Seattle, Washington Home Affordability

The data below measures home affordability for the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Washington metropolitan area using price-to-income and price-to-rent metrics.¹ The maximum affordable loan amount for the median household income is also calculated. You can also compare Seattle home affordability to other cities.

Seattle, Washington Home Price-to-Income Ratios

The current price-to-income ratio for Seattle is 4.21 as determined by March 2012 Realtor median sales prices. The second chart shows a history of the ratio as an index calculated from the Federal Housing Finance Agency's Seattle HPI series. Median household income data for Seattle is from the Census American Community Survey.

Price-to-Income Dollar Ratio: Realtor

Price-to-Income Index Ratio: FHFA

Note: Index set to 100 in Q1 of 2000

Seattle, Washington Home Price-to-Income Ratio History

Date	Realtor (Dollar Ratio)	FHFA (Index Ratio)
March 2012	4.21	—
December 2011	4.24	116.3
September 2011	4.54	116.7
June 2011	4.55	115.5
March 2011	4.55	117.4
December 2010	4.69	122.0
September 2010	4.69	124.2
June 2010	4.69	124.1
March 2010	4.69	125.1

Seattle, Washington Home Price-to-Rent Ratios

The current adjusted price-to-rent ratio for Seattle is 20.98 as determined by March 2012 Realtor median sales prices. This ratio is calculated using household size adjusted median contract rent for Seattle. The chart below shows an index of the rent ratio calculated from the metro FHFA HPI series and the Seattle median contract rent data from the Census ACS.

Price-to-Rent Dollar Ratio: Realtor, Realtor Adjusted Rent

Price-to-Rent Index Ratio: FHFA

Note: Index set to 100 in Q1 of 2000

Seattle, Washington Home Price-to-Rent Ratio History

Date	Realtor (Dollar Ratio)	Realtor Adjusted (Dollar Ratio)	FHFA (Index Ratio)
March 2012	24.49	20.98	—
December 2011	24.70	21.15	104.8
September 2011	26.41	22.62	105.1
June 2011	26.50	22.70	104.0
March 2011	26.50	22.70	105.8
December 2010	27.29	23.38	109.9
September 2010	27.29	23.38	111.9
June 2010	27.29	23.38	111.8
March 2010	27.29	23.38	112.7

Seattle, Washington Home Rent-to-Mortgage Payment Ratio

The rent-to-mortgage payment ratio uses the adjusted rent for Seattle against a 100% loan-to-value mortgage (30-year fixed) for the median price home using Realtor home sales statistics. It's a lot like a cap rate, but I find it more appealing in ratio form. A ratio of 1.0 means that annual rent is equivalent annual mortgage payments. Values less than 1.0 indicate rents are cheaper and values greater than 1.0 mean mortgage payments are cheaper. Beware, taxes are not considered here. The rent-to-mortgage payment ratio for Seattle was 0.84 in March 2012.

Rent-to-Mortgage Payment Dollar Ratio: Realtor

Seattle, Washington Home Rent-to-Mortgage Payment Ratio History

Date	Realtor Adjusted Rent (Dollar Ratio)
March 2012	0.84
December 2011	0.83
September 2011	0.76
June 2011	0.72
March 2011	0.70
December 2010	0.69
September 2010	0.72
June 2010	0.68
March 2010	0.67

Seattle, Washington Inferred Affordable Mortgage

The inferred affordable mortgage value is determined by taking the median household income for Seattle, Washington and calculating the mortgage 30% of that income could afford. Traditionally, 30% of income is the maximum amount a homeowner could use towards a home loan. Inferred affordable loan values are calculated from ACS median household income and average monthly mortgage rates.

Inferred Affordable Mortgage

Seattle, Washington Inferred Affordable Mortgage History

Date	Inferred Mortgage
January 2012	$333,576
December 2011	$331,963
November 2011	$330,761
October 2011	$327,587
September 2011	$326,016
August 2011	$319,846
July 2011	$309,460
June 2011	$310,913
May 2011	$306,230
April 2011	$299,230
March 2011	$299,230
February 2011	$295,483
January 2011	$302,000