Your monthly guide to rental conditions in Seattle Metro. This is our July 2026 report, covering June 2026 rental data: what rents looked like last month, what's driving the market, and what it means if you own a rental home.
Seattle Metro Rental Market Snapshot — June 2026
Here's where Seattle Metro rents landed in June 2026, across all property types — apartments, condos, townhomes, and single-family homes.
The Seattle Metro median rent hit $2,201 in June 2026, down 1.35% year-over-year and essentially flat month-over-month (-0.41%), while homes are sitting an average of 49 days before leasing. Rents have softened, but population growth and Amazon's full-time return-to-office policy are keeping demand from falling off a cliff, so pricing competitively rather than anchoring to last year's numbers is the move right now.
| Metric | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Median Rent (All Types, Seattle Metro) | $2,201 | -0.4% MoM |
| Avg. Days on Market | 49 days | — |
| Rent Growth YoY | -1.4% | — |
Source: Doorstead market data, aggregated from public records and online rental listings, all rental property types, June 2026.
What's Driving Seattle Metro Rental Market Conditions Right Now
Seattle Metro Rental Supply and New Construction
New construction is tapering fast across the Seattle metro: only 1,760 units delivered in Q1 2026, down 59% year-over-year, and the active pipeline of 17,813 units under construction is shrinking too, off 11% from a year ago (Kidder Mathews, Q1 2026). The bulk of what is still being built concentrates in a tight band of urban core and transit-adjacent corridors: Downtown, First Hill, South Lake Union, the International District, and Northgate, which is adding density around its Link Light Rail station and the ongoing mall redevelopment. Landlords in suburban Eastside submarkets like Redmond and Bellevue's Wilburton district, or in walkable urban neighborhoods like Capitol Hill and Ballard, are seeing very little new supply land nearby, which should provide some stability even as citywide rents stay flat.
Why People Rent in Seattle Metro
Amazon's return-to-office mandate, which brought roughly 50,000 Seattle-area employees back to five days a week starting January 2025, has concentrated demand in neighborhoods with short commutes to South Lake Union and downtown, keeping close-in rents supported. Seattle also added 11,572 residents in the year ending July 2025, the fifth-largest numeric gain of any U.S. city, with international migration carrying most of that growth. At a 30-year mortgage rate of 6.55%, buying stays out of reach for a large share of the metro's population, which helps explain why 39.5% of Seattle households rent rather than own.
What This Means for Seattle Metro Landlords
You're still inside the summer leasing window, but it closes fast after mid-August, so if you have a vacancy now, price it to move rather than hold out for a higher number in a market where the median rent slipped 1.35% year-over-year and homes are sitting an average of 49 days. Washington's new rent stabilization law (RCW 59.18.700) caps in-tenancy increases at 7% plus inflation or 10%, whichever is less, and bars any increase in the first 12 months, so your best leverage is at lease signing, not renewal.
Seattle Metro Rent by City — June 2026
Kirkland leads the Seattle metro in leasing speed at 31 days on market, with Renton close behind at 36 days, making the Eastside corridor the tightest pocket of demand in the region right now. Kent is the clear soft spot, sitting at 81 days on market with virtually no movement month-over-month, while Seattle proper also lagged at 59 days despite a slight 0.2% monthly uptick. Across the metro, most cities leased somewhere between 31 and 54 days in June, with Kent as the outlier pulling the average up.
| City | Median Rent | 2BR Median | 3BR Median | Avg. DOM | MoM Change | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seattle, WA | $1,999 | $2,786 | $3,425 | 59 days | +0.2% | -3.8% |
| Everett, WA | $1,801 | $1,805 | $2,679 | 48 days | -2.2% | -8.1% |
| Bellevue, WA | $2,914 | $2,935 | $3,851 | 40 days | +0.8% | -2.0% |
| Redmond, WA | $2,499 | $2,759 | $3,650 | 45 days | -1.8% | +3.7% |
| Renton, WA | $2,419 | $2,358 | $2,988 | 36 days | +2.9% | -0.1% |
| Tacoma, WA | $1,603 | $1,764 | $2,640 | 54 days | -0.7% | -0.5% |
| Kirkland, WA | $2,450 | $2,641 | $3,859 | 31 days | -2.5% | -11.8% |
| Kent, WA | $1,922 | $1,800 | $2,950 | 81 days | +0.1% | +11.7% |
| Source: Doorstead market data, aggregated from public records and online rental listings, all property types, June 2026. Median Rent is across all property types. |
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Seattle, WA: Amazon's full-time return-to-office mandate has kept demand anchored in close-in neighborhoods, with workers paying a premium to cut commute times. Median rent sat at $1,999 in June, up just 0.2% from May and down 3.8% year-over-year, while 59 days on market suggests tenants are taking their time, so price your vacancy sharply from day one rather than testing the ceiling.
