FIPS 53033 · population 2,287,171 · part of Seattle, WA
The latest county-level Zillow ZORI is $2,330 per month in 2026-06. It is a typical asking-rent index across rental types—not an arithmetic average, signed lease or quote for one property.
| Bedrooms | HUD monthly FMR | Geography | Measurement boundary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | $2,074 | King County, WA | HUD administrative benchmark; compare with same-bedroom listings, never treat it as observed asking rent. |
| 1 bedroom | $2,146 | King County, WA | HUD administrative benchmark; compare with same-bedroom listings, never treat it as observed asking rent. |
| 2 bedrooms | $2,501 | King County, WA | HUD administrative benchmark; compare with same-bedroom listings, never treat it as observed asking rent. |
| 3 bedrooms | $3,272 | King County, WA | HUD administrative benchmark; compare with same-bedroom listings, never treat it as observed asking rent. |
| 4 bedrooms | $3,847 | King County, WA | HUD administrative benchmark; compare with same-bedroom listings, never treat it as observed asking rent. |
Zillow asking rent, ACS gross rent and HUD FMR describe different housing universes. They remain separate and no metro, city or neighboring-county value replaces missing county evidence.Zillow pulled 2026-07-26 · HUD pulled 2026-07-26
Everything here joins on the county FIPS code, so each figure comes from the agency that publishes it with no name matching in between.
Zillow estimates a current home value. FHFA tracks repeat mortgage transactions. Their growth rates should be read side by side, not averaged.
Survey source: Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30. These values describe different housing universes and are not combined into gross yield.
Workplace source: BLS QCEW — county employment and wages · annual county employment and wages 2021-2025; latest 2025 vs 2024 · pulled 2026-08-02. QCEW counts covered jobs located in the county, not employed residents or the metro score’s CES/LAUS series.
BEA per-capita personal income divides all personal income by the county population. It is broader than wages, but it is not household income or a measure of what renters can afford.
HUD CHAS separates renter households by income relative to local HAMFI. Moderate burden means housing costs above 30% through 50% of income; severe burden means more than 50%.
These Apartment List observations match the exact county Census code 53033. They are kept separate from Zillow asking rent, Census occupied-home rent and wider metro measures.
Monthly overall-rent index; missing observations are not filled from another geography.
King County presents a high-price, thin-yield underwriting tension. Zillow’s June 2026 median home value was $858,284, down 2.51% year over year, while median asking rent was $2,330 per month, up 0.97%. The supplied gross yield is 3.26% before costs. The thesis therefore depends more on an acceptable basis and non-rent returns than on current cash flow. Cash-flow-focused investors should be cautious; buyers considering appreciation should investigate exit assumptions rather than treat this county evidence as a forecast.
Rent here is measured market asking rent, not HUD Fair Market Rent: the HUD two-bedroom payment standard is $2,501, and the market-rent-to-FMR ratio is 93.20%. FMR is a payment standard, so it neither validates the asking rent nor substitutes for it. The 0.83% effective property-tax rate and $7,114 median annual tax add a meaningful carrying burden. Separately, FHFA’s annual 2025 repeat-transaction HPI rose 0.89%, with a cumulative five-year change of 36.51%. That index is not a dollar home value; its vintage and method should confirm or challenge, not be averaged with, Zillow’s observation.
Demand and competition are mixed. Realtor.com MLS evidence shows active listings grew 19.53% and 20.15% of listings carried price reductions. Those are visible-supply and seller-concession measures, not closed-sale prices or proof of buyer demand. County net migration was -162, alongside a -$29,347 average AGI gap between incoming and outgoing tax-return households; that combination warrants a closer demand-quality check, not a causal conclusion. Investor purchases represented 7.82% of 21,585 purchase mortgages, so participation is measurable but does not establish intense competition. QCEW’s annual covered-workplace employment contracted while average weekly wages rose; professional and business services was the largest disclosed private supersector, not the whole economy or resident labor market.
Earthquake is the dominant hazard, and the modeled annual building-loss ratio is 0.25%. That is a county-level modeled loss measure, not a property-specific seismic assessment, insurance quote, deductible, or proof of insurability. Next checks should include those items, plus debt terms, vacancy, repairs, capital expenditures, closed-sale comparables, and property-level lease evidence. Those gaps prevent a net-yield, DSCR, or hazard-adjusted-return conclusion and leave the resale-demand signal bounded by listing-market evidence.
