Tacoma outpaces Seattle in rent hikes

Tacoma’s rents are growing faster than Seattle’s. But it’s still cheaper to live in the City of Destiny.

The average rent in Tacoma and Lakewood was $1,171 in January. Seattle averaged $1,649. The figures come in a report from Axiometrics, an apartment and student housing market research and analysis group.

The Tacoma-Lakewood metro area reported an average $15 rent hike over December’s average and $97 more than the $1,074 average of January 2015.

Tacoma’s annual effective rent growth was 9 percent in January, compared with 5.5 percent one year ago.

The average rent in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett metro area was $7 more in January than in December and $112 more than the January 2015 average of $1,537.

That year-over-year increase in Seattle translated to 7.3 percent annual effective rent growth in January.

The national rent-growth rate for the same period was 4.3 percent.

Tacoma recorded 95.8 percent apartment occupancy in January, virtually unchanged from 95.6 percent in January 2015. Seattle apartments were 95.3 percent occupied in January.

This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 6:12 AM with the headline "Tacoma outpaces Seattle in rent hikes."