Seattle-Area Rents Slower To Normalize Than Much Of The US

SEATTLE — Renters in the Seattle area are still paying some of the highest rents in the country, bucking the cooling trend seen in many markets across the United States. Online rental service Zumper released a new analysis of price trends this week and found signs of calming emerging in more than half of the nation's cities, where median prices remained flat or began to decline over the last month.

"We’re seeing modest month-over-month declines in more than half of the cities on our list, including Minneapolis, MN; Nashville, TN; El Paso, TX; and Jacksonville, Tampa and Orlando, FL," Zumper writes. "As we noted last month, Fresno has one of the most drastic year-over-year increases in the country; but this month its median one-bedroom rent is down a notable 3.9 percent. And 16 cities—including Phoenix, AZ; Newark, NJ; and Oklahoma City, OK—have remained flat month-over-month."

According to the report, the Emerald City and its neighbors are among the big exceptions: Median one-bedroom rents rose another 2 percent in September and are nearly 21 percent higher than the same time last year.

"The trend of slowing sales while rents continue skyrocketing is still at play throughout the Seattle area, where low supply is a persistent problem," Zumper writes. "Both the number of homes for sale and the number of closings in the city are decreasing, and high interest rates are inspiring price cuts. But many Seattlites have opted out of the buyers market and are now competing for the limited number of rental properties available."

Median prices hit $2,040 for a one-bedroom around Seattle this month and held at $2,810 for a two-bedroom, Zumper found. That makes Seattle the nation's 11th-priciest rental market, tied with Anaheim, California, and considerably more expensive than cities like Chicago, Atlanta, and Denver.

New York City remains America's most expensive place for renters, where the median one-bedroom rental costs nearly $4,000 per month, a whopping 34 percent increase since last year. San Francisco, Boston, San Jose and San Diego round out the top 5. Each experienced double-digit surges over the year, but only a small portion of cities saw monthly price hikes like Seattle.

>> Read the full report via Zumper.