The news this week is all about renting. Seattle is one of the few places in the country where the current median rent wouldn’t cover the mortgage on the median priced home according to a study from Zillow. Most of the time in most places, median rents and mortgage payments are commensurate, or the rents are higher. The Seattle market just keeps finding new ways to stay special. That doesn’t mean that buying can’t be the right choice for somebody renting in the current market, but it does mean the current market is challenging, and there may need to be reasons other than strictly budgetary ones at play to make renting a good choice for a buyer.
Which makes the timing of this article from Curbed Seattle on the best neighborhoods in the area to rent in fortuitously timed. They have several different categories based on your main priority in your neighborhood, and include a category for the best burb to rent in. Even if you’re stalwart in your property ownership, it’s a handy article just to see how your neighborhood stacks up from a renter’s-eye-view.
The burbs category in the Curbed article is especially handy in light of this article from rentcafe.com blog breaking down the growth rates for renters in 20 metropolitan cities and comparing it to the rates of growth in the suburbs. In most cases, including Seattle, the burbs are adding renters faster than their urban centers. That’s particularly surprising given the stereotype of people renting in the city, but moving to the burbs when they buy. Market norms and trends a generation from now probably aren’t going to look much like they traditionally did before the housing crisis, and this is a striking example of where those differences are going to come from.