Housing Facts
Quick Housing Facts
- King County is the 14th largest county in the United States by population with over 1.9 million residents.
- The Housing Wage for a two-bedroom apartment in King County is $20.31. This is the amount a full-time (40 hours per week) worker must earn per hour in order to afford an average two-bedroom/2-bathroom apartment rent of $1,056.
Source: NLIHC Out of Reach Report 2010. - A worker earning the current state minimum wage of $8.67 in King County must work 122 hours just to pay rent on a two-bedroom apartment at the average $1,056 monthly cost, leaving only $331 for utilities, groceries, child care and transportation.
- Less than 1% of apartments in King County are affordable to households earning less than 30% of area median income or around $26,000 per year or $12.50 per hour.
- Less than half of the 285,000 renter households in King County can afford the average two-bedroom apartment using the 30% of gross income for rent including utilities cost standard.
- Over 8,000 people–men, women and children–are homeless in King County on an average night.
- Permanent supportive housing such as the Housing First model, save taxpayers almost two million dollars per year by dramatically reducing and in some cases fully eliminating public safety and emergency medical treatment usage. Source: City of Seattle 2007
- HDC members provide more than 50,000 units of affordable housing via new construction, preservation/rehabilitation and vouchers in the King County region.
HDC members develop all kinds of apartments and homes. These include:
- Multi-family apartments
- Single-family ownership homes, townhomes and condominiums
- Single-room-occupancy apartments
- Mixed-use residential apartments
- Artist live/work lofts
- Cooperative housing
- Group homes
- New construction and rehabilitation projects
- Preservation projects
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