Since 1996 the Washington Center for Real Estate Research (WCRER) at Washington State University has been providing valuable apartment market statistics for communities throughout the state of Washington.  The main goal of the surveys has been to estimate the vacancy rate for each county in addition to determining the average rent charged to the individuals who occupy these properties.  The WCRER has become the largest apartment market researcher in Eastern Washington along with conducting research in two Western Washington counties.  With permission and encouragement from Dupre + Scott (D+S), the Seattle-area research firm which conducts apartment research around the Puget Sound, WCRER has positioned itself to facilitate development of consistent, statewide apartment market data – at least in those areas representing a vast majority of the state’s apartments.

Market Coverage/Response Rates

            The size of the overall apartment market was re-estimated for this report using data from Census 2000 along with building permit data collected by the U.S. Bureau of the Census for the last two years.  Once the total number of apartment units was tallied for each county, the rental share of those units was calculated.  The rental share of apartments still uses 1990 Census proportions since the Census 2000 data on this topic is not yet available. 

The number of apartment units represented by the responses to the survey is compared to the total number of rental apartments in each market to produce a response rate. Response rates for both the D+S market research and the research conducted by the WCRER are combined to give an overall response rate for all the major counties in the State of Washington.  The resulting statistic for the combined surveys was 46.3%, basically the same as the Fall 2001 estimate, which was still based on 1990 Census data.  However, individual local market response rates changed more significantly.  Even though a 46.3% response rate may sound low, there are many contributing factors. Reasons for apartment managers not responding range from their complex not having enough units (D+S surveys are limited to projects with at least 20 units),  to the apartments manager’s unwillingness to give out private information for the survey.  Neither the D+S survey nor the WCRER survey includes government-assisted housing.  Collectively, these reasons make it difficult for the response rate to exceed 50 percent of the rental units in many local markets. 

WCRER and Dupre + Scott Apartment Market Surveys

Market Coverage  

Market Summary

            The statewide vacancy rate for the spring was 6.6%, a jump of 2.5% from last spring, and 1.5% above the fall measure.  Comparison to the year-ago statistic is most meaningful since the seasonal differences should not be present.  Snohomish County saw the largest increase in the vacancy rate.  Snohomish vacancies more than doubled, reaching 8.6%, the highest recorded vacancy among the 17 counties studied.  King County’s vacancy also doubled, reaching 8.0%.  In both of those Central Puget Sound communities, the surge in vacancies can be attributed to new construction entering the effective inventory, reduced levels of job creation and continued pressure from renters taking advantage of low interest rates to become homeowners.  At the other extreme, vacancy was lowest in neighboring Kitsap County, across the Puget Sound from Seattle, where only 3.1 percent of surveyed units were unrented.  Other communities with low apartment vacancies included the Tri-Cities, where real estate markets in general have been very strong for the last year, and the college towns of Pullman (WSU), Ellensburg (Central Washington) and Bellingham (Western Washington).  All three of those communities had fewer than 4% of their rental units vacant. 

           Average rents ranged from a low of $480 in Grant County to a high of $869 in King County.  Since the largest share of apartments are located in the more expensive urban communities, it comes as no surprise that the statewide average rent of $759 is closer to the prevailing level in Seattle than it is to Moses Lake’s average rent.

Summary Apartment Market Statistics – March 2002

           The WCRER survey includes the average size of units within each apartment complex.  The smallest apartment units are found in Kittitas County where the average size is 717 sq. ft.  The largest apartments are found in Clark County where the average apartment is a significantly larger 905 sq. ft.  While these aggregate statistics are interesting, it is important to compare similar types of properties across the markets.  Since most apartments are either 1-bedroom or 2-bedroom, 1-bath units, as illustrated in the accompanying graphic, those unit types will be analyzed in more detail in the concluding pages of this article.

Composition of Apartment Market

Selected Washington Communities, March 2002

          The graphic also clearly illustrates the differences in the composition of the apartment market from community to community.  Studio apartments are most prevalent in Cowlitz and King counties, while 2-bedroom, 2-bath units are most frequently encountered in the more suburban Clark and Snohomish County areas.  One-bedroom units are especially dominant in Yakima County, while units with three or more bedrooms are most significant in Whitman County.

1-Bedroom Apartments

      One-bedroom apartments are the most popular type of apartment unit in the state, accounting for 37.7% of all the units in the WCRER and D+S surveys.  The statewide vacancy rate for 1-bedroom units rose from 3.9% last spring to 6.8% for the current survey.  The average rent for 1-bedroom units climbed from $645 last spring to $660 in March, 2002, an increase of 2.3%.  Vacancy rates varied from county to county throughout the state, with Benton/Franklin Counties having the lowest rate at 2.1%, basically unchanged from a year ago.  The highest vacancy rate for these small units was 9.0% in Snohomish County.  Average rent also ranged widely from a low of $303 in Grant County to $763 in urban King County.  The average size for a 1-bedroom unit was 653 sq. ft.  The largest 1-bedroom apartments were found in Snohomish and Cowlitz counties where the average size was 714 and 713 sq. ft, respectively, while in Grant County the average size 1-bedroom unit was a miniscule 405 sq. ft. 

Apartment Summary Characteristics – March 2002

One-Bedroom Units

2-Bedroom/1-Bath Apartments

          The second most popular unit type in the state was the 2-bedroom/1bath apartment, which accounted for 26.9% of all the units responding to the survey.  Average rent for a 2-bedroom/1-bath apartment was $704, a $17 increase from the survey conducted last spring (2.5%).  Benton/Franklin counties had the highest average rent for this type apartment in Eastern Washington at $581, while King county had the highest rent in Western Washington with an average of $839.  The vacancy rate for 2-bedroom/1-bath units throughout the state rose to 6.6% compared to 4.3% last spring.  Vacancy rates ranged from a high of 8.2% in Snohomish County to a low of 3.2% in Kitsap and Whatcom counties.  In terms of unit size, Yakima had the largest average size in Eastern Washington (847 sq. ft.) while the largest average size 2 bedroom/1-bath apartment in Western Washington is found in Clark County (883 sq. ft.).   The smallest 2-bedroom/1-bath apartments were in Kittitas and Skagit counties (723 and 739 sq. ft., respectively).

Apartment Summary Statistics – March 2002

Two-Bedroom/One Bath Units

Time Trends  

         Consistency is the key to a more complete understanding of the time trends associated with different apartment markets.  For example, seasonal patterns vary from community to community  (e.g. academic year in Whitman and Kittitas counties; agricultural cycle in Yakima and Chelan/Douglas counties).  Both WCRER and D+S conduct surveys in March and September – months which are less subject to seasonal variables.  Results from the March 2001 and March 2002 surveys are shown in the following table.  The statewide vacancy rate over the last year has gone up 2.8% while the average rent of apartment units increased 2.8%.  Benton/Franklin counties had the largest increase in rent over the last year with a $40 increase  (7.3%), while the average rent in Skagit County declined one dollar (-0.2%) over the past year.  The largest increase in the overall vacancy rate was in Snohomish County where the rate jumped from 3.8% to 8.6% over the past year, while Kitsap County exhibited the biggest decline in vacant units. Grant County is excluded from this table since the survey has not yet been conducted there for an entire year.  

Vacancy Rate and Average Rent Comparisons – March Surveys

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