All homes and bedroom counts
Markets / Washington / Bellingham
RENTAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Bellingham, WA
Bellingham is a selective-investigation market for buyers who can accept a low gross yield alongside tight resale inventory; income-focused or highly leveraged buyers should avoid it.
Median price$622k
Median rent$1,998
Gross yield3.9%
Job growth▼ 0.3%
Composite Market ScoreRank #513 of 571 scored US market areas
Direct rental answer
How much is rent in Bellingham, WA?
Zillow's metro-wide Observed Rent Index is $1,998 per month for 2026-06-30. That is up 1.03% from a year earlier.
Occupied rental units paying rent
Two-bedroom standard
These figures are not averaged together. Zillow and Realtor describe asking-rent markets, ACS measures rent paid by surveyed households, and HUD publishes administrative bedroom standards.
Exact county schedules
HUD rent benchmarks inside Bellingham
Every row keeps its own county FIPS schedule. No county is selected as a metro proxy and no synthetic metro FMR is calculated.
| County | Studio | 1 BR | 2 BR | 3 BR | 4 BR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whatcom County, WAFIPS 53073 | $1,463 | $1,493 | $1,794 | $2,495 | $3,010 |
The read
Why this market scores where it does
Bellingham is a selective-investigation market for buyers who can accept a low gross yield alongside tight resale inventory; income-focused or highly leveraged buyers should avoid it. The $621,800 median home value, 3.85% gross yield, and price-to-income ratio of 7.6 indicate a demanding entry point.
Demand evidence is mixed. Jobs fell 0.34% year over year, but asking rent rose 1.03% and tax filings show positive net migration of 692 households. Migration and rent movement are opportunity signals, while declining employment is the clearest operating risk.
Supply is tight but does not indicate a clean bargain: inventory is 2.8 months and median market time is 17 days, yet 28.27% of listings had price drops. Investigate property-level rent, insurance terms, and flood exposure before underwriting; inland flood is the dominant published hazard.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
What do the median price and asking rent imply for current income?
The $1,998 monthly asking rent on a $621,800 median home value corresponds to the published 3.85% gross yield.
How tight is the for-sale market?
Months of supply is 2.8 and median market time is 17 days; 28.27% of listings had price drops.
Is household migration positive?
Tax filings show 6,378 households moved in and 5,686 moved out, for published net migration of 692.
Investor Quick Takeaways
Gross Yield: 3.9%
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Rent Momentum: ▲ 1.03%
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Investor Activity: 5.9%
Originated investment purchase share (CFPB HMDA).
Climate Exposure: FEMA NRI
Annualized loss ratio evaluated for flood & hurricane risk.
Put the evidence to work
Test the market, then test the deal
Keep Bellingham as the starting point or move into a more specific property and rent check.
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Market pulse
The current market in eight signals
Fast-moving Redfin conditions sit beside the slower fundamentals so a buyer can separate today's negotiating climate from the long-run investment case.
Months of supply2.8 mo.▼ from 2.9 mo. a year ago
Median days on market17 days▲ from 12 days a year ago
Listings with price drops28.3%▲ from 23.1% a year ago
Sale-to-list ratio99.7%2026-05-01
Home value growth▲ 0.2%Zillow ZHVI · trailing 12 months
Rent growth▲ 1.03%Zillow ZORI · trailing 12 months
Gross rental yield3.9%Rent × 12 ÷ price
Payroll job growth▼ 0.3%CES · 12m to 2026-06
Release-to-release evidence
What actually changed
This comparison exists because at least one underlying source period advanced. Rebuilding the same data never creates a new observation.
Published score held steady30→30
0 ptsThe published component scores did not move in this release.
Weights were unchanged at metro-2026-07-v2-omb2023, so the movement comes from refreshed evidence and percentile ranks.
The named source periods advanced, but the measured values on this page held steady.
The one chart
Rents versus prices, indexed to 2019
Both series start at 100. The gap between the lines is the investment case, and which line is closing it tells you what kind of market this is.
Reindexed Price vs. Rent Growth
2019 = 100 · annual · 2019–2026
Since 2019, prices are up 54% and rents 48%. Prices running ahead of rents is what compresses yield. ✓ recomputed from series
Composite breakdown
What each component measures
Weights are published, not hidden, and the arithmetic is shown. Five components, each measured as a national percentile across all tracked metros.
Published arithmeticComponent × weight = points
30| Signal | Score | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job growth | 31 | 30% | 9.30 |
| Rent trend | 17 | 25% | 4.25 |
| Affordability | 22 | 15% | 3.30 |
| Supply pressure | 51 | 15% | 7.65 |
| Climate risk | 34 | 15% | 5.10 |
| Published score | 30 | ||
Bellingham, WA scoreRank #513
30Job growth31/100
CES employment declined 0.34% year over year -> the labor-demand signal is weak.
