Seattle Rental Market Is Hot

It's great new if you are landlord and not if you are in the market for a Seattle rental. The article, Hot Apartment Market Settles in For a While, in the Seattle Times gives details about what is going on with the Seattle apartment market. Basically with less people owning their homes, whether they are scared to buy (debate per the article), they lost their home, or if they are just moving here and do not want to commit until they experience Seattle, the demand is going up for Seattle apartments. And that applies to the luxury rental market as well. For example, The Bravern, the Bellevue 440+ unit building that was converted from condos to apartments, is already half full even though not all the units were on the market until past October. In addition, the supply for rentals is increasing slowly since there are not as many apartments being built as there were in the past. According to the graphs on the article vacancy in King county apartments is down to 4.3% from 6.8% two years ago. In the same time period, average rent has gone from $1,015 to $1,045.

To get more details, read the article by clicking the link above. It is an interesting article if you are looking for a Seattle apartment or if you are a landlord.