September 2020 Spokane Rent Report Welcome to the September 2020 Spokane Rent Report. Spokane rents increased over the past month. In this report, we'll evaluate trends in the Spokane rental market, including comparisons to cities throughout the state and nation.

Spokane rents increased slightly over the past month Spokane rents have increased 0.2% over the past month, and are up marginally by 0.5% in comparison to the same time last year. Currently, median rents in Spokane stand at $687 for a one-bedroom apartment and $910 for a two-bedroom. This is the eighth straight month that the city has seen rent increases after a decline in December of last year. Spokane's year-over-year rent growth leads the state average of -0.6%, as well as the national average of 0.3%.

Rents rising across cities in Washington Throughout the past year, rent increases have been occurring not just in the city of Spokane, but across the entire state. Of the largest 10 cities that we have data for in Washington, 6 of them have seen prices rise. The state as a whole logged rent growth of -0.6% over the past year. Here's a look at how rents compare across some of the largest cities in the state. Looking throughout the state, Bellevue is the most expensive of all Washington's major cities, with a median two-bedroom rent of $2,368; of the 10 largest Washington cities that we have data for, 4 have seen rents fall year-over-year, with Bellevue experiencing the fastest decline (-2.3%).

Kent, Everett, and Renton have all experienced year-over-year growth above the state average (1.8%, 1.1%, and 0.7%, respectively).

Spokane rents more affordable than many large cities nationwide As rents have increased in Spokane, other large cities nationwide have seen rents grow more modestly, or in some cases, even decline. Spokane is still more affordable than most large cities across the country. Spokane's median two-bedroom rent of $910 is below the national average of $1,195. Nationwide, rents have held steady over the past year.

While Spokane's rents rose over the past year, some cities nationwide saw increases as well, including Phoenix (+1.7%) and Detroit (+0.8%).

Renters will find more reasonable prices in Spokane than most large cities. For example, San Francisco has a median 2BR rent of $2,956, which is more than three times the price in Spokane.

For more information check out our national report. You can also access our full data for cities and counties across the U.S. at this link.

Methodology - Recent Updates:

Data from private listing sites, including our own, tends to skew toward luxury apartments, which introduces sample bias when estimates are calculated directly from these listings. To address these limitations, we’ve recently made major updates to our methodology, which we believe have greatly improved the accuracy and reliability of our estimates.

Read more about our new methodology below, or see a more detailed post here.

Methodology:

Apartment List is committed to making our rent estimates the best and most accurate available. To do this, we start with reliable median rent statistics from the Census Bureau, then extrapolate them forward to the current month using a growth rate calculated from our listing data. In doing so, we use a same-unit analysis similar to Case-Shiller’s approach, comparing only units that are available across both time periods to provide an accurate picture of rent growth in cities across the country.

Our approach corrects for the sample bias inherent in other private sources, producing results that are much closer to statistics published by the Census Bureau and HUD. Our methodology also allows us to construct a picture of rent growth over an extended period of time, with estimates that are updated each month.

Read more about our methodology here.

About Rent Reports:

Apartment List publishes monthly reports on rental trends for hundreds of cities across the U.S. We intend these reports to be a source of reliable information that help renters and policymakers make sound decisions, and we invest significant time and effort in gathering and analyzing rent data. Our work is covered regularly by journalists across the country.

We are continuously working to improve our methodology and data, with the goal of providing renters with the information that they need to make the best decisions.