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Tag: Snohomish County Market Report

  • Snohomish County’s Office Vacancy Just Dropped to 10.7% — What the Q1 2026 Numbers Mean for Waterfront Place and Everett’s Build-Out

    Snohomish County’s Office Vacancy Just Dropped to 10.7% — What the Q1 2026 Numbers Mean for Waterfront Place and Everett’s Build-Out

    Quick Answer: Snohomish County’s office market just posted its third straight quarter of positive net absorption, ending Q1 2026 at 10.7% vacancy with asking rents at $31.20 per square foot — a small but real signal that the office side of the Everett story is firming up while the housing side cools. The numbers come from Kidder Mathews’ Q1 2026 Seattle Office Market Report, and they matter because the Port of Everett’s Waterfront Place build-out is planning 447,500 square feet of office on top of an apartment market that just turned soft. Office is the harder leasing story right now. The Q1 numbers say it is starting to turn.

    Snohomish County’s Office Vacancy Just Dropped to 10.7% — What the Q1 2026 Numbers Mean for Waterfront Place and Everett’s Build-Out

    Most of the housing-market coverage in Everett right now is about the same story told three different ways: the rental market is down 2% year over year, the new-construction market closed exactly one home above list this month, and the condo market is actually outperforming single-family. Those are three pieces of one residential picture.

    The office market is a separate picture. And Kidder Mathews — the commercial brokerage that publishes the most-cited Seattle Office Market Report — just released its Q1 2026 numbers for Snohomish County. The headline is unflashy and important: vacancy ended the quarter at 10.7%, asking rents nudged up to $31.20 PSF, and the county posted its third straight quarter of positive net absorption. None of those numbers will trend on social media. All of them will show up in the leasing decisions that determine whether the next phase of Waterfront Place is a building full of offices or a building waiting for tenants.

    The Q1 2026 Numbers, Plain

    From Kidder Mathews’ Q1 2026 Seattle Office Market Report, here is the Snohomish County row:

    • Overall vacancy: 10.7% at the end of Q1 2026, down slightly from the prior quarter and a touch below the 10.8% rate at the close of Q1 2025.
    • Net absorption: Positive 37,931 square feet — the third straight positive quarter. Net absorption is leasing brokers’ favorite single number because it captures whether more space got filled than emptied during the period.
    • Total leasing activity: Slowed to 59,395 square feet during Q1 2026, including renewals.
    • Asking rent: $31.20 per square foot, a 0.8% improvement on the prior quarter’s $30.96 PSF.

    That is a market that is not setting records and is not falling apart. It is grinding up. For office, that is a normal story. For Snohomish County office in 2026, after a few years of soft national office demand, it is a meaningful story.

    Why 10.7% Is the Right Number to Watch

    Vacancy alone is a noisy number. A market can have 10% vacancy because nobody wants the space, or because half the inventory is old and the other half is brand new and leasing fast. What changes the read is the trend.

    Snohomish County office vacancy ended Q1 2025 at 10.8%, ended Q4 2025 a hair higher, and ended Q1 2026 at 10.7%. That is a four-quarter window in which vacancy has effectively moved sideways with a slight downward bias. Pair that with three straight quarters of positive net absorption and a 0.8% bump in asking rents, and you have the soft outline of a market floor. Not a recovery. Not a boom. A floor.

    That distinction matters for anyone watching Waterfront Place and the Millwright District. A floor is what you need to start signing leases on new product. A floor is what makes pre-leasing offices in a downtown waterfront development work as a financial pro forma.

    What This Means for Waterfront Place’s 447,500 SF of Office

    The Port of Everett’s master plan for Waterfront Place includes 447,500 square feet of office at full build-out, alongside the 660 housing units, the two hotels, and the 63,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. The first major office product on the waterfront is the Millwright District Phase 2 office — covered earlier this month when we wrote about what 120,000 square feet of waterfront office space means for Everett.

    The Q1 numbers are the leasing context for that 120,000 square feet. If county-wide office had ended Q1 at 13% with three straight quarters of negative absorption, the Millwright pre-leasing pitch would be a hard one. Tenants would have leverage, asking rents would be soft, and the calendar from groundbreaking to stabilized occupancy would be longer than the financing model assumed.

    At 10.7% with a positive absorption trend and rents nudging up, the pitch is different. Waterfront-view office at $31-plus-PSF is a defensible play in a market where vacancy is not bleeding out. It does not guarantee anything. It just removes one of the legitimate reasons to be skeptical.