Rent trend17/100
Asking rent rose 1.03% while gross yield is 3.85% -> recent rent movement coexists with a thin current income return.
Affordability22/100
The price-to-income ratio is 7.6 and rent absorbs 29.31% of median income -> both purchase and tenant budgets have limited room.
Supply pressure51/100
Inventory is 2.8 months and median market time is 17 days, while 28.27% of listings had price drops -> listings move quickly overall, but some sellers reprice.
Climate risk34/100
Inland flood is the dominant hazard and the annual climate loss ratio is 0.1699% -> flood exposure and insurance terms require property-level review.
The numbers
What this market costs and what it earns
Every derived ratio below recomputes from the same source record used by the article and score.
ZHVI Median Price
$622k
YoY ▲ 0.2%
ZORI Median Rent
$1,998
YoY ▲ 1.03%
Gross Rental Yield
3.9%
Rent × 12 ÷ price
$1,998 × 12 ÷ $621,800
Job Growth (YoY)
▼ 0.3%
CES payrolls
Job signal 31/100
Median Household Income
$82k
Census ACS 5-year
Rent Burden
29.3%
Annual rent ÷ household income
Price-to-Income
7.6x
Median value ÷ household income
HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent
$1,794
Market rent 111.3% of FMR
Historical affordability context
Compare aligned 2019 and 2024 asking-rent and nominal household-income endpoints across the direct-overlap metro set.
Independent rent evidence
One market, several legitimate rent benchmarks
These releases observe different homes and different moments. RentMarker keeps them separate: ZORI remains the scoring baseline, while the other sources test how sensitive the market story is to bedroom mix and measurement method.
Monthly benchmark4 of 4 reported values
Zero-based scale$1,998Primary RentMarker baseline
2026-06-30
All homes and bedroom counts
A smoothed metro rent index for observed rentals; it is the primary rent used by RentMarker scores and career ratios.
View source release ↗$1,493−$505 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
One-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$1,794−$204 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
Two-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$1,555−$443 vs ZORI
ACS 2024 5-year
Occupied rental units paying rent
A five-year survey estimate of contract rent plus applicable tenant-paid utilities; it is not a current asking-rent index.
View source release ↗Take the next step
Keep Bellingham as context, then replace market-wide evidence with the candidate property's facts.
Regional price level
What feels expensive inside Bellingham
BEA compares each category with the United States, which equals 100. This is a 2024 price-level comparison—not annual inflation.
BEA Regional Price Parities · 2024US = 100
Occupation wage lens
How asking rent sits against major local occupations
Annualized Zillow asking rent is divided by each BLS annual median wage. This is a screening ratio for one wage, not a household budget or affordability verdict.
Six largest published major groupsannual rent ÷ median wage
Office and Administrative Support Occupations$51,760 median wage
46.3%
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations$43,290 median wage
55.4%
Sales and Related Occupations$43,790 median wage
54.8%
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations$48,150 median wage
49.8%
Production Occupations$48,870 median wage
49.1%
Construction and Extraction Occupations$75,930 median wage
31.6%
Supply pipeline
What is being built, and for whom
Permits are the 12-to-24 month early warning. The total matters less than the mix: apartments compete with a rental the day they open.
National supply context
Compare this authorization pipeline with asking-rent growth, jobs and for-sale liquidity across the evidence-complete metro set.
Building permits by structure type
units per year · latest year annualised
972 units authorised in 2026, 37% of them in 5+ unit buildings. A meaningful share is apartments, which discount first when they lease up. ✓ recomputed from series
Who is arriving, and who is buying
Demand, and the competition for it
Tax filings say how many households moved and what they earn; mortgage disclosures say how many local purchases went to someone who will not live there. Moves between counties inside this metro are netted out of both flow figures.
Net Household Move
+692
6,378 in vs 5,686 out (IRS SOI)
▲ 10.8% of arriving households
Mover Income Gap
+$3,337
Arriving $76,021 vs leaving $72,684
Average AGI per tax return (IRS SOI)
Investor Purchase Share
5.9%
136 of 2,296 originated purchase loans
CFPB HMDA 2024
Dominant Hazard
inland flooding
0.170% building value annual loss ratio
FEMA NRI · risk type: water
Compare yield and FEMA exposure →Households arrive mainly from: King County · Snohomish County · Skagit County · Pierce County · Clark County
✓ 6,378 in − 5,686 out = 692 netDirect market links
Where tax-return households moved from and to
These are the largest flows where both counties map to a RentMarker market area. They are a documented subset of the all-US IRS totals above.
Leading inbound markets
- Seattle, WA1,696 arriving
- Mount Vernon, WA450 arriving
- Portland, OR252 arriving
Leading outbound markets
- Seattle, WA1,484 leaving
- Mount Vernon, WA498 leaving
- Portland, OR205 leaving
The other side
What would make this a bad buy
Generated from the same figures with the instruction to argue against the score, and published unedited. A page that only agrees with itself is an advertisement.
