Pierce County evictions reach ‘all-time high.’ Who is filing the most?
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- Goodman and Greystar led Pierce County in eviction filings from 2023 to 2025.
- Greystar averaged 9.6 evictions per 100 units annually—highest among landlords.
- Pierce County filed nearly 3,400 evictions in 2024, marking a six-year high.
Some of Pierce County’s largest landlords filed evictions at the highest rates, according to data from the Pierce County Clerk’s Office.
The News Tribune analyzed eviction-filing data from January 2023 to August 2025 to identify the region’s largest eviction filers. In that span of time, more than 8,900 evictions were filed in Pierce County courts.
Two of the region’s largest eviction filers were Goodman Real Estate, a Seattle-based company that owns more than $5 billion in assets in Washington and other states, and Greystar, a company recognized as the largest landlord in the country, owning more than 950,000 rental units nationwide.
Recently, Greystar reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice after being accused of participating in an anticompetitive algorithmic pricing scheme with other rental-property owners.
According to Pierce County eviction data, Goodman Real Estate filed at least 480 evictions since the beginning of 2023 across at least 13 properties. In the same span of time, Greystar properties filed more than 320 evictions across at least four properties.
Some Goodman Real Estate properties which filed the most evictions include:
- A 230-unit apartment complex at 2201 104th St. S. in Parkland, which Goodman Real Estate sold at the end of January 2025 for $40.75 million and is now known as Ellyson Apartment Homes with rents advertised between $1,625 and $2,375 on apartments.com.
- The Lodge at Madrona, a 24-building complex with 465 units near The Home Depot on Center Street in Tacoma which also was sold this year and is now managed by Greystar. Rents at the complex are advertised between $1,395 and $1,825 on apartments.com.
- The Northpoint Apartments at 3815 N. Pearl St. in Tacoma — a 402-unit apartment complex with rents advertised between $1,625 and $2,083 on zillow.com.
- Arbor Pointe Apartment Homes at 11432 105th Ave. SW in Lakewood — a 188-unit apartment complex with rents advertised between $1,450 and $1,910 on apartments.com.
Some Greystar managed properties which filed the most evictions since 2023 include:
- The Fairways Apartments at 4901 Fairwood Blvd. NE in Tacoma — a more than 545-unit apartment complex with monthly rents advertised between $1,666 and $2,802 on apartments.com.
- The Woodmark Apartments at 2425 96th St. S. in Tacoma — a 288-unit complex with rents advertised between $1,090 and $1,225 on apartments.com.
- The 1202 Pearl apartments in North Tacoma — a 330-unit apartment with rents advertised between $1,495 and $2,455 on apartments.com.
- Vue 25 apartments at 2368 Yakima Ave. in Tacoma — a more than 160-unit complex with rents advertised between $1,299 and $1,784 on apartments.com.
Pierce County ranks high in evictions
According to a 2024 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), national eviction data is limited and difficult to collect. While the report was unable to identify current or reliable data to calculate a national eviction rate, it cited a study from The Eviction Lab at Princeton University and estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
According to the GAO report, the Census Bureau included survey questions designed to count forced moves due to evictions in 2017. Researchers estimated a national physical eviction rate of 5.3 percent based on the results of those questions. HUD officials and researchers noted the survey’s small sample size might limit the accuracy of those estimates.
In 2018, the Eviction Lab at Princeton University estimated 7.8 evictions were filed per 100 renting households nationally. That estimate was based on available court-record data and statistical modeling.
According to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau survey estimates, there are more than 375,752 housing units in Pierce County, with an estimated 36% of those being rental units. Using that estimation, there are roughly 135,270 rental units in Pierce County.
With 8,940 evictions filed in Pierce County between January 2023 and August 2025, there was an average of 2.6 evictions filed annually per 100 units of estimated rental housing.
According to a study from the Eviction Research Network, which looked at eviction data across Washington from September 2023 to August 2024, Pierce County had the third-highest eviction rate in the state during that time. The county recorded 3,561 evictions from September 2023 to August 2024, equating to 2.9 eviction per 100 units.
Goodman Real Estate has filed at least 486 evictions at 13 different properties accounting for roughly 2,913 rental units since 2023. That equates to an average of about 6.67 evictions per 100 units annually.
Greystar has filed at least 321 evictions at four different properties accounting for 1,334 units. That equates to an average of about 9.6 evictions per 100 units annually.
Greystar did not respond to The News Tribune’s request for comment.