    What This Means for Downtown Office

    The other pressure point in Snohomish County office is the existing downtown Everett inventory — older Class B and Class C buildings along Colby, Hewitt, and Wetmore that have been competing with the move to remote and hybrid work for half a decade. Those buildings do not benefit from the same waterfront-view pitch.

    What they do benefit from is the absorption trend. If the county is filling 38,000 square feet net per quarter, some of that is going into existing downtown space. A market with positive net absorption broadly is a market in which downtown landlords have a chance to lease, even if the asking rents are well below the $31.20 county average and the deals require concessions that would have been unthinkable in 2019. The signal here is permission to underwrite, not a green light to raise rents.

    The Broader Puget Sound Comparison

    Snohomish County’s 10.7% vacancy compares to the broader Seattle/Puget Sound regional office vacancy, which ended Q3 2025 at 22.7% per the same Kidder Mathews series. That gap — 12 percentage points between the county and the regional average — is the structural advantage Snohomish County has been quietly building. Office demand drains out of the urban core when work-from-home becomes permanent. It does not drain out of the suburban Class A market in the same way, especially in a corridor with Boeing’s commercial aerospace anchor, the Naval Station Everett anchor, and a residential population that does not commute south to Seattle.

    The Waterfront Place office product is being designed to sit inside that gap. Class A finishes, water views, walking-distance restaurants, dedicated parking, and a corridor that has not been hollowed out by the urban-flight pattern that hit downtown Seattle. The Q1 2026 absorption number is a small piece of evidence that the gap is real and that the leasing thesis has a floor under it.

    What to Watch in Q2

    The next Kidder Mathews report will land in mid-July, capturing Q2 2026 absorption. Three things to watch:

    1. Whether net absorption stays positive. A fourth straight positive quarter would convert the floor read into a recovery read.
    2. Whether asking rents push past $31.50 PSF. That is the threshold above which Class A new product can be priced confidently.
    3. Whether leasing activity recovers from the 59,395 SF Q1 figure. Q1 leasing was slow. Q2 is the test of whether decision-makers are sitting on the sidelines or actually backing out of the market.

    What This Doesn’t Say

    It does not say office is back. It does not say the rest of 2026 is a guaranteed recovery. It does not address the suburban-to-suburban moves that are powering most of the absorption (companies giving up old space for newer space — net-positive county-wide, net-zero or worse for individual landlords). It does not isolate Everett from Bothell, Lynnwood, or Mill Creek inside the county number. And it does not predict whether tariffs, interest rates, or the broader macroeconomic story will rewrite the leasing calendar.

    What it does say, in the most boring possible language: the floor is holding, the absorption is positive, and the rents are nudging up. That is the leasing context the next phase of Waterfront Place is going to be pitched into. The Port has been building toward this moment for a decade. The Q1 numbers say the moment is plausible.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is the Snohomish County office vacancy rate in Q1 2026?

    10.7% per Kidder Mathews’ Q1 2026 Seattle Office Market Report, a slight decrease from 10.8% in Q1 2025 and a small improvement from the prior quarter.

    What were Snohomish County’s Q1 2026 office asking rents?

    $31.20 per square foot, up 0.8% from the prior quarter’s $30.96 PSF.

    What is net absorption?

    Net absorption is the change in occupied office space during a period — total square feet leased and moved into, minus total square feet vacated. Positive net absorption means more space got filled than emptied. Snohomish County posted 37,931 SF of positive net absorption in Q1 2026, its third straight positive quarter.

    How much office space is planned at Waterfront Place?

    The Port of Everett’s master plan calls for 447,500 square feet of office at full build-out. Millwright District Phase 2 includes 120,000 square feet of waterfront office in pre-leasing.

    How does Snohomish County compare to the broader Seattle office market?

    Snohomish County’s 10.7% vacancy is significantly tighter than the broader Seattle/Puget Sound regional vacancy, which Kidder Mathews reported at 22.7% in Q3 2025. Suburban Class A markets in Snohomish County have held up better than the urban Seattle core through the work-from-home shift.

    When is the next Kidder Mathews report?

    Q2 2026 data typically lands in mid-July.

    Is this a good time to lease office space in Everett?

    Tenants still hold meaningful leverage at 10.7% vacancy, especially in older Class B and Class C downtown product. Asking rents are firming but concessions remain available. The trend favors landlords gradually but has not flipped to a clear landlord market.

  • Everett Condos Are the Snohomish County Story Single-Family Buyers Aren’t Watching: April 2026 Market Update

    Everett Condos Are the Snohomish County Story Single-Family Buyers Aren’t Watching: April 2026 Market Update

    Q: What’s happening in the Everett and Snohomish County condo market in April 2026?

