Yachats vs Waldport vs Newport Three towns, 23 miles apart, and what each one asks of a buyer

Buyers moving to the central Oregon Coast usually end up choosing between the same three towns. Yachats, Waldport, and Newport sit along 23 miles of US 101 in Lincoln County. They share a highway, a weather pattern, and a school district. Almost nothing else about them lines up. This guide compares the three for someone deciding where to live, using every listing still available on September 22, 2026. It splits the houses by property type, which is the only way the prices mean anything.

One median per town hides more than it shows

Quote the middle asking price in each town and you get $786,250 in Yachats, $549,000 in Newport, and $499,000 in Waldport. Read that quickly and Newport and Waldport look like near neighbors, $50,000 apart.

They are not. The three towns sell different kinds of housing, and that mix moves the middle number more than the houses themselves do.

Nearly a third of what is for sale in Newport right now is a condominium, and nine of those are small Bayfront units asking under $200,000. Those pull Newport's overall middle down. In Waldport, nine of the available homes sit in manufactured home parks, where you own the home and rent the space under it. Those are the cheapest homes in this report, and they pull Waldport's middle down. Yachats has neither. Almost everything for sale there is a site-built house.

The same house type, town by town

Here is every available listing in the three towns, sorted by what it actually is. Median means the middle listing: half the homes in that group ask more, half ask less. We use it instead of an average because one oceanfront listing can drag an average a long way.

Source: Advantage Real Estate analysis of Lincoln County MLS listings, September 22, 2026. Counts cover listings still open to offers. Homes already pending or under contract are excluded.

Three things stand out once the types are separated.

Waldport is the value town of the three, and it is not close. A site-built house there runs $321 per square foot against $348 in Newport and $363 in Yachats. That is the cheapest square footage on this stretch of coast, in a town that still has a bay, a beach, and a school.

Newport's houses cost nearly as much as Yachats houses. That surprises people who have only seen the countywide numbers. Per square foot the two are $15 apart. What differs is choice: Newport has 60 houses on the market and Yachats has 25.

The entry point into each town is a different product. In Waldport it is a park home under $200,000. In Newport it is a small Bayfront condo, nine of which are listed under $200,000, all of them at the Embarcadero. In Yachats there is no entry point of that kind at all. The cheapest house in town asks $315,000, and it is a 750 square foot cottage built in 1943.

Yachats: the smallest menu and the highest prices

Yachats sits at the south end of Lincoln County, where the shoreline turns rocky. It draws retirees and second-home buyers, many from out of state, and the housing stock follows that demand. The 25 site-built houses for sale run to a median of about 2,044 square feet, well above Waldport's 1,788 and about level with Newport.

Two dozen houses is the entire menu on a given day. Patience matters more here than anywhere else on this list, and so does being ready when the right one lists. Buyers who need year-round practicalities should read our guide to moving to Yachats, which covers the drives, the winters, and the healthcare question in detail. Current Yachats houses for sale and the Yachats community profile are both on our site.

Waldport: the cheapest way onto the water

Waldport sits where the Alsea River meets the ocean, 15 miles south of Newport and 8 miles north of Yachats. You can buy on the bay or near the beach, and you pay less per square foot than in either neighboring town.

It also has the most land. Thirty-six residential lots are for sale, more than Yachats or Newport, which matters if you would rather build than buy. The town carries the widest range of housing types of the three as well, from an $80,000 park home to a $1,449,000 house in Alsea Highlands. Our monthly Waldport housing market review tracks the same figures edition to edition, and current Waldport houses for sale sit alongside the Waldport community profile.

Newport: the most of everything

Newport is the county seat and the practical center of the three. The hospital is here. So are the county offices, the big grocery stores, the airport, and most of the jobs.

It is also the only one of the three with a real condo market. Thirty condominiums are listed, at a median of $317,450 and a median size near 716 square feet. Per square foot that segment runs $364, slightly above site-built houses at $348. You are not paying less per foot for a Newport condo. You are buying a smaller footprint, and often a view you could not touch in a house at that price. Our monthly Newport snapshot report breaks the city down segment by segment each month. You can also browse Newport houses for sale or read the Newport community profile, which covers the neighborhoods one by one.

What a week looks like in each town

Price is one half of the decision. The other half is how far everything is.

The hospital line is the one buyers ask about first, and it deserves a plain answer. Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital at 930 SW Abbey Street in Newport is a 25-bed critical access hospital with an emergency department open around the clock. From Yachats that is a 23-mile drive, and PeaceHealth Peace Harbor Medical Center in Florence sits about the same distance the other way. From Waldport it is 15 miles. Routine care is closer in all three: Samaritan runs a clinic in Waldport, which is 8 miles from Yachats.

Schools follow the same pattern. Waldport has Crestview Heights School, Waldport Middle School, and Waldport High School. Newport has its own elementary, intermediate, middle, and high schools. Yachats has none, so students ride to Waldport. All three towns are in the Lincoln County School District.

One more thing about the geography. US 101 is the only through road down this coast. When a slide or a crash closes a stretch near Cape Perpetua, there is no parallel route to swing onto. Most closures clear the same day. The further south you live, the more often that matters.

What sold, and what that adds

Asking prices tell you what sellers want. Closed sales tell you what buyers paid. Both are worth a look, though the sales counts in towns this size are small enough that one month is a direction and not a verdict.

In Newport, 12 homes closed in August 2026 at a median of $547,500, according to RPR data for ZIP 97365. Sellers collected 95.5 percent of their final asking price. RPR is the property database the National Association of Realtors runs for its members. In Waldport, nine homes closed in August at a $465,000 median, at 98.25 percent of asking. In Yachats, the most recent published figures cover July, when four homes closed at a $462,000 median. Our Yachats residential stats update carries that detail, and the next edition is due at the end of September.

Notice how far the Newport and Waldport closings sit below the asking-price medians above. Part of that is the mix again: the homes that sell in any month are not a cross section of the homes that are listed.

Which town fits which buyer

Working from the numbers above rather than from reputation:

• You want the lowest cost per square foot. Waldport, at $321, with the widest price range of the three and the most lots if you would rather build.
• You want a hospital, schools, and shopping close by. Newport, where all of it is in town and there are 103 homes to choose from.
• You want to buy under $350,000. Waldport for a park home, Newport for a condominium. Waldport has 14 homes under that mark and Newport has 20, most of them condos. Yachats has three.
• You want the quietest town and the dramatic coastline. Yachats, if you can accept 25 houses on the market and a 23-mile drive to the hospital.
• You are not sure yet. Start in Waldport. It sits between the other two, costs the least per foot, and keeps both within a half hour.

For the wider view, our comparison of eleven Lincoln County towns puts these three alongside Toledo, Lincoln City, Depoe Bay, and the rest. If you would like the same breakdown run for a budget or a must-have list, contact our team.

Information current as of September 2026.

The Advantage Real Estate team works all three of these towns from our office on East Olive Street in Newport. If you are weighing one against another, a broker can walk you through what is on the market in each and what the differences would mean for you.

Marilyn Grove

_{Principal Broker, AHWD, C2EX, ABR}

Elise Jordan

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Henry Weiss

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Arjen Sundman

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