This view uses 12 direct Zillow ZIP markets matched to Census ZCTAs. Each ZIP is assigned by its largest HUD residential county share; this is not an exhaustive county inventory.
Across the selected King County ZIP entries with direct Zillow evidence, the June 2026 ZORI—Zillow’s typical observed asking-rent index—runs from $1,853 to $2,983, a $1,130 span; the county ZORI is $2,330. The high end is ZIP 98004 and the low end is ZIP 98125. The decision question is therefore not whether a county figure is affordable, but how a household’s unit-type and lease-term requirements align with lower and higher ZORI levels. One-year ZORI changes range from a 1.1% decline to 1.8% growth. Current level and recent movement should be separate search screens, not a forecast of the next lease price.
Keep the data systems separate. Zillow ZORI measures a current typical observed asking-rent index, while ACS five-year survey estimates report median gross rent: among the selected entries, those ACS medians range from $1,723 to $2,803, versus a county ACS median of $2,092. They frame survey-reported rent levels rather than live asking conditions. HUD’s two-bedroom Fair Market Rent is instead a bedroom-specific administrative standard, $2,501 here, not an asking-rent measure. As a descriptive cross-reference only, the ZIP ZORI levels equal 74.1% to 119.3% of that standard. Neither relationship converts a ZORI level into an exact advertised unit price, a survey estimate, or a HUD eligibility determination.
Burden and vacancy require a separate ACS reading. The share of renter households with gross-rent burdens of 30% or more runs from 29.0% to 63.2%, against 46.8% for King County. At the high-burden end, ZIP 98105 records 58.4% burden and an 11.7% vacancy rate, while ZIP 98003 is at the set’s burden maximum with a 4.9% vacancy rate. These contrasts do not show that vacancy causes or relieves burden. The vacancy rate is a survey indicator, not a live count of listings or vacant rentals, so it cannot establish immediate availability, concessions, or the terms a specific applicant will receive.
The display covers 12 of 68 eligible direct-ZORI ZIP/ZCTA matches and 160,946 renter households, so it is a selected evidence set rather than a complete King County inventory. Because ZIPs can cross county lines, HUD’s residential-address crosswalk assigns each one to the county holding the largest address share; every selected entry has a 100.0% King County share. Even so, an ACS measure is reported for a Census ZCTA, and that mapped statistical area need not match the boundary or delivery addresses of a USPS ZIP. Before selecting a property, verify the live unit’s rent, bedroom count, utilities and fees, lease duration and renewal terms, availability date, screening and occupancy rules, and—if relevant—the applicable bedroom-specific HUD standard.
68 ZIP profiles passed the county gate; the 12 with the most renter households are shown.
| ZIP / ZCTA | Zillow asking rent | ACS gross rent | HUD 2BR | Burden 30%+ | Vacancy | Income screen | HUD county share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 98052 → | $2,630 | $2,405 | $2,501 | 34.6% | 5.7% | $105k | 100.0% |
| 98109 | $2,461 | $2,343 | $2,501 | 31.1% | 11.0% | $98k | 100.0% |
| 98122 | $2,059 | $1,991 | $2,501 | 43.5% | 6.8% | $82k | 100.0% |
| 98103 → | $2,212 | $2,032 | $2,501 | 41.8% | 6.1% | $88k | 100.0% |
| 98105 | $2,073 | $1,849 | $2,501 | 58.4% | 11.7% | $83k | 100.0% |
| 98102 | $2,061 | $1,926 | $2,501 | 38.5% | 5.4% | $82k | 100.0% |
| 98004 | $2,983 | $2,803 | $2,501 | 29.0% | 8.0% | $119k | 100.0% |
| 98133 | $1,951 | $1,802 | $2,501 | 51.6% | 6.3% | $78k | 100.0% |
| 98125 | $1,853 | $1,908 | $2,501 | 51.9% | 6.2% | $74k | 100.0% |
| 98121 | $2,661 | $2,337 | $2,501 | 33.1% | 14.4% | $106k | 100.0% |
| 98101 | $2,602 | $2,483 | $2,501 | 39.9% | 13.7% | $104k | 100.0% |
| 98003 | $1,886 | $1,723 | $2,501 | 63.2% | 4.9% | $75k | 100.0% |
Open a five-digit report for asking rent, affordability, rent history and resale liquidity. Each row keeps its ZIP/ZCTA measurement scope.