Three ways the case breaks
- Negative CES job growth weakens the employment side of rental demand.
- The 3.85% gross yield is thin against a $621,800 median home value.
- Inland flood is the dominant published hazard, and the climate loss ratio is above zero.
Inside this metro area
Move from the market-area average to local evidence
Use the available county and city pages to add local price, rent, housing, migration and hazard context to the market-area view.
County records
Cities in this market
Statistical peers
Market areas that behave like Bellingham
Nearest neighbours on price level, income, yield and job growth — not on geography. Every market page gets a different peer set, which is the point.
| Market area | Score | Price | Rent | Yield | Job Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bellingham, WA (Target) | 30 | $622k | $1,998 | 3.9% | ▼ 0.3% |
| Bend, OR | 37 | $672k | $2,205 | 3.9% | ▼ 0.4% |
| Santa Fe, NM | 44 | $561k | $1,931 | 4.1% | ▲ 0.4% |
| Missoula, MT | 43 | $583k | $1,567 | 3.2% | ▼ 0.2% |
| Corvallis, OR | 27 | $563k | $1,807 | 3.9% | ▼ 0.7% |
Provenance
Where every figure came from
“Checked nightly” means every source is re-pulled and re-verified each night. It does not mean every source moves nightly — the release column tells you how fresh each number can possibly be.
| Dataset Source | Method | Release Period | Pulled Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Census ACS 5-year — household income and gross rent | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — historical household income | direct | ACS 2019 and 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — population | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| Apartment List Rent Estimates — recent-lease rent index | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Time on Market — listing liquidity | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Vacancy Index — rental vacancy | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| BEA County Personal Income — income and population | direct | 2024 County Personal Income (released 2026-02-05); history 1969-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BEA Regional Price Parities — metropolitan price levels | direct | 2024 Regional Price Parities (released 2026-02-19); history 2008-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS CES — payroll employment | direct | CES SM current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS LAUS — resident employment | direct | LAUS current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS OEWS — occupation employment and wages | direct | May 2025 OEWS estimates (released 2026-05-15) | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS QCEW — county employment and wages | direct | annual county employment and wages 2021-2025; latest 2025 vs 2024 | 2026-08-02 |
| OMB/BLS delineation — metro geography | direct | OMB July 2023 delineation | 2026-07-30 |
| Census Building Permits Survey — permitted units | direct | BPS through 2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| Census ACS 5-year — city population, households and housing | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-29 |
| Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS five-year — ZCTA housing and income | direct | ACS 2024 5-year ZCTA | 2026-08-08 |
| FEMA National Risk Index — hazard loss ratios | modelled | NRI counties (FEMA ArcGIS) | 2026-07-26 |
| FHFA House Price Index — annual county appreciation | direct | annual county HPI history 1975-2025; latest 2025 | 2026-08-02 |
| HMDA / CFPB — purchases by occupancy type | direct | HMDA 2024 purchase originations | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD CHAS — renter burden by HAMFI income band | direct | HUD CHAS 2018-2022 ACS 5-year (released 2025-12-23) | 2026-08-03 |
| HUD Fair Market Rents — Section 8 standard | direct | FY2026 FMR | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD USPS crosswalk and Small Area FMRs — ZIP rent fallback | direct | ZIP-CBSA 2025Q4 + SAFMR FY2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD-USPS ZIP-to-county residential-address crosswalk | direct | HUD-USPS 2026Q1 | 2026-08-09 |
| IRS SOI — county migration and mover income | direct | SOI migration 2022-2023 | 2026-07-26 |
| Freddie Mac PMMS — mortgage rates | direct | week of 2026-07-30 | 2026-08-06 |
| Census ACS 5-year — effective property tax | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-06 |
| Realtor.com Economic Research — county listing inventory | direct | county inventory 2026-06 | 2026-07-28 |
| Realtor.com Rental Report — top-50 asking rents | direct | top-50 rental asking rents 2026-05 | 2026-08-05 |
| Redfin Data Center — inventory, days on market, and price cuts | direct | metro tracker through 2026-05-01 | 2026-07-26 |
| Redfin Data Center — ZIP resale activity and supply | direct | ZIP rolling 3 months through 2026-06-30; updated 2026-07-03 | 2026-08-12 |
| USDA ERS — Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | direct | USDA ERS 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | 2026-08-02 |
| Zillow ZHVI and ZORI — county values and rents | direct | county ZHVI/ZORI 2026-06 | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — metro home values | direct | Metro_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — city home values | direct | zillow_zhvi_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI — metro market rents | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZORI — city market rents | direct | zillow_zori_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI - metro market rents, not seasonally adjusted | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_month.csv | 2026-08-15 |
| Zillow ZORI — ZIP market rents | direct | ZORI ZIP 2026-06 | 2026-08-08 |