Mike Rosenberg at The Seattle Times shared a troubling and yet not surprising statistic on Friday. Seattle rents are officially rising faster than any other major city in the U.S.
The typical monthly rent in the Seattle metro area surpassed $2,000 for the first time this spring and is up 9.7 percent in the past year — growing at nearly four times the national average, Zillow’s data shows. That’s more than second-place Portland (up 9 percent), and third-place San Francisco (up 7.4 percent).
The numbers actually come courtesy of Zillow and they paint a picture of a rental market in step with a housing market working in tandem to make it extremely difficult for average Seattleites to afford living here much longer.
In fact, rents are soaring so fast that June’s 1.1 percent monthly price gain in the Seattle area beat out the growth that Chicago and Washington, D.C., have seen in an entire year. But most big cities have seen large rent increases that surpass the historical average.
Per Zillow, Seattle’s median monthly rent was $2,031 in June. A year ago it was $1,852. Four years ago it was $1,575. In 2011, Seattle’s rent was $300 over the national average. Today, it’s $620 over.
The reasons for all of this exponential growth? Same as the housing market. The population is growing, bringing an influx of higher-paid tech workers who can afford higher rents. Coupled with the lack of affordable homes to buy and developers choosing to build luxury complexes instead of affordable housing and it’s a recipe for rising rents.