Seattle’s supplied Zillow measures put typical city home value at $856,052 and typical observed monthly market rent at $2,224. That yields 3.1% gross, calculated as ZORI times twelve divided by ZHVI, before every operating cost and financing. The value is 6.9x city median household income, while annualized ZORI is 21.5% of that income. This frames a high entry cost and thin gross income, not property-level cash flow or affordability for a specific household.
The city has 393,918 housing units; renters occupy 56.3% of occupied units, and citywide vacancy is 7.7%. ACS reports a $938,600 median home value and $2,030 median gross rent for surveyed occupied housing; gross rent includes contract rent and selected utilities. These ACS medians differ in concept, sample and period from Zillow’s typical value and observed market rent, so averaging them or treating them as direct transaction and asking-rent comps would mislead. Tenure and vacancy do not predict leasing speed for a subject property.
Direct city evidence shows 43.9% of renters are rent-burdened. Single-family structures are 42.9% of units and large multifamily structures 38.9%; for-rent units are 44.0% of vacancies. Population increased 4.1% between overlapping ACS vintages, subject to sampling and possible boundary changes; this is neither an annual rate nor an event count. Median household income is $123,860, unemployment is 4.6%, and poverty is 9.9%. These surveys describe broad demand and stock, but not available investment inventory, tenant quality, achievable rent, absorption or building condition.
At the county scope, King County listings show a median 37 days on market and a 20.2% price-reduced share; the county property-tax rate is 0.83%. These county measures inform negotiation and carrying costs, not Seattle property outcomes. At the metro scope, Seattle, WA metro jobs fell 0.05% and metro permits totaled 21,722; neither measure city employment or supply. At the national scope, the Freddie Mac mortgage rate is 6.66%, a financing benchmark rather than a borrower quote.
Underwriting is limited by aggregates, overlapping survey vintages, Zillow’s typical-market constructs and missing property-level operations. Verify legal use, unit count, leases, concessions, achievable rent, utility responsibility, taxes, insurance, maintenance, management, capital needs, vacancy, financing and sale comparables. Inspect condition and permits, then test cash flow under explicit downtime, expense and debt assumptions. City vacancy and survey shares, county listings, metro jobs and permits, and the national rate are context, not substitutes for those checks.