Kent apartment rents remain flat in July

Apartment rents in Kent remained flat in July, down 0.1% since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in March.

Rents in July were up 1.1% compared to the same month in 2019, according to apartmentlist.com, which compiles monthly reports. Median montly rents in Kent are $1,502 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,870 for a two-bedroom unit.

Throughout the past year, rent increases have been occurring not just in the city of Kent, but across the entire Seattle-Tacoma metro area. Of the largest 10 cities that apartmentlist.com has data for in the Seattle metro, six of them have seen prices rise.

Lakewood has the least expensive rents in the Seattle metro, with a two-bedroom median of $1,512; the city has also experienced the fastest rent growth in the metro, with a year-over-year increase of 2.0%.

Bellevue has the most expensive rents in the Seattle metro, with a two-bedroom median of $2,386; however, the city has also seen rents fall by 1.2% over the past year, the biggest drop in the metro area.

Although rents across cities in Washington have been marginally on the rise, the state’s growth as a whole has held steady over the past year. For example, rents have grown by 1.3% in Spokane and 0.5% in Vancouver.

As rents have increased slightly in Kent, other large cities nationwide have seen rents grow more quickly. Compared to most large cities across the country, Kent is less affordable for renters.

Kent’s median two-bedroom rent of $1,870 is above the national average of $1,193. Nationwide, rents have held steady over the past year. Renters will generally find more expensive prices in Kent than most large cities. For example, Spokane has a median two-bedroom rent of $908, where Kent is more than twice that price.