Tacoma catching a break with rents. Downtown studios cheaper here than Oklahoma City
Two new reports show Tacoma rent rates trending down or stabilizing.
In at least one case, studio rents were significantly cheaper here than in the Midwest.
Apartment List, in its November report issued this week, said that rents in Tacoma dropped 1.7 percent month-over-month in October, compared with a 0.7 percent decrease nationally.
It was the second-straight month Tacoma has seen rent decreases after an increase in August, according to the report.
Tacoma’s year-over-year rent growth lags the state average of 3.6 percent, as well as the national average of 5.7 percent, it added.
“Year-over-year rent growth in Tacoma currently stands at -0.1 percent, compared to 20.1 percent at this time last year,” it noted.
In comparison, Seattle saw a slightly higher month-over-month decline of 2.6 percent, with an increase of 0.7 percent year over year.
It added that rents in Tacoma are up by 23 percent since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, with median rents now at $1,224 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,564 for a two-bedroom.
Apartment List bases its information on median rent statistics from the Census Bureau, extrapolated to the current month using a growth rate calculated from its listing data and using a same-unit analysis, comparing only units that are available across both time periods.
Rent.com, in its report, showed Tacoma prices down or stabilizing from a year ago, based on an analysis of its internal listings.
According to the report, the average rent is $1,426 for a studio in Tacoma, down 2 percent from a year ago.
For a one-bedroom apartment, the average rent is $1,750, also down 2 percent from 2021. For a two-bedroom apartment, the average rent is $2,182, unchanged from a year ago and $2,219 for a three-bedroom unit, up 1 percent from 2021.
In its most recent national report, it showed Oklahoma City with the highest year-over-year rent increase at more than 24 percent. There, an average studio is $1,200, up 81 percent from a year ago. A studio in downtown OKC averages $1,920, up 77 percent from a year ago.
Comparatively, the average rent for a downtown studio in Tacoma is $1,466, up 1 percent from 2021.
This story was originally published November 1, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