    A: Snohomish County condo prices climbed to an average of $586,261 in April 2026, up 4.4% year over year — outpacing single-family appreciation in the same window. Inventory expanded to 2.7 months and average days on market stretched to 40 days, giving condo buyers more leverage than they have had in years. Median condo listing price across the county is $429,000. In Everett specifically, condos are moving in 22 days at 99% of original list price, but with the highest inventory of any property type in the city — meaning the most negotiating room is in the segment everybody else is ignoring.

    Everyone watching the Snohomish County housing market in April 2026 is talking about single-family homes. The $735,750 median sale price (up 1.2% year over year), the 2.8-month inventory, the 99.9% sale-to-list ratio, the 35-day average time on market — those are the numbers in every neighborhood email and every Redfin link your friends keep sending you.

    The condo and townhome story is doing something different, and it might be the most interesting price-segment movement of the year if you actually read it.

    The county-level condo numbers

    April 2026 average condo pricing for Snohomish County: $586,261, up 4.4% year over year.

    That 4.4% is meaningfully ahead of the single-family resale appreciation rate of 1.2% in the same county over the same window. In a market where everyone is chasing single-family inventory at a 99.9% sale-to-list ratio, condos quietly outperformed in price growth.

    At the same time:

    • 2.7 months of inventory — modestly higher than single-family’s 2.0–2.8 months, depending on the slice.
    • 40 days average on market for condos vs. roughly 35 days for single-family.
    • $429,000 median condo listing price across Snohomish County — significantly below single-family’s median sale price of $735,750.
    • 204 condos for sale on the day the county-level reports were pulled.

    Translation: more inventory, more negotiating room, longer marketing windows, lower entry price — and stronger price growth than single-family. That is a combination buyers should not let pass without at least understanding what is in the listings.

    What’s happening inside Everett

    Zoom into Everett city limits and the condo segment behaves slightly differently than the county-wide read.

    Everett condo activity is leaning slower and more price-sensitive overall, with inventory high relative to demand and buyers having plenty of options to compare. But when you look at what is actually selling, the picture is sharper than the macro suggests:

    • 22 median days on market for Everett condos that close.
    • 99% of original list price received by sellers.
    • The most inventory of any Everett property type — which means buyers can actually shop instead of bidding blind.

    That combination — fast turn for the listings that move, plenty to compare for buyers who don’t fall for the first one — is the cleanest condo buying environment Everett has produced in years. Older complexes with high HOA dues are sitting longer. Buildings with healthy reserves and reasonable dues are turning in three weeks at near-list.

    The single-family contrast

    Compare the condo numbers to where single-family resale sits in Snohomish County right now:

    • Single-family resale prices holding near $877,000.
    • Average sale at 99.8% of list.
    • Inventory at 2.0 months.
    • Residential resale remains the strongest lane for sellers and the tightest for buyers.

    Single-family inventory in Snohomish County is still tight enough that buyers competing in that lane have very little leverage. Condos and new construction are giving buyers the room to negotiate that resale single-family does not.

    The townhome wave that’s about to hit

    The townhome segment is also worth watching specifically because of new product coming online. Conner Homes opens reservations on Saturday, April 25 — tomorrow as we publish this — for two new communities:

    • Greenview Heights — pricing expected to start in the low $700s.
    • Village Towns at Ten Trails — pricing expected to start in the mid $600s.

    These are not Everett-specific projects, but they are part of the broader Snohomish County townhome and attached-housing pipeline that is expanding the entry-level product available to buyers priced out of single-family resale. Anyone shopping in the $600K–$750K range in 2026 should be evaluating new-construction townhomes against resale condos against entry-level single-family — the three lanes are converging on similar buyer profiles, and the leverage shifts depending on which lane you walk into first.

    What buyers should actually do with this

    If you are a buyer in Snohomish County in April 2026 and you are open to a condo or townhome:

    1. Pull the inventory reports for the specific buildings you would consider. The county-level averages hide enormous variance between buildings. A condo in a building with $300/month dues, healthy reserves, and a young roof is a fundamentally different asset than a condo in a 1970s building with $700/month dues, deferred maintenance, and an upcoming special assessment. The same listing site shows you both.

    2. Read the HOA financials before you write the offer. The single biggest reason condo deals fall apart in 2026 is HOA reserve studies showing a special assessment in the next 24 months. The buyer either walks or renegotiates, and either way the deal slows. Read the financials early.

