How much higher can they go? Here’s how Tacoma, other cities are faring with rents
With the real estate market cooling off, so too has the rate of rent increases, according to three new reports.
Apartment List, in its September report, shows Tacoma rents holding steady month-over-month in August. That compares with a 0.5 percent increase nationally.
Month-over-month growth in Tacoma “ranks No. 76 among the nation’s 100 largest cities,” the data firm said in a release issued Tuesday.
Apartment List says rent growth in Tacoma is 4 percent over last year, compared with 19.8 percent at this time last year.
Tacoma’s rate of rent growth is lower than the state average of 8.6 percent, and the national average of 10 percent.
However, Tacoma rents are up by 25.6 percent since March 2020, according to the report.
“Median rents in Tacoma currently stand at $1,250 for a 1-bedroom apartment and $1,596 for a two-bedroom,” it noted.
Redmond and Issaquah had the highest median rents in the area for the period, according to the listing and data service, with median two-bedroom rents at $2,500 and $2,550, respectively. Redmond had the highest year-over-year growth at 15 percent; Issaquah was at 13.4 percent.
Puyallup was more expensive than Tacoma, with median one-bedroom at $1,460 and two-bedroom at $1,790, and year-over-year growth of 10.1 percent.
Lakewood had the lowest rents for the area, with a two-bedroom median of $1,459; “rents increased 0.6 percent over the past month and 3.9 percent over the past year,” according to the report.
The data service calculates its numbers using median rent statistics from the Census Bureau, then extrapolates them to the current month using a growth rate calculated from its listing data.
Rent.com, in its latest report, shows average rents up 8 percent for 2-bedroom apartments in Tacoma from a year ago. Drilling down by neighborhood, it showed the annual change flat in many areas for one-bedrooms year over year. The North End was up 5 percent, while South Tacoma was down 14 percent.
For two-bedrooms, the average rent for a unit downtown was up 15 percent from a year ago, but down in most other neighborhoods.
It showed average rents ranging from $1,485 for studios to $2,329 for two-bedrooms.
Redfin, in an earlier August report, noted a slowdown in rental increases nationwide, with the national median asking rent showing month-over-month growth of just 0.6 percent in July, “the slowest growth since February and down from a 2.1 percent increase a year earlier.”
“Big rent hikes may finally be coming to an end as landlords adjust to waning tenant budgets that are being strained by the rising cost of groceries, gas and other regular expenses,” Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather said in the update. ”Still, rents are increasing faster than overall inflation, which has started to ease.
“We expect rental growth to continue to slow, but markets with strong job growth and limited new housing construction, like New York and Seattle, will likely continue to experience large rent increases.”
Tacoma is seeing a building boom of apartments, with thousands of new units to be completed in the next few years.
