WCRER provides easy access to key housing data elements through two dashboards, one for county data and one for city data. Data can be viewed for specific quarters or as a graph showing approximately ten years of statistics. The data can also be downloaded easily in various formats.
Data are provided where available for all counties and for all cities with populations 10,000 or above as well as selected smaller cities. The start dates for each data series vary depending on availability and consistency of the data.
- 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/Cotality (for cities). In some cases, data are obtained from county property assessors. Both the county and city house price data pertain to single-family houses and represent the midpoints in the distribution of prices for each location. To ensure that the data are representative, city house price medians are shown only for quarters with at least 10 transactions.
- Average Apartment Rents are based on data obtained from CoStar. To give a more comprehensive picture of affordability in the rental market, they reflect units categorized as both market-rate and affordable, but exclude specialized categories, such as housing for seniors or the military.
- Apartment Vacancy Rates are also based on data obtained from CoStar. New properties still in the lease-up process (within two years of completion of construction) are omitted from the data.
- Median Household Incomes for counties and cities 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 Housing Affordability Indexes (see below) are subject to change as new data become available. More information about the household income estimates is available from WCRER.
- Four Housing Affordability Indexes (HAIs) are reported:
- for a median-income household purchasing a median-priced single-family house, with a 20% down payment;
- for a first-time buyer with income at 70% of the median household income, purchasing a single-family house priced at 85% of the median house price, with a 10% down payment;
- for a median-income household renting an average-priced apartment, and
- for a low-income household with 70% of the median income renting an average-priced apartment.
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.