Breaking down the cost of living in Seattle

With Seattle constantly growing and undertaking multiple high-profile developments this year, we figured it was time to talk about the cost of planting some roots in the Emerald City.

The median household income in King County is $116,340 according to the US Census Bureau. State-wise, Washington is eighth in the country for median income at ~$84,247 per household.

Screenshot via bestplaces.net

The overall cost of living in Seattle is higher than the national average , and higher than the rest of the state.

In Seattle, the cost of healthcare is lower compared to other parts of the US. However, the cost of groceries, housing, transportation, and other miscellaneous expenses in the city have higher average costs than other cities in Washington and the country overall.

Breaking down the numbers

Hypothetically speaking , if you live in a household that brings in $116,000 annually — according to experts — you shouldn’t spend more than 30% of your monthly gross income on rent and utilities. Don’t worry , we did the math for you — your max monthly budget would be $2,900. The average monthly rent for an apartment in Seattle is $2,227 — putting you under budget.

Meanwhile, if you’re wondering how much you can currently afford to spend on buying a home in Seattle, try using SmartAsset’s cost calculator . Factors like your marital status, annual pre-tax income, down payment, and monthly debt will help determine that figure. According to BestPlaces, the median home cost in Seattle is $823,900.

While we’re crunching numbers, let’s also take a look at the chart below to see how Seattle’s cost of living compares to that of Spokane, WA.

Screenshot via bestplaces.net

Interested in seeing Seattle’s cost of living compared to cities in other states ? We played around on nerdwallet’s cost of living calculator, where you can put in any city along with your current pre-tax household income to find out what other cities you could actually afford to live in.

We took a look at the cost of living in Seattle compared to Chicago. Here’s what we found:

• The cost of living is 22% lower in Chicago.
• To maintain our standard of living, we would need to bring in $90,284 to our Chicago household.
• The median cost for a two-bedroom apartment is $3,176 which is $182 less than Seattle.

Local housing + developments

Seattle also has entities + organizations such as the Office of Housing , Seattle Housing Authority , Bellweather Housing + other government-funded programs to help develop more affordable units.

There are also a number of local development firms working on apartments seemingly all the time — from the recent effort to convert office buildings into residential spaces to a new affordable housing development from El Centro de la Raza and Mercy Housing Northwest at the Mount Baker Redevelopment Sites .