Key Facts
This four-story, mixed-use project in Seattle provides 12 homes and 3 working spaces. Photograph by Andrew van Leeuwen and architecture by BUILD LLC.
46,000 homes are needed in King, Snohomish, Pierce, and Kitsap counties to address the current housing shortage.
Source: Puget Sound Regional Council
800,000 new homes are needed in the Puget Sound region to have enough housing for the population in 2050.
Source: Puget Sound Regional Council
33% of renters and homeowners in King County are cost-burdened—meaning they must spend more than 30% of their income on housing.
33.8% of occupied homes in Pierce County and 32.1% of households in Snohomish County are cost-burdened. This makes our region less affordable for current residents, newcomers, and future generations.
Source: Challenge Seattle and ACS, 2020.
The homeownership rate for white Washingtonians is 68%, as of 2019, compared to 31% for Black households.
Source: Homeownership Disparities Work Group and Department of Commerce and ACS, 2019
60% of Asian American and Pacific Islanders and 52% of American Indian and Alaskan Native households own their own home, and the homeownership rate for Hispanic/Latinos in Washington as of 2019 is 45%.
Source: Homeownership Disparities Work Group and Department of Commerce and ACS, 2019
77% say rents are too high.
Source: Survey by Department of Commerce and Puget Sound Regional Council
75% say it costs too much to buy a home.
Source: Survey by Department of Commerce and Puget Sound Regional Council
Research shows 74% of jurisdictions in King County allow fewer than four homes per acre in at least one residential zone.
Source: Study conducted for MBAKS by LDC Inc., January 2019.
By 2030, one in five people in the United States will be age 65 or older. And by 2035, older adults are projected to outnumber children for the first time. America’s current housing stock doesn’t fit a rapidly aging population.
Source: AARP. “Making Room: Housing for a Changing America,” 2019.
In 2017, more than 19 million older adults were living in housing that didn’t provide them with the best opportunity to live independently. Only about 1% of the nation’s present housing is equipped to meet their needs.
Source: AARP. “Making Room: Housing for a Changing America,” 2019.