External Data & Reports
Local Data
Eastside Housing Needs Assessment
Useful for: housing demand-to-supply ratio, homelessness data, rent levels, affordability levels, number/ratio of affordable homes, affordable housing targets
The Eastside Needs Assessment provides all ARCH (A Regional Coalition for Housing) cities with consistent data on their housing needs. Most data is available on a city-by-city basis. The report also provides infographics as a part of the analysis.
County and City Comprehensive Plans
Useful for: Analyzing other nearby cities’ housing policies and needs
Includes links for the comprehensive plans for King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties and all the cities within. Each local comprehensive plan will also include a more local housing needs assessment.
US Census Community Facts
Useful for: median household and family income, quick census statistics
Popular facts (population, income, etc.) and frequently requested data about your community.
HUD Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS) Table Generator
Useful for: income distribution, housing problems, housing cost burden
HUD periodically receives “custom tabulations” of data from the Census Bureau that are largely not available through standard Census products. These data, known as the “CHAS” data (Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy), demonstrate the extent of housing problems and housing needs, particularly for low income households. This table generator produces a small number of tables that focus on some of the most commonly used CHAS figures. It is meant to help individuals looking for data for a specific jurisdiction.
MPF Apartment Market Reports and Research (Subscription)
Useful for: rent levels, occupancy, job change, permits, demand, completions
MPF publishes 66 apartment market reports, covering 100 markets. The King-Pierce-Snohomish report covers sixteen submarkets.
Apartment Insights Washington (Paid Subscription)
Useful for: rents, concessions, ownership, management, amenities, unit mix, sales data, photographs, maps, construction information
Data for every property over 50 units in the King, Snohomish, Pierce, Kitsap and Thurston areas.
Dupre + Scott Apartment Vacancy Report (Paid Subscription)
Useful for: most current local housing data source
Current and historical absorption, rents, vacancies, rent projections, concessions, parking charges, and more for various age and size groups of property, for each of the 60+ neighborhoods in King, Pierce, Snohomish, Kitsap and Thurston counties.
American Housing Survey & American Community Survey (American FactFinder)
Useful for: detailed census data
Free data from several censuses and surveys, including the American Community Survey and the American Housing Survey.
County/Regional Data
King County Area Median Income Table
Useful for: affordable rents and home prices, based on income and household size
Table estimating affordable rents and home prices for households, based on percent of King County median income (2014) and household size.
2016 King County Comprehensive Plan Technical Appendix B: Housing (Draft)
Useful for: units by gross rent, affordability, income distribution (by King County City), housing needs assessment (for King County)
Includes tables with data on housing occupancy, gross rent, and affordability for each King County city.
2015 Needs Assessment: King County
Useful for: units by gross rent, affordability, income distribution
Another source of King County data on housing needs and affordability.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition Out of Reach Report
Useful for: fair market rent, housing wage, area median income
Reports, among other data points, the annual Housing Wage for different metropolitan areas. “Housing Wage” refers to the hourly wage a full-time worker must earn to afford a decent two-bedroom rental home at HUD-estimated Fair Market Rent (FMR) while spending no more than 30% of income on housing costs.
The Urban Institute: Housing Assistance Matters Initiative
Useful for: county-level supply and demand of rental units
A county-by-county measure of supply and demand of rental units for extremely low-income renter households.
Marcus & Millichap (Paid Subscription)
Useful for: market analysis, job growth, investor yields, location of building concentration
Quarterly reports on trends in multifamily housing in the Seattle area.
The Geography of Opportunity: Mapping to Promote Equitable Community Development and Fair Housing in King County, WA
Useful for: opportunity mapping, communities of opportunity, mapping education, parks, economic opportunity and mobility, mapping subsidized housing and housing vouchers
This report by the Kirwan Institute assesses the “State of Opportunity” in King County and includes an appendix of maps, which show access to opportunity throughout the county.
Paycheck to Paycheck (National Housing Conference + Center for Housing Policy)
Useful for: comparing wages and housing costs in 210 metro areas and nationwide; rankings of most and least expensive rental and homeownership markets
This report includes graphs, fact sheets, and other data visualizations showing median incomes for various occupations, as well as incomes needed to afford market rents and home prices in various metro areas. You can also select a metropolitan area, and then find out if people holding various low- to moderate-income jobs would be able to afford housing in those areas.
Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness One Night Count
Useful for: city/county specific homelessness data
An annual count of unsheltered homeless individuals in selected areas of King County.
Homeless Education Data Collection and Reports, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
Useful for: number of homeless students in Washington state by School District
Each year, data is collected on the number of homeless children and youth enrolled in Washington state school districts. This source includes data from 2007 to 2015.
eGIS: HUD’s Enterprise Geographic Information Systems Portal
Useful for: CHAS mapping, federal investment mapping, federal grantees
Mapping tools that allow the general public to map HUD and Census data. CPD are maps particularly useful, allowing for CHAS data mapping. No GIS software required.
Zillow Affordability in the Seattle Metro Area
Useful for: homeownership affordability visualization
Mapping tool of homeownership affordability in the Seattle Metro Area.
Communities Count: Spotlight: The Rising Fortunes of the 1%
Useful for: Income inequality visualization presently and over time
A five-panel graphical representation of income inequality and the increasingly large share of economic growth which has accrued to the top one percent. The graphs are divided between King County, Washington state, and nationally.
State Data
2015 WA State Affordable Housing Advisory Board Housing Needs Assessment
Useful for: comprehensive review and forecast of affordable housing in our state, baseline state housing indicators, rental supply analysis
The Washington State Affordable Housing Advisory Board (AHAB) advises the Department of Commerce on housing and housing-related issues. AHAB has 22 members representing a variety of housing interests around the state. In 2014 AHAB and other partners launched the Affordable Housing Needs Assessment, the first effort in over ten years to collect and analyze federal, tribal, state and housing authority data on affordable housing in our state.
National Data
Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University: The State of the Nation’s Housing
Useful for: national housing trends
The JCHS report examines the national housing market and breaks down its analysis into several chapters, including homeownership, rental housing, and housing challenges. The tables in the appendix highlight housing market indicators over time and cost-burdened households in 2001, 2013, and 2014.
Raw Data Sets
CHAS Download Tool
Useful for: affordability of housing stock, rent levels, supply of housing stock, demand for housing stock, downrenting/uprenting
Allows you to download the raw data files for CHAS. Best for data users who are comfortable working with large datasets and have appropriate data management software. The data download tool includes data from 2005-2013, broken up into 3- and 5-year averages.
HUD Data Matrix
Useful for: choosing a data source
HUD USER provides interested researchers with access to the original data sets generated by Policy Development and Research (PD&R)-sponsored data collection efforts, including the American Housing Survey, HUD median family income limits, as well as microdata from research initiatives on topics such as housing discrimination, the HUD-insured multifamily housing stock, and the public housing population. Each data set is rated by its relevance and usefulness for research in the designated categories.
Housing Affordability Data System Useful for: housing tenure, monthly housing costs, cost burden, assisted housing, income
The Housing Affordability Data System (HADS) is a set of files derived from the 1985 and later national American Housing Survey (AHS) and the 2002 and later Metro AHS. This system categorizes housing units by affordability and household by income, with respect to the Adjusted Median Income, Fair Market Rent (FMR), and poverty income. It also includes housing cost burden for owner and renter households.
Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS)
Useful for: historical data, long-term change
High-precision samples of the American population drawn from fifteen federal censuses and from the American Community Surveys of 2000-2012. Quantitative information on long-term changes in the American population.
National Historical Geographic Information System
Useful for: mapping historical census data
Free, aggregate census data and GIS-compatible boundary files for the United States between 1790 and 2012.
Other Resources
US Census Housing Topics
Useful for: vacancy rates, mortgages, market absorption, historical tables
A variety of Census data products related to housing.
The Local Economic Impact of Typical Housing Tax Credit Developments, National Association of Home Builders
Useful for: local economic benefits of building affordable housing
This report by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) presents estimates of the economic impacts of building 100 apartments in both a typical family housing tax credit development, and a typical elderly tax credit development. The NAHB model produces impacts on income and employment in 16 industries and local government, as well as detailed information about taxes and other forms of local government revenue.
Urban Institute: The Costs of Affordable Housing
Useful for: understanding the cost centers and barriers of affordable housing creation
A report and tool created by the Urban Institute which illustrates the factors which developers consider when deciding on a project and the economic challenges faced by affordable housing developers in particular.
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