miles apart along what were once way-station routes on the shortcut to the Oregon Trail — a spacing that reflects the practical logistics of horse-era transportation rather than any modern planning rationale. Moro (the county seat, ~320 people) holds the courthouse, the county administrative offices, and Sherman Junior/Senior High School, which serves the entire county from a single campus and is one of the most important community institutions in this tightly knit agricultural society. Wasco (~400 people) is the county’s most populous community, sitting on US Highway 97 and serving as a modest commercial center. Grass Valley, Kent, Rufus, and Biggs Junction round out the county’s settlement pattern, each serving the surrounding agricultural operations.
The rental housing stock throughout the county is limited to single-family homes, farmhouses, and manufactured housing. There are no apartment complexes, no multi-family buildings of note, and no student housing market. The people who rent in Sherman County are doing so because the local economy — wheat farming, ranching, county government, school district employment — requires their presence in the community and the available rental units serve that need. It is a purely functional local rental market, operating at rents well below any Oregon metropolitan benchmark.
The Columbia River Recreation Corridor
Sherman County’s northern border along the Columbia River is its most dramatic geographic feature and its primary connection to the wider world. Biggs Junction, at the intersection of Interstate 84 and US 97, is a trucker’s crossroads and a gateway to the Deschutes River canyon’s world-class whitewater rafting. The Columbia River itself — channeled by the John Day Dam at the county’s eastern edge — provides the powerful, reliable winds that have made the lower Columbia Gorge one of the premier windsurfing and kiteboarding locations on the planet. This recreation economy draws seasonal visitors but does not generate meaningful long-term residential rental demand.
ORS Chapter 90 in Sherman County
Oregon’s landlord-tenant law applies in full throughout Sherman County, as it does everywhere in the state. The 72-hour nonpayment notice (ORS 90.394), the 30-day cure period for lease violations (ORS 90.392), the statewide rent stabilization cap (ORS 90.323), the just-cause framework after year one (ORS 90.427), and the rental assistance notice requirement (ORS 90.395) all apply. Oregon 211 should be included with every 72-hour notice as the primary rental assistance resource for a county where no dedicated local rental assistance infrastructure exists. Eviction actions are filed in the Sherman County Circuit Court in Moro. The courthouse serves one of the smallest Circuit Court jurisdictions in Oregon, and the court’s limited schedule should be verified when planning filing timelines.
Sherman County landlord-tenant matters are governed by ORS Chapter 90, Oregon’s Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. Nonpayment notice: 72 hours (ORS 90.394). Lease violation: 30 days with right to cure (ORS 90.392). Extreme violations: 24 hours (ORS 90.396). No-cause termination after 1 year: 90 days + qualifying reason + 1 month relocation assistance (ORS 90.427). Rent stabilization: 7% + CPI annually (ORS 90.323). Security deposit return: 31 days (ORS 90.300). No local rent control. Population ~1,940 — Oregon’s second least populous county. Evictions filed in Sherman County Circuit Court, Moro. Verify court schedule before filing. Consult a licensed Oregon attorney before taking legal action. Last updated: April 2026.
Disclaimer: This page provides general information about landlord-tenant law in Sherman County, Oregon and is not legal advice. Laws change frequently. Always verify current requirements with a licensed Oregon attorney before taking legal action. Last updated: April 2026.
