Seattle incomes rise but aren't keeping up with home prices
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Seattle homebuyers make more money than they did before the pandemic — but it's not enough to keep up with the leap in home prices.
By the numbers: The median income for Seattle homebuyers in 2021 was $148,000, up 10.4% from 2019, according to a Redfin analysis of mortgage data in the 100 largest metro areas nationwide.
- Meanwhile, median home prices surged 29% during that time.
The big picture: Remote workers — leveraging their higher salaries to buy homes in cheaper areas — drove up incomes and home prices in "pandemic boomtowns" such as Boise, Idaho and Austin, Texas, Axios' Emily Peck reports.
Zoom in: Redfin found that homebuyers in Tacoma, Washington — another pandemic-era migration hotspot — posted slightly larger income growth than Seattle, at 15.1%.
- That puts Tacoma among the top 10 cities nationwide for homebuyer income growth during the pandemic, while Seattle ranked in the top 24.
The latest: A big chunk of Seattle home sellers dropped their asking price in July as the market cooled slightly.
- Yes, but: The median home price in Seattle is still on the rise, up 7.5% year-over-year and hitting $860,000 in July.