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Redfin reports that downtown Seattle rents rose 2.5% year over year in December to a median $2,000. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
The median asking rent for an apartment in downtown Seattle rose for the first time in 17 months, according to a new analysis by real estate company Redfin.
The bump of 2.5%, to median rents of $2,000, came in December, ahead of Amazon’s Jan. 1 recall of corporate and tech workers back to the office five days per week. But Redfin is watching to see what effect the mandate has on increases going forward.
Other reports cite an increase in rush-hour traffic and commute times since Amazon’s mandate, and employees who live outside the city could be looking for accommodations closer to Amazon offices.
Redfin’s analysis included median asking rent figures for newly listed units in apartment buildings with five or more units. The median is calculated based on a three-month period ending December 31, 2024.
Redfin’s border for downtown Seattle incorporates the central business district, the waterfront along Alaskan Way, First Hill, Pioneer Square, Belltown, the International District and Denny Triangle.
(Redfin Graphic; Click for larger image.)
Among other nearby neighborhoods, Capitol Hill rents rose the most in December, climbing 7.2% year over year to $1,825, according to Redfin.
Rents in downtown Seattle have been a roller-coaster of ups and downs over the past five years. After climbing to nearly $2,500 prior to the pandemic in 2020, the median asking rent for downtown Seattle plummeted to $1,399 in February 2021 as the city’s tech-driven workforce transitioned to remote work.
When offices started to re-open, demand increased and the median rent rose back up to $3,118 in August 2022, according to Redfin. Since then, rents have fallen by roughly 36%, with Redfin crediting a major uptick in apartment construction.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy in September announced the decision to bring employees back to in-person work five days per week starting in January. A prior move to bring roughly 50,000 corporate and tech workers back for three days a week sparked a backlash among some employees, and that’s continued with the five-day call. But Jassy said the company was “going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID.”
Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari said it’s too early to tell whether Amazon’s return-to-work policy affected the uptick in Seattle’s downtown rents in December, given that most workers already live within commuting distance of their office.
“Seattle has been building more new apartments than almost any metro outside of the Sun Belt these past few years. That has helped keep rents in check — even after workers returned to hybrid or full-time office work following the pandemic,” Bokhari said. “But as new construction levels off and workers from large companies like Amazon increasingly expect their staff to work daily in downtown offices, rents may start ticking up in Seattle’s inner-ring neighborhoods where commuting is made easier.”
