Oregon CE in 2026: The New Fair Housing Requirement (HB 3137)
If you renew an Oregon real estate license during this cycle, your continuing education obligations have changed in a way worth planning around. Beginning January 1, 2026, every active renewal must include a new 2-hour State and Federal Fair Housing course, a requirement that applies to brokers, principal brokers, and property managers alike under House Bill 3137. What follows is a precise account of what changed, along with a strategy for arranging your 30 hours so the new course costs you no additional time or money.
The total didn't rise. The composition shifted.
The most reassuring detail is the one that didn't move. You still owe 30 hours of continuing education every two years, and your license still expires at the end of your birth month. Oregon did not append the Fair Housing course to an already demanding requirement, which is the assumption that tends to cause unnecessary alarm.
Instead, the hours were redistributed. The Law and Rule Required Course, the LARRC you already complete each cycle, decreases from 3 hours to 2 hours beginning January 1, 2026. That recovered hour, combined with one additional hour, is precisely what the new 2-hour Fair Housing course absorbs, so the requirement still resolves to 30. For most renewing licensees, then, the practical consequence is narrow: you substitute a dedicated Fair Housing course for part of the LARRC-and-electives plan you would otherwise have built.
What your renewal looks like now
How the 30 hours break down depends on whether this is your first active renewal or a subsequent one, and the distinction determines whether the Advanced Practices course belongs in your plan at all.
If you are renewing actively for the first time, your hours are organized around the Broker Advanced Practices course:
- 26 hours of Broker Advanced Practices
- 2 hours of LARRC
- 2 hours of State and Federal Fair Housing
If you have already renewed at least once, you retain considerably more discretion over how the hours are filled:
- 2 hours of LARRC
- 2 hours of State and Federal Fair Housing
- 26 hours of approved electives, selected around the work you actually perform
In either scenario the two required courses anchor the cycle, while the remaining hours are yours to shape. Property managers fall under the identical Fair Housing rule, so this should not be mistaken for a broker-only revision.
The proficiency assessment tied to your first renewal
House Bill 3137 introduced one further element that first-time renewers in particular should anticipate. Before your first active renewal, you must now pass an assessment of license proficiency, though you will not sit a separate examination to satisfy it. Because the assessment is embedded within the final of the Advanced Practices course, completing that course properly discharges the obligation.
A second date warrants your attention as well. Beginning July 1, 2026, the assessment must incorporate specific proficiency components enumerated in Oregon's administrative rules. If you intend to take Advanced Practices near the middle of the year, confirm that the version you enroll in reflects the current rule rather than the prior year's outline.
If you already completed your LARRC, you're likely fine
A reasonable question, especially if you front-loaded your hours: does coursework you finished before the change still count? In the majority of cases, it does. A 3-hour LARRC or a 27-hour Advanced Practices course completed before January 1, 2026 may be applied toward the new requirements, which means you are not being asked to repeat hours you legitimately earned simply because the rule shifted beneath you. If your certificates predate the change and you are partway through a cycle, retain them and apply them exactly as you ordinarily would.
A disciplined way to handle your 2026 renewal
The change is modest once you understand its shape, but a measure of planning prevents it from deteriorating into a deadline scramble. Several practical moves:
- Confirm whether this is your first active renewal or a subsequent one, since that single fact determines whether Advanced Practices enters your plan.
- Select a 2-hour course that is specifically the Oregon State and Federal Fair Housing Required Course, rather than a general fair housing elective, because only the required course satisfies the new rule.
- Enter every completed course into eLicense before you renew. Oregon treats your continuing education record as a precondition of renewal, not a formality to reconcile afterward.
- Retain your certificates of completion for three years, since the Agency may request them well after the fact.
- Avoid the final week of your birth month. If you discover you are short an hour, you want that discovery to arrive with enough runway to correct it.
If assembling the components yourself holds little appeal, a complete 30-hour renewal package that already incorporates the 2-hour Fair Housing course and the 2-hour LARRC will keep you compliant without the guesswork.
The Fair Housing requirement is genuinely new, yet the discipline it rewards is the one that has always made renewal painless: know your exact requirement, finish several weeks early, and preserve your documentation. Approach it that way, and the 2026 change becomes a footnote in your year rather than a problem to manage.
