How much did the rent go up (or down): December 2017

Median rent in Seattle has gone up over the past several years. But what’s the typical rent in the Emerald City right now? Depending on whom you ask, it was anywhere from $1,330 to $1,840 for a one-bedroom apartment last month.

Apartment List’s number tends to be a little lower because of different methodology. Its goal is to figure out what median rent recent movers are actually paying without skewing toward luxury listings. It incorporates both listing and census data into its calculations.

AL’s estimates for studios ($1,160), one-bedrooms ($1,330), and two-bedrooms ($1,660) are virtually unchanged from last month, with only minor decreases. That continues a slow descent that started a couple of months ago.

While rent is largely the same as last month, according to Apartment List, year over year it went up 3.5 percent—a smaller yearly increase than last month.

Zillow calculates its rent index based on all rentals, including single-family homes, whether or not they’re currently available. It also looked at a wider metro, which includes Tacoma, Bellevue, and Everett. By its calculations, rent overall jumped 5.4 percent over the past year, with the typical renter paying $2,203, regardless of apartment size.

Other Seattle rent estimates, based on active listings without the same weighting as AL or Zillow, are a little higher and a little more volatile.

Rentcafé, using data from Yardi Matrix, looked at the city limits—but only at buildings with 50 units or more, which helps verify the data pool but skews the numbers toward larger buildings. For Seattle proper, it found the typical renter is paying $1,977 per month, but again, that’s only in certain kinds of buildings. That’s a slight decrease from last month, but a 5.1 percent increase from this time last year.

Apartment-listing site Zumper aggregates data based on verified active listings, which means it can skew toward luxury. It pegs our median monthly one-bedroom rent at $1,840—up just slightly both month over month and year over year—or $2,410 for a two-bedroom, also a slight decrease. According to Zumper, median studio rent is $1,430.

Listing site Abodo says our median one-bedroom rent is $1,781, or $2,410 for a two-bedroom, also barely changed from last month.

For clarity, we’ve compiled various estimates below.

• Seattle Rent Report [AL]
• Zumper National Rent Report [Zumper]
• December 2017 National Apartment Report [Abodo]
• Apartment Rents Stabilize in November Around the Country, While Mid-Sized Markets Remain Active [Rentcafe]
• November 2017 Market Report: Rent Growth Catches Up to Income Gains After Slowdown [Zillow]