King County · Washington
Seattle, WA housing costs
What a home costs to buy and to rent here, how old the housing stock is, and how much of a paycheck rent takes — all from Census ACS 5-year estimates.
Quick answer
The median home in Seattle, WA is worth $912,100 and median gross rent is $1,998 a month. That is 201% above the national median home value of $303,400. 44.2% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, against 65% nationally.
- Median home value
- $912,100#4 of 94 metros
- Median gross rent
- $1,998/mo#6 of 94 metros
- Owner-occupied
- 44.2%US average 65%
- Median year built
- 1974Half the homes here are older than this
Can a median household here buy a median home?
Price-to-income is the plainest affordability yardstick there is.
Seattle's median household earns $116,068 a year while the median home is worth $912,100. That is a price-to-income ratio of 7.9×, against roughly 3.9× nationally. Lenders have historically treated anything above 4× as stretched. Renters at the median put 27.4% of household income into gross rent; 30% is the federal threshold for “cost-burdened”.
Related data for Seattle
The same household, seen from three angles.
Tables B25077, B25064, B25003, B25035 and B25071, 2019-2023 ACS 5-year, Census place 5,363,000. Values are place-level, not metro-area-wide.