| ZIP report | City label | Zillow rent | 1Y change | ACS burden 30%+ | Population |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZIP 98004 rental reportKing County | Bellevue, WA | $2,983 | ▲ 0.6% | 29.0% | 39,897 |
| ZIP 98033 rental reportKing County | Kirkland, WA | $2,868 | ▲ 2.6% | 41.2% | 40,982 |
| ZIP 98199 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $2,757 | ▲ 7.5% | 26.3% | 22,468 |
| ZIP 98121 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $2,661 | ▼ 1.0% | 33.1% | 21,166 |
| ZIP 98052 rental reportKing County | Redmond, WA | $2,630 | ▲ 1.8% | 34.6% | 80,717 |
| ZIP 98101 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $2,602 | ▼ 0.6% | 39.9% | 17,153 |
| ZIP 98034 rental reportKing County | Kirkland, WA | $2,496 | ▲ 1.8% | 43.7% | 52,531 |
| ZIP 98106 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $2,475 | ▲ 1.8% | 53.5% | 28,690 |
| ZIP 98109 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $2,461 | ▼ 0.7% | 31.1% | 34,328 |
| ZIP 98117 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $2,402 | ▲ 1.2% | 28.0% | 35,711 |
| ZIP 98115 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $2,316 | ▲ 0.4% | 40.6% | 54,349 |
| ZIP 98107 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $2,242 | ▲ 0.5% | 37.0% | 28,776 |
| ZIP 98116 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $2,242 | ▲ 3.6% | 41.3% | 28,711 |
| ZIP 98103 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $2,212 | ▲ 1.8% | 41.8% | 52,671 |
| ZIP 98119 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $2,106 | ▼ 0.2% | 33.4% | 26,879 |
| ZIP 98105 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $2,073 | ▲ 0.6% | 58.4% | 49,767 |
| ZIP 98102 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $2,061 | ▲ 0.7% | 38.5% | 27,333 |
| ZIP 98126 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $2,060 | ▲ 3.2% | 47.4% | 22,975 |
| ZIP 98122 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $2,059 | ▲ 0.8% | 43.5% | 43,234 |
| ZIP 98092 rental reportKing County | Auburn, WA | $2,051 | ▲ 0.0% | 44.2% | 50,224 |
| ZIP 98118 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $2,017 | ▲ 3.0% | 51.1% | 50,500 |
| ZIP 98104 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $2,009 | ▼ 2.6% | 45.1% | 16,542 |
| ZIP 98144 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $1,964 | ▲ 1.0% | 51.6% | 33,787 |
| ZIP 98032 rental reportKing County | Kent, WA | $1,932 | ▼ 1.0% | 57.4% | 40,862 |
| ZIP 98125 rental reportKing County | Seattle, WA | $1,853 | ▼ 1.1% | 51.9% | 44,520 |
| ZIP 98002 rental reportKing County | Auburn, WA | $1,808 | ▲ 1.9% | 58.2% | 37,509 |
Zillow ZORI is an asking-rent index. ACS burden and population describe the Census ZCTA; missing observations remain n/a.
Census-recognized incorporated places and CDPs that intersect this county. The list does not pretend to include every neighborhood or informal community.
Population is the total place-wide ACS estimate, not an allocated county share. A place crossing a county line is labelled explicitly. Source: Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30.
0.247% of building value expected lost per year
$7,114 median annual bill
66,131 in · 66,293 out
$101,947 arriving · $131,294 leaving
1,689 of 21,585 mortgages
Listing price is an asking price, not a closed sale. Quality-flagged county rows are withheld instead of displayed.
A metro is an average of these. Which side of a county line a property sits on can change the tax bill, the hazard profile and the tenant pool.
| County | Population | Price | Rent | Yield | Hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| King County | 2,287,171 | $858k | $2,330 | 3.3% | earthquake |
| Pierce County | 930,319 | $573k | $1,962 | 4.1% | earthquake |
| Snohomish County | 844,430 | $754k | $2,232 | 3.5% | earthquake |
It is the median monthly asking rent. HUD FMR is a separate two-bedroom payment standard and is not an estimate of asking rent.
FHFA provides a separate repeat-transaction appreciation index, not a dollar home value. Its annual observation and cumulative change should be compared with Zillow’s observation, not averaged into one growth rate.
It measures annual average covered jobs located at workplaces in the county. It is not resident employment, unemployment, a forecast, or a metro labor series.