    3. Use the longer marketing window. Condos averaging 40 days on market means you have time to look, compare, and negotiate. Single-family at 35 days does not give you that. The condo segment in 2026 rewards patient buyers who actually shop.

    4. Look at the new-construction townhome alternative. Conner Homes’ new launches and the broader new-construction townhome pipeline are explicitly competing with resale condos for the same buyer. Touring both before you decide makes the negotiation cleaner on whichever lane you choose.

    What sellers should do

    If you are selling a condo in Snohomish County in April 2026:

    Get the reserve study and HOA financials in the listing packet. Buyers in 2026 are screening for special assessments before they tour. A clean reserve study is a price-supporting feature.

    Price to your specific building, not to the county average. The 4.4% YoY county average masks huge variance. Healthy buildings are appreciating well above 4.4%. Older buildings with deferred maintenance are not. Pricing to the wrong comparable is the fastest way to add weeks to your marketing window.

    If you are sitting at 60+ days on market in a healthy building, the issue is probably price, not the market. The 22-day median days on market for Everett condos that close tells you well-priced inventory still moves fast. The county average of 40 days is being pulled up by the long tail of mispriced listings.

    Bottom line on Everett’s housing landscape this month

    The Everett single-family story has been the lead in our housing coverage all spring, and rightly so — it is the segment most buyers are competing for and most sellers are listing. But the condo segment is producing a different opportunity that hasn’t gotten the same coverage: more inventory, longer windows, comparable closing-price discipline for the listings that move, and price appreciation that beat single-family year over year.

    If you are a buyer who can be flexible on property type, April 2026 is the cleanest time to shop the condo lane in years. If you are a seller, read your HOA financials before you list and price to your actual building.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is the average condo price in Snohomish County in April 2026?
    $586,261, up 4.4% year over year.

    How does that compare to single-family homes?
    Snohomish County single-family resale prices are holding near $877,000 with average sales at 99.8% of list and 2.0 months of inventory. Condos appreciated faster (4.4% YoY vs. 1.2% YoY for single-family), but with more inventory and longer marketing windows.

    How long are Everett condos on market in April 2026?
    22 days median for the condos that close, with sellers receiving 99% of original list price. The condo segment has the most inventory of any Everett property type, so buyers have more options.

    Is now a good time to buy a condo in Snohomish County?
    For buyers who are flexible on property type, April 2026 is the cleanest condo buying environment in years. More inventory, longer marketing windows, better negotiating leverage, comparable price stability for healthy buildings.

    What about new-construction townhomes?
    Conner Homes opens reservations Saturday, April 25 for two new communities: Greenview Heights (starting low $700s) and Village Towns at Ten Trails (starting mid $600s). Both are part of the broader Snohomish County townhome pipeline competing with resale condos for similar buyers.

    What’s the biggest risk in buying a condo right now?
    Special assessments. Older buildings with weak reserve studies are showing up to buyers as 24-month special assessment risks. Read the HOA financials and reserve study before you write the offer.

    How many condos are for sale in Snohomish County right now?
    204 condos at the time of the most recent county-level report, with a median listing price of $429,000.

    Are condo prices rising faster than single-family in 2026?
    Year over year, yes — Snohomish County condos appreciated 4.4% vs. single-family at 1.2%. But the condo market is also showing more inventory variance and softer activity in older buildings, so the price growth is not uniform.

  • Everett’s Rental Market Just Flipped: Why Apartment Rents Are Down 2% and What That Means for 2026

    Everett’s Rental Market Just Flipped: Why Apartment Rents Are Down 2% and What That Means for 2026

    Featured Snippet

    Q: Is rent going up or down in Everett in 2026?

    A: Rent in Everett is actually down about 2% year-over-year as of April 2026. The average apartment rent in Everett is $1,849, down from $1,887 a year ago. Studios sit around $1,476, one-bedrooms around $1,676, two-bedrooms around $1,930, and three-bedrooms around $2,340. That makes 2026 a noticeably renter-friendlier market than 2022-2023, driven by new apartment supply from the Waterfront Place, Riverfront, and downtown buildouts finally coming online.

    Everett’s Rental Market Just Flipped: Why Apartment Rents Are Down 2% and What That Means for 2026

    Everybody in Everett has spent the last three years talking about how for-sale home prices have moved — the median is $547K, down 11.6% from last year, with the downtown and Northwest Everett markets moving in completely different directions than the 98208 zip code. We wrote about that last week. But the story on the rental side is quieter, and most people in Everett haven’t noticed it yet: apartment rents here are actually going down.

    Not dramatically. Not uniformly. But down, year-over-year, in a market that’s been running the other direction for most of the past decade. Here’s the full picture as of mid-April 2026.

