Dupre’ and Scott just released their 1-19 unit Rents & Vacancies report. This report is always highly anticipated as Patty Dupre’ and Mike Scott do the best job analyzing and forecasting the rental market in Seattle and sub-markets. They also publish a similar report for medium and large apartment communities. This report focuses on single-family, multi-plex, and small apartment buildings.
Findings show rents are up between 4.3 – 6.9% over last year (versus apartment rents which rose 8.8%). The vacancy rate across all unit types is a very low 2.6%. 75% of respondents to the survey reported they plan to raise rents over the course of the next year on average 3%.
Interestingly, less than 40% of renters in multi-plexes and 5-19 unit apartments pay for their own water & sewer. The report goes on to break down vacancy rate, average rent, and number of units surveyed by each sub-market. For example, the average rent for a 3-bedroom house in Renton among 174 units was $1,595.
