Tacoma rents are slowing. If you want extra space, here’s where you can find deals
While Tacoma continues to see new apartment projects seeking approval, area landlords might have hit the threshold on how high rent rates can go, for now anyway.
Reports released this week speak to rent trends as well as where people can get the most apartment for the rates now being charged.
Tacoma, area rents
Data and listings service Apartment List showed Tacoma’s year-over-year rent growth at 2.9 percent, compared to 19.8 percent at this time in 2021. That said, rents in Tacoma “are up by 25.7 percent since the start of the pandemic in March 2020,” according to the report.
Nationwide, rents have increased an average of 7.5 percent compared with this time last year, while the state increased an average of 5.6 percent.
The national median rent decreased by 0.2 percent in September, “the first monthly decline since last December,” according to an update from Igor Popov, the company’s chief economist. “In fact, rents are down this month in 69 of the nation’s 100 largest cities, albeit modestly.”
Apartment List showed median rents in Tacoma at $1,251 for a one-bedroom unit and $1,598 for a two-bedroom. The two-bedroom rent rate is above the national average of $1,360, Apartment List noted.
“Lakewood has the least expensive rents in the Seattle metro, with a two-bedroom median of $1,441; rents went down 1.1 percent over the past month but rose 1.7 percent over the past year,” Apartment List’s October report said.
On the other end of the spectrum, Redmond remained the most expensive among the largest cities in the Seattle metro as it was in September’s report, “with a two-bedroom median of $2,446; rents fell 1.5 percent over the past month but rose 10.3 percent over the past year.”
Rent.com reported modest rent growth for Tacoma, and, at least with two-bedroom units, the average $2,126 was down 2 percent year over year, but average studio rents were up 4 percent to $1,476.
Three-bedroom sites were up 7 percent from a year ago, with average rent $2,197, according to the listing and data site.
Where to get the most for least
A separate report from listings site RentCafe on Tuesday ranked Puyallup as the top city in the Seattle region to offer more unit size for the lowest amount.
“Puyallup is the top location in Seattle metro, where renters can upsize to a bigger apartment without being financially overwhelmed, adding $107 to their monthly expenses,” the site said Tuesday.
In contrast, it showed Kent costing $337 more a month to go up in bedroom size for a unit. In Tacoma, $311.
In its release, it added, “Renters in Auburn and Lynnwood could upgrade to an apartment with an extra bedroom in exchange for an additional $118 and $143 per month, respectively ... still significantly less than upsizing to a larger rental in the city of Seattle, where renters will have to take over $500 a month out of their pockets to lease a bigger rental.”
The amounts were part of a larger review of cities nationwide, which showed Memphis as the only major city where renters can move up in space without going over $100 a month.
According to the review, in Memphis, “renters would have to chip in an additional $87 each month to enjoy a larger unit.”
The cheapest city was Portsmouth, Virgina, where the average monthly cost of an extra bedroom was $25 a month.
Nationwide, the average is a lot more expensive.
“Americans living in one-bedroom apartments could make the move to a two-bedroom rental for an average extra cost of $236 per month,” the RentCafe report noted. “Meanwhile, those who already live in a two-bedroom apartment but need more space would need to take $294 per month, on average, out of their pockets.”
This story was originally published September 28, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