    The Headline Numbers

    The average rent for an apartment in Everett right now is $1,849 per month, down about 2.04% from $1,887 a year ago. That’s a ~$38/month reduction on the average unit, or roughly $456/year back in renters’ pockets for the same apartment that cost more last April.

    That’s a meaningful shift. For context, Everett rents climbed 15-20% over the three years from 2020 to 2023. Getting to any year-over-year decline at all is a sign of a market that’s rebalancing — and for a lot of working Everett renters, it’s the first real relief in years.

    Different data sources have slightly different numbers (rental data always has spread because it’s collected differently by each source), but the direction is consistent:

    • Apartments.com: Average rent down ~2% year-over-year
    • Apartment List: Rents down 1.6% year-over-year
    • Zumper / Rent.com / Point2: Comparable declines of 0.9-2% year-over-year

    The median advertised rent for Everett is approximately $1,830 per month. Over the past 3-6 months, the rental market has been mostly stable with only moderate advertised rent movement, which is the market doing what a market does when supply catches up to demand.

    The Full Apartment-Size Breakdown

    Here’s what renters are paying by unit size in Everett right now:

    • Studio: $1,476/month (roughly 500 sq ft)
    • One-bedroom: $1,676/month (685 sq ft — $2.45/sq ft)
    • Two-bedroom: $1,930/month (941 sq ft — $2.05/sq ft)
    • Three-bedroom: $2,340/month (1,186 sq ft — $1.97/sq ft)

    Two things jump out. First, the price-per-square-foot actually gets cheaper as units get bigger — which is classic rental economics, because larger units attract longer leases and families looking to stay put. Second, the jump from studio to one-bedroom is only about $200/month, which suggests Everett’s studio supply is relatively tight compared to one-bedrooms. If you can qualify for a one-bedroom, the “extra room” premium is small enough that it’s worth taking.

    What’s Causing Rents to Soften

    Everett isn’t an outlier here. The broader Puget Sound rental market has softened in 2025-2026 after a brutal run-up. But Everett has its own specific reasons, and all of them are connected to the construction we’ve been tracking on this desk for months.

    New supply is finally hitting the market. Waterfront Place’s 266 units at The Sawyer and The Carling are stabilized and leasing at current prices. Riverfront Phase 1 apartments are leased and Phase 2 is delivering. Downtown has added units in new mid-rise buildings. Millwright District Phase 2 is breaking ground this year for 300+ more units. Every apartment that opens pulls some renter out of the existing stock and forces older buildings to compete on price.

    Boeing hiring hasn’t fully absorbed the supply yet. The North Line is ramping, but the jobs are being filled over the course of 2026, not all at once. Until the workforce fully shows up and signs leases, the demand side of the equation hasn’t caught up to the supply wave.

    Home purchase re-entry. Everett’s median sale price is down 11.6% year-over-year to $547K. Every renter who decides that finally makes a down payment pencil out is a renter leaving the rental pool. That’s small in aggregate but real at the margins.

    Broader regional mix. Seattle and Bellevue rent softness bleeds north. When Seattle apartments drop, people who priced themselves out of Seattle and moved north to Everett start seeing Seattle back in reach. That slight outbound migration from Everett’s rental market is real even if the numbers are modest.

    What It Means Block by Block

    Not every Everett neighborhood is seeing the same rent behavior. Based on advertised listings across the city:

    Downtown Everett. Newer mid-rise buildings along Hewitt, Colby, and Rucker are where the most competitive pricing is showing up. These buildings opened into a softening market and are offering concessions (one month free, reduced deposits, waived admin fees) more often than we’ve seen in years. If you’re apartment-hunting in downtown in April-May 2026, ask about concessions — don’t accept the advertised rate as final.

    Waterfront Place area. The Sawyer and Carling at Waterfront Place list 13 units available as of this week, with rents ranging from $2,202 to $2,800. That’s premium pricing consistent with the amenity package (two rooftop decks, speakeasy lounge, fitness, concierge) but it’s also a signal of a complex that’s about 95% leased — so scarcity pricing still applies at the top end of the market even when the broader market is softening.

    Northwest Everett. Older buildings along Grand Avenue, near Forest Park, and in Bayside are the slowest to cut. These are often owner-operated or small-portfolio landlords who don’t reprice as aggressively as institutional operators. Rents here are more sticky — less upside but less downside.

    98208 (Silver Lake / south Everett). This is where the mix skews toward larger two- and three-bedroom units, and where the rent-per-square-foot is actually the cheapest in the city. Families relocating for Boeing, Naval Station Everett, or Providence Regional Medical Center jobs often end up here because the space-for-money math works.

