Despite being ahead of other cities, Seattle is still short more than 150,000 affordable units.
Seattle leads the way in affordable housing production among major U.S. metros, according to a report from RentCafe.
Doug Trumm covers the story in The Urbanist, noting that Seattle produced 14,290 affordable apartments over the last five years, narrowly beating New York City, which produced 14,240 units in the same time period.
Seattle spends a total of almost $350 million per year on affordable housing. The city’s housing levy, in place since the 1980s and renewed in 2023, provides $139 million in annual funding for affordable housing. “In 2025, Seattle voters approved another dedicated revenue source, this time focused on social housing. An ‘excess compensation’ tax hitting high earners who make more than $1 million per year is expected to raise more than $50 million annually for the recently launched Seattle Social Housing Developer, which is pursuing a mixed-income model popularized in cities like Vienna.”
However, the city needs 156,000 more affordable homes today and a total of 244,000 new homes by 2040 to meet its residents’ needs, according to a 2018 report by King County’s Affordable Housing Task Force.
Affordable housing is starting to make up a larger percentage of new apartment construction, at 14 percent in 2024 compared to just under 9 percent 10 years earlier. In 2024, 91,000 affordable units were delivered nationwide, the highest total in decades.
Read the full story: Seattle Leads Nation in Affordable Apartment Production
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