If you look at other big cities though, Seattle's rent isn't that much worse. The big difference is how many programmers there are here, versus other high paying jobs. I'm hoping to see Seattle catch up there, bring in some lawyers, bankers, doctors, etc.

I mean, look here: https://www.apartmentlist.com/rentonomics/rental-data/ it doesn't even make the top 100 for median 1br rent prices in US.

Those numbers look very inaccurate. A 1 bedroom in Kenmore, WA for $1700 is the median? I find that really hard to believe, unless that is the median price for a unit built in the last 5 years in Kenmore. Ditto for the Puyallup, WA median 1BR price listed.

The data surprised me a whole lot as well. I can't speak to its accuracy, but it's the best I've found so far.

Where are they gathering it from? Seems overpriced for reality compared to census data and friends that have recently leased in both areas.

Seattle definitely is more expensive for a 1BR than either ex-urb: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/seattle-now-m...

Hum.. interesting. The article does explain that census data is quite different, includes utilities (now I'm curious if utilities are more expensive in Seattle), and the data is gathered by survey. So I'm guessing randomly asking people how much they pay.

Now from reading the methodology of my link: https://www.apartmentlist.com/rentonomics/rent-report-method...

They say they also use census data. So the numbers shouldn't be this off. But one difference is that my link doesn't count all census data:

> Our rent estimates do not include rent-controlled units, rental units considered substandard in quality, seasonal rentals, or public housing units.

Where as the Seattle time article explicitly said they do, and that's why you see New York for example having a much lower median than Seattle.

It's still surprising that would account for bumping down Seattle by more than 150 in rank. Another thing they mention is their data is adjusted more frequently for market trends by combining it with active appartment listings. So maybe Seattle only recently improved dramatically, I did.notice a surge in new listings due to a lot of new appartment units being built.

I don't know, nothing very conclusive, seems like it's hard to even get the numbers right.