    The Renter’s Playbook for Spring 2026

    If you’re renting in Everett right now or shopping for a new lease this spring, here’s what we’d tell a friend:

    Ask for concessions, always. A softening market is a concession market. One month free on a 13-month lease is a ~7.7% effective rent reduction. That’s often a better deal than a nominally cheaper rent elsewhere.

    Don’t auto-renew without comparing. If you’re approaching a renewal, pull three to five comparable units on Apartments.com or Zumper before your landlord sends the renewal letter. You now have negotiating leverage you didn’t have two years ago.

    Look at buildings that opened in 2024 or 2025. These properties are stabilizing their rent rolls and are the most likely to run promotions. Older buildings (especially small privately-owned ones) are less flexible.

    If you’re shopping waterfront-adjacent, understand the premium. Waterfront Place pricing ($2,202-$2,800) isn’t representative of Everett as a whole. If you want the view and amenities, you pay for them. If you want value, you go downtown or into Northwest Everett.

    Check your credit and documentation now. A balanced market still favors renters with clean paper. Boeing pay stubs, Navy LES statements, and steady employment get leases signed faster than thin credit files, even when the market is soft.

    What Comes Next

    The rental market in Everett is not going to stay soft forever. By late 2026 and into 2027, two things happen at once:

    1. Boeing North Line hiring fully absorbs into the local rental market.

    2. The Millwright District 300+ apartments and other Waterfront Place housing deliveries slow down the supply pipeline.

    When supply slows and demand firms, rents resume climbing. That’s not a prediction — that’s what the math does. Renters who sign 14-month or 18-month leases this spring at today’s softer rates are locking in a floor that may feel like a deal in 2027.

    For landlords, the message is the opposite. The days of 8-10% annual rent increases as a default assumption are gone. The next year or two is about occupancy — filling units, keeping residents, earning the privilege of raising rents again when the market turns.

    Everett is going through the quiet part of its rental cycle right now. It won’t last. But while it’s here, it’s the first renter-friendly window this city has had in a long time, and worth knowing about.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is the average rent in Everett WA in 2026?

    The average apartment rent in Everett is approximately $1,849 per month as of April 2026, down about 2% from $1,887 a year ago.

    Is rent going up or down in Everett?

    Rent is currently going down in Everett. Average rents are off roughly 2% year-over-year across most data sources (Apartments.com, Apartment List, Zumper), driven largely by new apartment supply hitting the market and a broader Puget Sound rental softening.

    How much is a one-bedroom apartment in Everett?

    A one-bedroom apartment in Everett rents for approximately $1,676 per month on average, for a typical 685 square foot unit. Rent per square foot is about $2.45 at that size.

    How much is a two-bedroom apartment in Everett?

    A two-bedroom apartment in Everett rents for about $1,930 per month on average, for roughly 941 square feet. That works out to about $2.05 per square foot.

    Is now a good time to rent in Everett?

    Spring 2026 is one of the most renter-friendly windows Everett has had in years. Concessions (free months, reduced deposits) are common in newer downtown buildings, and lease negotiations have more room than they did in 2022 or 2023.

    Why are Everett rents going down?

    Three main reasons: new apartment supply at Waterfront Place, Riverfront, and downtown is hitting the market; Boeing North Line hiring is ramping but not fully absorbed; and the broader Puget Sound rental market is softening, which pulls Everett with it.

    Will rents go back up in Everett?

    Likely yes, by late 2026 or 2027 as Boeing North Line fully staffs up and new apartment supply slows. Locking in a longer lease this spring at today’s rates is a reasonable hedge for tenants who plan to stay.

  • Everett’s Three Housing Markets: A Complete Mid-2026 Guide to Downtown, Northwest Everett, and 98208

    Everett’s Three Housing Markets: A Complete Mid-2026 Guide to Downtown, Northwest Everett, and 98208

    Q: What is happening in Everett, Washington’s housing market in 2026?

    A: Everett’s citywide median home sale price is approximately $547,000 in February 2026, down 11.6% year over year per Redfin data. But the citywide number masks three very different submarkets. Downtown Everett is up 11.4% year over year (median $384,000) as Waterfront Place restaurant row and the proposed AquaSox stadium pull in demand. Northwest Everett — the historic mansion district above the waterfront — is up 22.1% year over year (median $705,000 as of October 2025). And the 98208 ZIP code on the south side is down 7.5% (median $740,000 as of January 2026). Homes citywide are going pending in approximately 8 days at about 1% under list price. The right number for your decision is your neighborhood’s number, not the citywide one.

