Where to Buy a Business in Oregon
The Opportunity
Buyable Businesses
16,968
1.5% of the U.S. total
Per 100k Residents
397.2
#24 of 51 states by buyable count
SBA Acquisition Loans
483
$561M since FY2020, 90 of them in FY2025
Median SBA Loan
$680k
FY2020 through FY2025
Oregon holds 16,968 businesses a searcher could realistically buy across the trades this site covers: establishments with 5 to 99 employees, big enough to have something to sell, small enough to finance. That is 1.5% of the country's buyable market and ranks Oregon #24 among the states. The number that decides a search, though, is not the state total but where inside the state those businesses sit.
The Deepest Counties in Oregon
Nobody searches Oregon. They search a metro they can drive across to meet an owner. These are the counties with the most buyable targets in the covered trades, Multnomah deepest among them.
| Multnomah | 3,606 | 21.3% |
| Washington | 2,393 | 14.1% |
| Clackamas | 1,714 | 10.1% |
| Lane | 1,446 | 8.5% |
| Marion | 1,283 | 7.6% |
| Deschutes | 983 | 5.8% |
| Jackson | 846 | 5% |
| Douglas | 337 | 2% |
| Yamhill | 328 | 1.9% |
| Linn | 319 | 1.9% |
What Trades Run Deepest in Oregon
- Full-Service Restaurants3,111 buyable
- Limited-Service Restaurants2,631 buyable
- Offices of Dentists1,355 buyable
- Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars1,184 buyable
- Child Care Services728 buyable
- Gasoline Stations with Convenience Stores594 buyable
Each trade's pricing, licensing, and diligence live in its Industry Buy Guide. The financing side is in Oregon's SBA acquisition-lending profile. The same counts industry by industry across every state are in Where the Businesses Are, and several of these trades restrict who can own at all: the Ownership & License Rules table names which.
Before You Close in Oregon
Oregon runs no general sales tax and the rule sits in the Corporate Activity Tax: the successor is liable for the full amount and may withhold from the price until the department evidences payment. Written notice of the acquisition starts an eighteen-month clock after which the successor is not liable. Oregon publishes this under ORS 317A.146, and what releases the buyer is the department's receipt, or eighteen months' silence after the buyer's written notice of the acquisition.
Read at source on oregonlegislature.gov. Most states run a version of this rule and the wording decides what a closing has to do, so treat it as the question to put to a lawyer in Oregon rather than as the answer. What every state requires is one table.
Next Door to Oregon
Nobody buys a state. These are the states Oregon touches, with the buyable businesses each holds in the same 36 trades.
- California137,681 buyable
- Idaho7,784 buyable
- Nevada11,315 buyable
- Washington28,222 buyable
Method & Source
Buyable counts are establishments with 5 to 99 employees in the 36 covered trades, summed from the Census County Business Patterns (2023). A county total is a lower bound: Census suppresses cells thin enough to identify a single business, and a trade we have not written a guide for is not counted. SBA figures are change-of-ownership 7(a) approvals (FY2020 through FY2025), approvals rather than closings.