We completed our preliminary research on two-bedroom housing in Seattle. We’ll be publishing a comprehensive report on all unit types in the near future. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at what we found.

By looking at just over 1,400 units from 12/4/2013 to 12/10/2013, we learned a lot about the price of a two-bedroom apartment in Seattle:

Average price of a two-bedroom: $1,838/month

Average square footage of a two-bedroom: 1,036 square feet

Median price of a two-bedroom: $1,726/month

Median Square footage of a two-bedroom: 989 square feet

Again, these amounts are similar to other research and arguably more accurate. It’s important to put these numbers in perspective. As an example, the median cost of a two bedroom apartment would be nearly $22,056 per year. I estimate that Seattle’s median household income is around $66,990 (2012 median with a generous 2% growth). The most common definition of affordable housing is that it can’t exceed 30% of gross income.  The median 2 bedroom apartment is about 33% of the median household income. In other words, it’s not affordable.

 

Article Author
Owen Pickford holding a beer, wearing a Sounders shirt in front of a bridge, river and large towers in Tokyo.
Owen Pickford

Owen is a solutions engineer for a software company. He has an amateur interest in urban policy, focusing on housing. His primary mode is a bicycle but isn't ashamed of riding down the hill and taking the bus back up. Feel free to tweet at him: @pickovven.