Dashboards

WCRER now provides easy access to key housing data elements through two dashboards, one for county data and one for city data. You can view and interact with the dashboards by selecting either city dashboards or county dashboards from the menu to the right. The dashboards show Median House Prices, Average Rents and Vacancy Rates for apartments, Median Household Incomes, and Housing Affordability Index (HAI) numbers. Data can be viewed for specific quarters or graphed over time. The data can be downloaded easily in various formats. Data are provided if available for all counties and for all cities with populations 10,000 or above as well as selected smaller cities for which adequate data are available for reporting purposes. The start dates for each data series vary depending on availability and consistency of the data. House price and affordability data for smaller cities should be interpreted with caution as the numbers tend to be volatile due to the small numbers of transactions.

The Median House Prices are based largely on data obtained from the Multiple Listing Services that serve different parts of the state (for counties) or CoreLogic (for cities), while the Average Rents are based on data obtained from CoStar. Both the county and city house price data pertain to single-family houses.  The Average Rents reflect units categorized as both market-rate and affordable, but exclude specialized categories, such as housing for seniors or the military.

Median Household Incomes are estimated by WCRER based on information from the Washington State Office of Financial Management, the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The income estimates and HAIs are subject to change as new data become available. More information about the household income estimates is available from WCRER.

Four HAIs are reported, for the median-income buyer, a first-time buyer with income at 85% of the median, the median-income renter, and a low-income renter with 70% of the median income. The HAI numbers give the relevant household’s income as a percentage of the income required to afford to buy or rent the relevant dwelling unit. Index numbers of 100 or greater indicate that the relevant dwelling unit is affordable, while numbers less than 100 indicate that it is not affordable (although less expensive units would be affordable). Because the HAIs are based on median incomes in each county or city, and higher cost jurisdictions tend to have higher median incomes, they do not indicate relative affordability across locations. Instead, they are best used to track changes in affordability in specific locations over time.

The dashboards are updated quarterly as new data become available.