    Everett’s Three Housing Markets: A Complete Mid-2026 Guide to Downtown, Northwest Everett, and 98208

    The Everett, Washington housing market in mid-April 2026 is not one market. It is three markets sitting inside the same set of city limits, and they are moving in three different directions. Downtown Everett is up double digits year over year. Northwest Everett — the historic Rucker Hill bluff district — is up more than 20 percent. The 98208 ZIP code on the south side is down 7.5 percent. The citywide median is down 11.6 percent and tells you almost nothing about any individual block.

    For buyers, sellers, investors, and anybody trying to understand what their own home is worth, the right number is the neighborhood number. Here is the full mid-2026 picture, with the data sources, the catalysts pulling each submarket in its direction, and what to watch through summer.

    The Citywide Snapshot — Why It Misleads

    Per Redfin’s most recent reading, the city of Everett posted a median home sale price of $547,000 in February 2026, down 11.6% from the prior year. Median price per square foot is $394, up 0.9% year over year. Homes go pending in approximately 8 days, and the typical sale closes at about 99% of list price.

    An 11.6% citywide decline is a significant correction by historical standards. It is not a 2008-style collapse — speed-of-sale is still fast, price-per-square-foot is essentially flat, and the market is functional. What’s happening is that the feverish appreciation of 2021–2023 has normalized out and the city as a whole has settled into a market that looks more like 2019 than like 2022.

    That settling is wildly uneven across Everett’s neighborhoods. The next three sections explain why.

    Submarket 1: Downtown Everett — Up 11.4% YoY

    Downtown Everett’s median sale price is approximately $384,000 in early 2026, up 11.4% year over year per Redfin. Price per square foot is $410, down 15.6% year over year — meaning median sale prices are climbing while individual price-per-square-foot is compressing. That is the signature of a submarket where smaller, denser units are appreciating fast and larger units are still adjusting.

    Downtown Everett has historically been the most affordable submarket in the city — older condos, aging multifamily stock, a mix of rental and owner-occupied product that rarely commanded premium pricing. The shift in 2025 and 2026 is the direction of the trend. Several catalysts are stacked on top of each other:

    • Waterfront Place lease-up. Tapped Public House (opened March 2, 2026), Rustic Cork (December 2025), The Net Shed (December 2025), Menchie’s at the Marina (ribbon cutting March 13, 2026), and Marina Azul Cocina & Cantina (early spring 2026) have transformed downtown’s Friday and Saturday evening foot traffic.
    • The proposed AquaSox stadium. The City Council is being asked for $10.6 million in design funding on April 29, 2026. A yes vote is a structural tailwind for downtown valuations.
    • Edgewater Bridge opening April 28, 2026. Cuts a long-running Mukilteo-corridor detour for downtown-proximate commutes.
    • Funko HQ continued pull and Hewitt Avenue restaurant build-out.

    If you bought a downtown condo in 2023 or 2024 when the citywide market was peaking and watched your paper value slide, that paper value has likely recovered and then some. The downtown trend is running counter to the citywide trend, and it is doing so for fundamental reasons rather than as a statistical anomaly.

    Submarket 2: Northwest Everett — Up 22.1% YoY (October 2025 reading)

    Northwest Everett is the historic mansion district — the bluff above the waterfront, the big old homes on Rucker, Grand, and Hoyt, the streets that were Everett’s money before the mills came in. The most recent neighborhood-level Redfin reading shows a median sale price of approximately $705,000, up 22.1% year over year as of October 2025.

    Two forces are pulling Northwest Everett. The first is the same waterfront thesis pulling downtown — everything happening at the Port of Everett’s Waterfront Place is making the bluff above the waterfront more valuable. The second is housing stock scarcity. Northwest Everett doesn’t have teardown-and-build-a-fourplex density potential in most of its blocks. What is there is largely what is there. When demand for character-rich historic Puget Sound homes spikes, Northwest Everett is one of the first submarkets to reprice.

    The October 2025 reading is the most recent neighborhood-level number Redfin has published. The citywide trend since then suggests the appreciation pace has likely moderated, but the relative premium NW Everett commands over the citywide average is structural and not going anywhere.

    Submarket 3: 98208 — Down 7.5% YoY

    The 98208 ZIP code covers Everett’s south and east — Silver Lake, much of the Cascade High School attendance boundary, the corridors that blend functionally into unincorporated Snohomish County. Redfin shows a median sale price of approximately $740,000 in January 2026, down 7.5% year over year. Median price per square foot is $365, down 8.3% year over year.

