More Families Renting Rather than Buying

More families than ever are renting instead of buying. Between 2006 and 2016, 1.9 million more families* in the U.S. were renting their home at the time of the census, a 16% increase in just 10 years.

In that same 10-year time frame, Seattle saw 40,000 more households with minor children renting, and a decrease of 6,000 owning. That’s a 31% increase, but only a 2% decrease.

The barrier to entry into the sales market are the surging prices. Seattle’s single-family home prices, according to Rent Café, have increased 79% in the last 5 years, while rent prices have only increased by 45%. But, that 45% is the second highest change in rent price of 30 comparable metropolitan areas, and the home prices are ranked 3^rd highest.

Not that we didn’t already know that rent prices weren’t keeping up with surging property values.

The pressure is on for the family-sized** rental market.

Yardi Matrix data shows that 52% of the new apartments built in the U.S. between 2006 and 2016 were family-sized. Meanwhile, only 30% in Seattle were more than 2-bedrooms. Of those 30 comparable metro areas, Seattle is ranked last in family-sized units built.

Seattle’s priority appears to be 1-bedroom units, which account for 53% of new apartments built.

According to the Northwest MLS, the average rental in Seattle cost $2,849 in June.

A single parent would have to make $44.35 an hour to afford the average 2-bedroom unit without spending more than 30% on housing costs.

This article is inspired by the www.mynorthwest.com article about the decline of Seattle home-owning families.

*Rent Café defines a family with children as a household with minors in it.

**Rent Café defines family-sized homes to be 2-bedroom or larger.