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We spend a lot of time talking about rising rents in Seattle. But Seattle’s rental increases—and in some cases, even decreases—are starting to pale in comparison to Tacoma’s skyrocketing rent.
Tacoma still has cheaper rent than Seattle. So it’s one place Seattleites are moving to the City of Destiny to escape high rents while still maintaining that city feel. But that discount in rent may not last for long, and it’s already having an effect on renters that already called Tacoma home.
In the Tacoma metro division, according to a new report by apartment market data firm Axiometrics, rent shot up a whopping 7.4 percent between this July and last July, with an average rent of $1,290 per month. That trend’s been going on for a while: the year before, rent grew 9 percent.
When we publish Seattle rent numbers, the data we get from various companies tend to vary. But Tacoma’s relatively consistent.
Apartment List (AL)’s latest numbers show the city of Tacoma’s median rent as having a 7.4 percent increase since this time last year, with $1,230 for a one-bedroom or $1,530 for a two-bedroom—the former just $150 per month behind Seattle’s.
Rentcafe, using data from real estate research company Yardimatrix, saw an even higher increase for the city of Tacoma—9.2 percent, the eighth-fastest growth in the country—but a lower number overall, with $1,156 average rent.
Another city with huge jumps: Kent. They’re consistently in line with Tacoma, sometimes higher: AL’s most recent report puts their increase at 11.3 percent. Rentcafe puts Kent right behind Tacoma, with the ninth-fastest-growing rent in the nation at 9.1 percent.
Tacoma already joins Seattle as one of the most competitive real estate markets in the country—and it doesn’t look like the housing market, or the rent, is slowing down.