    98208 is where much of Everett’s 1990s and 2000s single-family stock sits and where a large share of Seattle in-migration landed during 2020–2023. That migration cycle is what’s unwinding. 98208 saw some of the strongest appreciation during the 2021–2023 boom, and it is now seeing some of the sharpest year-over-year declines. The $740,000 median is still substantial — higher than the citywide number — but it is down from a recent peak around $800,000.

    For buyers, the 98208 negotiation leverage is the strongest in Everett right now. For sellers, the inventory pressure is the highest.

    What This Means for Different Everett Buyers

    First-time buyer: Downtown is the entry point. A $384,000 median for a downtown condo is in reach for a dual-earner household at Everett’s median household income with a VA or FHA loan. The +11.4% YoY trend means you are buying into appreciation, not against it.

    Move-up buyer: 98208 is the buy. The submarket is down more than the citywide average. If you already own a smaller unit and want to trade up to a 3–4 bedroom single-family home, the negotiation environment is the most favorable since 2019.

    Northwest Everett buyer: Inventory is the constraint, not price discovery. If a Rucker Hill or Grand Avenue home you want comes available, plan to move quickly. NW Everett listings often go pending in days at full or above asking.

    Investor / developer: Watch Millwright District Phase 2 pre-leasing (120,000 sq ft of office space) and Waterfront Place Restaurant Row foot traffic as leading indicators for downtown. The investment thesis for small downtown multifamily is specifically the Waterfront Place thesis.

    Seller: Price sharp. Eight-day pending times mean well-priced homes move fast and overpriced homes get stale fast. Don’t anchor to what your neighbor got in 2022. Talk to an agent who has closed in your specific ZIP code in the last 90 days.

    What to Watch Through Summer 2026

    • Stadium vote April 29. $10.6 million in design funding from the City Council. Pass or fail moves downtown’s structural thesis.
    • Sound Transit Everett Link Draft EIS. Expected this year. Any movement in either direction repositions downtown and waterfront-adjacent pricing materially.
    • Millwright District Phase 2 pre-leasing. Which tenants sign determines weekday population in 2027–2028, which determines downtown rent trajectory.
    • Boeing 737 North Line ramp at Paine Field. 100+ assemblers per day are being onboarded as of April 2026. Where they buy or rent moves submarket inventory.
    • NAVSTA Everett housing demand. The base’s military housing arrangements affect off-base Everett demand at predictable points in the deployment and PCS cycles.

    The Everett housing market of 2026 is a market in transition. The story is no longer “Everett is up” or “Everett is down.” It is “which Everett.”

    Related Exploring Everett coverage:

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is the median home price in Everett, Washington in 2026?

    Approximately $547,000 citywide as of February 2026, down 11.6% year over year per Redfin data. The citywide number masks significant neighborhood variation.

    Which Everett neighborhood is appreciating fastest in 2026?

    Northwest Everett, the historic mansion district on the bluff above the waterfront. The most recent reading shows the median sale price up 22.1% year over year at approximately $705,000 (October 2025 data).

    Which Everett neighborhood is the most affordable in 2026?

    Downtown Everett, with a median sale price of approximately $384,000 — though it is now appreciating at +11.4% year over year as Waterfront Place lease-up and proposed downtown stadium investment accelerate.

    Where is Everett housing softening the most?

    The 98208 ZIP code on Everett’s south side, with a median price of approximately $740,000 down 7.5% year over year. This submarket appreciated most aggressively in 2021–2023 and is correcting most sharply in 2025–2026.

    How fast are Everett homes selling in 2026?

    The typical Everett home goes pending in approximately 8 days, selling at roughly 99% of list price (about 1% under asking).

    Is it a buyer’s or seller’s market in Everett right now?

    It depends on the neighborhood. Downtown and Northwest Everett lean seller. The 98208 ZIP code leans buyer. Citywide, prices are softer year over year (favoring buyers) but speed of sale is fast (favoring sellers who price sharp).

    Why is downtown Everett rising while the rest of the city is falling?

    Downtown’s submarket-specific catalysts — Waterfront Place restaurant row, the proposed AquaSox stadium, Edgewater Bridge opening, Funko HQ pull, Hewitt Avenue restaurant build-out — are running counter to broader citywide normalization.

    Should I trust the Everett citywide median for my own home value?

    No. Neighborhood-level variance is wider than citywide averages would suggest. Use a comp pull from your specific ZIP code over the last 90 days, or consult a local agent who has closed deals in your area recently.