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Everett, WA: Median rent dropped to $1,801 in June, off 2.2% month-over-month and down 8.1% year-over-year, the steepest annual decline of any city in this table. At 48 days on market, homes are sitting long enough that concessions or a below-ask list price are likely the faster path to a signed lease.
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Bellevue, WA: Families targeting the Wilburton district prize its I-405/SR-520 access, light rail, and proximity to Bellevue High School, which keeps demand steady in a market where the premium holds. Median rent reached $2,914 in June, up 0.8% from May and off only 2.0% year-over-year, and 40 days on market puts Bellevue meaningfully faster than Seattle, signaling that well-priced inventory here moves without much delay.
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Redmond, WA: Tech professionals and families chasing Microsoft campus proximity and top-rated school districts drive the rental pool here, keeping upward pressure on rents even as the broader metro softens. Median rent came in at $2,499 in June, the only city in this report posting positive year-over-year growth at +3.7%, though the 1.8% month-over-month dip and 45-day DOM suggest the summer surge has a ceiling, so hold your price but don't push it.
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Renton, WA: Median rent rose to $2,419 in June, up 2.9% from May and essentially flat year-over-year at -0.1%, the steadiest rent trajectory in the table. At 36 days on market, Renton leased faster than every city here except Kirkland, a combination that puts landlords in a genuinely strong position to hold asking price without sitting long.
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Tacoma, WA: Median rent slipped to $1,603 in June, down 0.7% month-over-month and 0.5% year-over-year, both small enough to read as essentially flat rather than a real softening trend. The concern is pace: 54 days on market is on the slower side, so even in a stable-price environment, expect to compete on presentation and responsiveness to inquiries.
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Kirkland, WA: Kirkland posted the fastest leasing pace in the table at 31 days on market, yet median rent fell 2.5% month-over-month and 11.8% year-over-year to $2,450. Speed without price recovery points to landlords already trimming rents to clear vacancies quickly, so if you need to lease now, price to the current market rather than the 2025 comp.
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Kent, WA: Median rent edged up to $1,922 in June, essentially flat month-over-month at +0.1% but up 11.7% year-over-year, the strongest annual gain in the table. The catch is 81 days on market, the slowest pace here by a wide margin, which suggests the year-over-year number reflects where rents landed after a run-up, not active upward momentum, so price carefully and expect a longer lease-up timeline.
Seattle Metro Rent by Bedroom Count and Property Type — June 2026
Rent by Bedroom Count in Seattle Metro
Rents across the Seattle metro climbed steadily with each bedroom added, but the increases were not uniform. The jump from a 1-bedroom to a 2-bedroom was $539, and the step from a 2-bedroom to a 3-bedroom was even larger at $899, making that the steepest gap in the table. Moving from a 3-bedroom to a 4-bedroom added $749, a meaningful increase but smaller than the 2-to-3-bedroom climb. Taken together, the spread from a studio at $1,605 to a 4-bedroom at $4,004 is $2,399, meaning the largest rentals in the metro commanded roughly 2.5 times the rent of the smallest.
| Bedroom Count in Seattle Metro | Median Rent (June 2026) |
|---|---|
| Studio | $1,605 |
| 1-Bedroom | $1,817 |
| 2-Bedroom | $2,356 |
| 3-Bedroom | $3,255 |
| 4-Bedroom | $4,004 |
| Source: Doorstead market data, aggregated from public records and online rental listings, Seattle Metro, June 2026. |
Rent by Property Type in Seattle Metro
Single-family homes commanded the steepest premium in June, with a median rent of $3,444, that's $1,243 or 56.5% above the blended metro median of $2,201, and they leased fastest at just 15 days on market. Townhouses also cleared the blended median by a meaningful margin, renting at $3,012, or 36.8% above it, though they took more than twice as long to lease at 32 days. Condos sat almost exactly at the metro midpoint at $2,188, just $12 below the blended median. Apartments were the clear laggard: a $1,881 median rent put them 14.5% below the blended figure, and at 97 days on market they took roughly six times longer to lease than single-family homes did.
| Property Type in Seattle Metro | Median Rent | Avg. Days on Market | MoM Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| All Property Types (Blended) | $2,201 | 49 days | -0.4% |
| Single Family | $3,444 | 15 days | +1.9% |
| Condo | $2,188 | 23 days | +0.9% |
| Townhouse | $3,012 | 32 days | -1.6% |
| Apartment | $1,881 | 97 days | -1.5% |
| Source: Doorstead market data, aggregated from public records and online rental listings, Seattle Metro, June 2026. |
Data Sources & Methodology
- Rental market data: Median rents, days on market, listing counts, and rent change figures. Sourced from county public records, deed and tax assessor data, and rental listings on publicly accessible platforms.
- Doorstead Platform Data: Internal leasing outcomes from Doorstead-managed rental homes across all property types, including days to lease. Trailing 12 months.
Data refreshed monthly. Doorstead benchmarks reflect managed properties only and may not be representative of the broader Seattle Metro rental market.