Kent apartment rents up for third consecutive month

Apartment rents increased in December in Kent for the third consecutive month and are up 4.6 percent compared to December 2017.

Rents increased 0.5 percent in December compared to November, according to apartmentlist.com. Median rents in Kent stand at $1,460 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,820 for a two-bedroom.

This is the third straight month that the city has seen rent increases after a decline in September. Kent’s year-over-year rent growth leads the state average of 1.1 percent, as well as the national average of 0.9 percent.

Over the past month, Marysville has seen the biggest rent drop in the Seattle-Tacoma-Everett metro area, with a decline of 4 percent. Median two-bedrooms there cost $1,640, while one-bedrooms go for $1,320.

Bellevue has the most expensive rents of the largest cities in the metro area, with a two-bedroom median of $2,320; rents went down 0.5 percent over the past month but rose 3.5 percent over the past year.

Lakewood has the least expensive rents in the metro area, with a two-bedroom median of $1,450; rents fell 0.1 percent over the past month but rose 3.8 percent over the past year.

Rents increased slightly in other cities across the state. For example, rents have grown by 1.7 percent in Vancouver and 0.4 percent in Spokane.

Renters will generally find more expensive prices in Kent than most large cities. Spokane has a median two-bedroom rent of $880, where Kent is more than twice that price.