The Challenge. Seattle’s recent economic growth has brought tremendous opportunity and prosperity to the region, but also the unwelcomed by-product of a shortage of housing for our low- and middle-income workforce. Too many of Seattle’s working families, including those who serve in our schools and hospitals, in our restaurants, as maintenance staff, and thousands who keep our small businesses running, struggle to find a place to live in our city that they can afford. The City has long acknowledged the need to provide more housing choices for low-income households. Since 2010, as the costs of rental and ownership housing have increased by nearly 60% and 70%, respectively, we have witnessed a growing gap in housing affordable to middle-income households as well.

The City must continue to increase its efforts to provide housing to support low-income households and we must also ensure that middle-income households can find affordable housing choices in our city. Together, more than half of the families and individuals in Seattle struggle to find rental housing that is within reach and that meets their needs and homeownership is an impossible dream. Almost three-quarters of Seattle’s low-income residents and more than a third of Seattle’s middle-income residents struggle with one or more housing problems, the most prevalent housing problem being housing affordability.2 At the same time, workers who are in low- and middle-income occupations make up the vast majority of the Seattle workforce. Without available housing to meet their needs in Seattle, these workers face long commutes, adding to the region’s traffic congestion and climate impact. In 2016, City of Seattle research found that only 3% of Seattle apartments in 20+ unit complexes were affordable to low-income households earning 60% of AMI. Less than a quarter (23%) were affordable to households earning 80% of AMI. Even for households with incomes at 100% of AMI, fewer than half of all rental units (46%) were affordable at that income level.

Further, changes in for sale home prices represent a dramatic shift from a generation ago; from 1988 to 2017, the average price of a Seattle-area home increased from 2.5 times the average income to 5.7 times the average income.4 Although today’s low interest rates help reduce mortgage payments, homebuyers nevertheless spend much more of their income to purchase the same home. Not only are monthly payments challenging, but a down payment of even 5% on the median detached house requires $40,000 — an enormous sum for most households, particularly those paying off student debt or unable to rely on outside support. The Atlantic recently reported that it now takes 27 years for those earning the median income to save for a 20% down payment on a median-priced home in the Seattle region. Overall, these numbers highlight the stark fact that owning a home in Seattle is no longer affordable to the majority of people who live and work here.