Apartments may still be hard to find in Bellingham, but are rent prices improving?
Rent prices in Bellingham actually dropped in September, keeping the city’s rent among the lowest of 21 cities analyzed in the Seattle metro area, a report released Wednesday, Oct. 7, showed.
That news came one month after the same study found Bellingham’s rent was growing at the second-fastest rate in the region in August.
Zumper.com, a website used by renters to find houses, rooms, condos and apartments for rent, conducted the study by looking at the active listings in September 2020 across the 21 cities in the metro area and comparing that to previous data to show cities with the fastest-growing rents.
The study found that the one-bedroom rental price in Bellingham in September was $1,130 — almost 1% lower (or $10 less) than what the study found in August. Bellingham was one of 12 cities in the study to see a decrease in one-bedroom rental prices in September, and four others were unchanged.
Tukwila saw the largest increase last month at 5.4%, while Renton and Port Angeles saw the biggest drops with 5.3% decreases.
The $1,130 monthly rent only ranks Bellingham 17th highest overall, ahead of Bremerton ($1,110), Lakewood ($1,050), Oak Harbor ($1,000) and Port Angeles ($900). Bellevue tops the list at $1,900, Zumper reported.
Year-over-year, Zumper found that Bellingham’s one-bedroom rental prices have climbed 4%, which ranks it tied for fifth fastest in the area with Shoreline and Burien and behind Port Angeles (15% increase), Olympia (14%), Lakewood (11%) and Tacoma (5%). Twelve cities remained the same or saw rent decreases the past year, with Tukwilla seeing the largest (16%) decrease.
The price of two-bedroom rentals in Bellingham stayed the same at $1,350 per month in September, Zuper found, after seeing that rate drop by 0.7% in August. Bellingham ranked second-best in the region behind only Oak Harbor ($1,240) for two-bedroom rental rates, while Bellevue ($2,400) had the highest.
Year-over-year, Bellingham’s two-bedroom rental rate has decreased by 2.9% — the fifth-largest drop. Port Angeles saw the largest annual increase for two-bedroom rentals at 15.5%, while Kirkland (14.8% decrease) saw the largest drop.
This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 11:52 AM.