Some other proportionally high evicting companies include:
- Aladdin Camelot Apartments at 9318 S. Steele St. in Tacoma, which filed 89 evictions in two-and-a-half years across 529 units, equating to approximate average 6.7 evictions per 100 units annually.
- Village at SoTa at 2325 96th St. in Tacoma, which filed 56 evictions in two-and-a-half years across 252 units, equating to approximate average of 8.88 evictions per 100 units annually.
- Gateway by Vintage at 20002 Mountain Hwy in Spanaway - 36 evictions in two-and-a-half years across 216 units equating to an approximate average of 6.66 evictions per 100 units annually.
Companies’ high eviction rates explained
Sean Flynn is the director and executive president of the Rental Housing Association of Washington, an organization representing over 6,000 landlords and property-management company’s statewide, including Goodman Real Estate Management.
Flynn spoke on Goodman Real Estate’s behalf in an interview with The News Tribune. He said Goodman Real Estate’s relatively high number of filed evictions was “not surprising” as the company is one of the largest rental property owners in the South Sound.
“I don’t know if that is indicative of a specific business practice that is unique to [Goodman Real Estate],” he told The News Tribune.
Evictions in Pierce County have been on an upward trend in recent years, with one of the highest eviction rates in the state. Pierce County recorded nearly 3,400 eviction filings in 2024, the highest number filed in six years.
Flynn attributed the recent uptick to a culmination of post-pandemic policy changes. He said certain changes to local and state laws have made it difficult for property owners to enforce their rights.
When tenants are noncompliant with community guidelines, he said, an eviction notice is the necessary legal option to get them to comply before an eviction is filed in court. Flynn said that process is necessary to protect other tenants who might be negatively impacted by a problem neighbor.
“No one likes an eviction. Residents hate evictions, and the property manager does, too,” he said “When eviction happens, housing providers take a loss. It’s considered a ‘business fail’.”
Flynn said evictions are expensive for business owners as they not only miss out on rent while the process is underway, they also have to pay increasingly expensive fees to hire lawyers. He said the eviction process, which used to take about 60 days, now takes upwards of a year to complete.
“It’s not that Goodman Real Estate and Greystar are necessarily evicting more people,” he told The News Tribune. “They are serving a population that is more at risk.”
Flynn said many of the rental units owned by Goodman Real Estate are middle- to low-income rentals, which carry greater risk of people falling behind on rental payments. He said a representative from Goodman Real Estate said the company has recently sold a handful of properties because they recorded higher eviction rates and presented more financial risk.
“These properties serve the poorest people who have the largest risk and need the most support from society,” he told The News Tribune.
Flynn advocated for additional rental assistance and eviction prevention resources, which he said would benefit both housing providers and tenants at risk of eviction. He said providing early financial assistance to tenants behind on rent would be the most cost effective way to reduce evictions.
Tenant advocate says rental assistance needed
Mark Morzol is the managing attorney at Tacoma Pro Bono’s Housing Justice Project, a state-funded program which provides lawyers to tenants facing eviction. In an interview with The News Tribune, Morzol said his office, which has about 23 attorneys, has been busy with eviction filings on an upward trend.
“Evictions are hovering at about an all-time high,” he said.
While Morzol said he did not notice any trends as far as who was more frequently filing evictions, he did say that about 90% of the eviction cases his office sees are due to non-payment.
“A lot of them are based on one-time events in somebody’s life,” he told The News Tribune. “Maybe its an abrupt job loss. Maybe it’s an abrupt loss of a car which in turn leads to the job loss. It might be an injury at work which means they can’t work for a little bit.”
According to Morzol, lawyers representing tenants can help resolve the eviction by getting landlords to agree to a repayment plan, or a judge can institute a 90-day repayment plan. He said sometimes a tenant can be required to pay back several months rent in 90 days while also paying their upcoming rent.
“For some tenants, it’s just not going to be a reality,” he said.
Morzol also advocated for additional rental assistance to help address the rising trend in evictions, but he expected it would take a considerable amount of financial resource to be able to curb the problem.
He pointed out that the county used over $175 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to provide rental assistance and prevent evictions during the pandemic, which the county burned through in less than two years to meet the demand.
In the past year, Pierce County spent more than $5.5 million as part of its Eviction Prevention program and plans to spend $13 million over the next two. The county uses a lottery system to award those at risk of eviction with funding to catch up on rent and utility payments. Near the end of 2024, the county reported more than 1,700 individual households had applied for services, met basic eligibility criteria but were not selected into the program.
During Pierce County’s last two annual surveys of those experiencing homelessness in the region, eviction was a Top 3 reason for being homeless identified by participants.
This story was originally published September 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
