Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA market brief

• Rating: 33/100 (estimated · 2026-02-28)
• Home value: $740,211 (verified · 2026-02-28)
• 1-year value: -1.6% (verified · 2026-02-28)
• Average rent: $2,181 (verified · 2026-02-28)
• 1-year rent: +1.8% (verified · 2026-02-28)
• Rent-to-value: 3.54% (estimated · 2026-02-28)

This metro behaves more like an underwriting discipline test than a broad cash-flow market. Rents are still firm, but the entry basis is high enough that investors need sharper financing and expense assumptions.

• Pressure-test debt service and reserve assumptions because a small financing miss can erase already-thin cash flow.
• Use neighborhood-level rent comps instead of metro averages before trusting the revenue side of the deal.
• The county map helps narrow the search, but the actual buy-pass call still happens at the property level.

Best for investors who value liquidity, long-term demand, and disciplined basis selection over easy citywide cash flow.

• Verify neighborhood-specific rent comps before underwriting any Seattle-submarket deal.
• Model property taxes, insurance, and maintenance with conservative assumptions because thin spreads leave less room for error.
• Compare the deal against an alternative market if you are optimizing for cash flow rather than durability.

• Numeric market metrics are pulled from Zillow Research metro files at build time, not copied by hand.
• County overlays use Zillow Research county files plus Census TIGERweb county polygons so the highlighted areas map to real boundaries.
• The overall market score is a transparent screening heuristic built from rent-to-value, 1-year rent trend, and price-vs-rent pressure.
• Unsupported metrics such as days-to-pending are intentionally removed instead of scraped or inferred.

• Zillow Research ZHVI metro file — Metro home values as of 2026-02-28. (accessed 2026-04-04)
• Zillow Research ZORI metro file — Metro rents as of 2026-02-28. (accessed 2026-04-04)
• Zillow Research ZHVI county file — County home values used for the highlighted county overlays. (accessed 2026-04-04)
• Zillow Research ZORI county file — County rents used for the highlighted county overlays. (accessed 2026-04-04)
• Census TIGERweb county polygons — Official county boundaries used to render the city-level map footprint. (accessed 2026-04-04)
• Zillow research definitions — Reference definitions for Zillow housing and rent market metrics. (accessed 2026-04-04)