Downtown Seattle Median Rent Up for First Time in 17 Months

Apartment rents in Seattle’s downtown rose for the first time in 17 months in December, according to data from Redfin (NASDAQ: RDFN). The rent hike was a 2.5% year-over-year uptick to a median of $2,000.

Seattle’s median rent seesawed over the past five years, climbing to nearly $2,500 before the 2020 pandemic and falling to $1,399 in February 2021 as the city’s tech-driven workforce moved out of the city center in favor of working from home. As offices began to re-open after the pandemic abated, demand for apartments increased and the median rent soared to $3,118 in August 2022 – rents have since dropped by roughly 36% due primarily to a new wave of apartment construction.

The uptick in the median asking rent came ahead of the January implementation of Amazon’s return-to-work policy, which mandates employees to be in the office five days a week. But Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari said it’s too early to determine if the rent increase is based on Amazon’s return-to-work policy.

“Seattle has been building more new apartments than almost any metro outside of the Sun Belt these past few years. That has helped keep rents in check – even after workers returned to hybrid or full-time office work following the pandemic,” Bokhari said. “But as new construction levels off and workers from large companies like Amazon increasingly expect their staff to work daily in downtown offices, rents may start ticking up in Seattle’s inner-ring neighborhoods where commuting is made easier.”