Published on February 9, 2023
While Seattle may have the highest rents statewide, the most drastic percentage increases over the past four to five years are in smaller cities and rural areas. And affordability is not an issue just for the poor but across different income levels. Median gross rent in Washington was nearly $1,500 in 2021, ranking it among the top five U.S. states, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Only Hawaii and California had considerably higher rents (along with Washington, D.C.), and Colorado and Massachusetts were a few dollars higher.
The state Legislature tapped the Washington Center for Real Estate Research to provide additional data to give policymakers a better sense of the housing affordability issue. But data has its limits, Bourassa acknowledged. It often overlooks what housing advocates and policymakers call the “missing middle”: those who may not qualify for low-income subsidized housing but may still be cost-burdened by the high rent in their community.
Data about median rent rates “is a way to get a general idea of what’s going on in the market,” said Steven Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research and chair of the Runstad Department of Real Estate. “It’s not capturing everybody’s experience by any means.”
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Originally written by Mai Hoang for Crosscut.