Cost of living in Seattle, WA
The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA metro area (4,145,494 people) ranks #6 of 149 for prices among the U.S. metro areas we cover. Here's what it costs to live there.
Hover over or tap a dot to see its value.
See all 149 cities
Price level, from cheaper to pricier.
- The Villages, FL 85.4
- McAllen, TX 85.9
- Springfield, MO 88.6
- Wichita, KS 88.9
- Jackson, MS 89.0
- Tulsa, OK 89.2
- Columbus, GA 89.3
- Little Rock, AR 89.4
- El Paso, TX 89.9
- Oklahoma City, OK 90.4
- Sioux Falls, SD 90.6
- Baton Rouge, LA 90.8
- Clarksville, TN 90.9
- Fargo, ND 90.9
- Killeen, TX 91.1
- Spartanburg, SC 91.1
- Fayetteville, AR 91.4
- Chattanooga, TN 91.5
- Toledo, OH 91.5
- Birmingham, AL 91.6
- Des Moines, IA 91.7
- Augusta, GA 91.9
- Omaha, NE 91.9
- Fayetteville, NC 92.0
- Winston-Salem, NC 92.0
- Jacksonville, NC 92.1
- Memphis, TN 92.2
- Kansas City, MO 92.5
- Fort Wayne, IN 92.6
- Knoxville, TN 92.6
- New Orleans, LA 92.6
- Dayton, OH 92.7
- Greensboro, NC 92.9
- Lexington, KY 92.9
- Huntsville, AL 93.1
- Louisville, KY 93.1
- Greenville, SC 93.3
- Akron, OH 93.4
- Billings, MT 93.5
- Myrtle Beach, SC 93.6
- Columbia, SC 93.7
- Cleveland, OH 93.9
- Daphne, AL 94.7
- Pittsburgh, PA 94.7
- San Antonio, TX 94.7
- St. Louis, MO 95.1
- Ocala, FL 95.2
- Savannah, GA 95.2
- Cincinnati, OH 95.4
- Albuquerque, NM 95.5
- Columbus, OH 95.5
- Grand Rapids, MI 95.5
- Indianapolis, IN 95.7
- Syracuse, NY 95.7
- Buffalo, NY 95.8
- Nashville, TN 96.3
- Wilmington, NC 96.4
- Asheville, NC 96.5
- Cheyenne, WY 96.5
- Gainesville, FL 96.7
- Milwaukee, WI 96.9
- Tucson, AZ 96.9
- Crestview, FL 97.0
- Rochester, NY 97.0
- Lakeland, FL 97.1
- Charlotte, NC 97.3
- Madison, WI 97.3
- Panama City, FL 97.3
- Durham, NC 97.6
- Pensacola, FL 97.7
- Richmond, VA 97.9
- Virginia Beach, VA 97.9
- Hilton Head Island, SC 98.0
- Austin, TX 98.1
- Provo, UT 98.2
- Raleigh, NC 98.2
- Prescott, AZ 98.3
- Boise, ID 98.4
- Houston, TX 98.6
- Harrisburg, PA 98.7
- Daytona Beach, FL 99.4
- Jacksonville, FL 99.5
- Albany, NY 99.6
- Allentown, PA 100.0
- Palm Bay, FL 100.0
- Atlanta, GA 100.1
- Greeley, CO 100.2
- Las Vegas, NV 100.2
- Port St. Lucie, FL 100.2
- Detroit, MI 100.3
- Ogden, UT 100.3
- Spokane, WA 100.3
- Norwich, CT 100.4
- Punta Gorda, FL 100.5
- Colorado Springs, CO 100.7
- Ann Arbor, MI 100.9
- Bakersfield, CA 100.9
- Burlington, VT 100.9
- Salt Lake City, UT 100.9
- Tampa, FL 100.9
- Charleston, SC 101.0
- Reno, NV 101.0
- Fort Collins, CO 101.1
- Orlando, FL 101.4
- Eugene, OR 101.6
- Providence, RI 101.8
- Portland, ME 101.9
- Fresno, CA 102.2
- Cape Coral, FL 102.3
- Sarasota, FL 102.4
- Worcester, MA 102.5
- Philadelphia, PA 102.6
- Hartford, CT 102.7
- Dallas, TX 103.1
- Naples, FL 103.2
- Trenton, NJ 103.2
- Phoenix, AZ 103.3
- Bend, OR 103.6
- Chicago, IL 103.6
- Olympia, WA 103.7
- Baltimore, MD 104.5
- New Haven, CT 104.6
- Minneapolis, MN 104.8
- Stockton, CA 105.1
- Boulder, CO 105.2
- Anchorage, AK 105.4
- Portland, OR 105.4
- Bremerton, WA 105.6
- Manchester, NH 105.7
- Denver, CO 105.8
- Riverside, CA 106.4
- Sacramento, CA 106.7
- Bridgeport, CT 106.9
- Santa Rosa, CA 107.8
- Boston, MA 108.3
- Vallejo, CA 108.5
- Santa Barbara, CA 108.8
- Washington, D.C. 108.9
- Salinas, CA 109.0
- Poughkeepsie, NY 109.4
- San Jose, CA 110.4
- Oxnard, CA 110.5
- Honolulu, HI 111.0
- Seattle, WA 111.1
- San Diego, CA 111.9
- New York, NY 112.6
- Los Angeles, CA 113.6
- Miami, FL 114.2
- San Francisco, CA 115.6
Compare Seattle with your city
See what you'd need to earn in Seattle to keep your lifestyle, after taxes and local prices. The calculator starts from Los Angeles, CA, which sends the most households here of the metros we cover (IRS, 2022–2023), using its median household income as an illustrative single-earner salary. Household income can include several earners and other income; it is not a typical individual wage. Pick your own city, salary and filing status.
Equal salary in Seattle: $86,400
Compare any two of 149 U.S. metro areas. All cities
To keep the same lifestyle, you need about $86,400 in Seattle, WA to match $95,000 in Los Angeles, CA ($8,600 less), after 2026 taxes and local prices.
Single filer, W-2 salary. Washington has no state income tax on wages; California does; neither city levies a resident income tax.
Prices and housing cover the metro area; taxes use California and Washington, their principal states. A metro can span several states; living in its other state can change the tax result.
What things cost in Seattle
The vertical line marks the U.S. average (100). BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 for the metropolitan area.
Taxes in Seattle
In this fixed example, one single filer earning a $110,000 W-2 salary keeps $84,689 after 2026 federal tax ($15,370), Social Security and Medicare ($8,415). Washington has no state income tax on wages, plus $1,526 in state payroll programs. The salary is rounded from median household income, not an observed individual wage. This example stays fixed when you change the calculator.
Housing
| Measure | Seattle area |
|---|---|
| Median rent | $2,050/mo |
| Median home value | $743,000 |
| Median property tax | $6,294/yr |
| Monthly cost to own the median home (20% down) | $4,684 |
| Median household income | $112,388 |
Climate and jobs in Seattle
In the Seattle area the average January low is 38°F and the average July high 77°F, and the area has about 4 days a year at 90°F or hotter. Unemployment averaged 4.6% in 2025, above the U.S. rate (4.3%), and the median wage across all jobs was $72,610 a year, 42% above the U.S. median.
| Climate | 1991–2020 average |
|---|---|
| January low | 38°F |
| July high | 77°F |
| Days 90°F or hotter | 4 a year |
| Precipitation | 39 in a year |
| Snowfall | 6.3 in a year |
| Jobs and pay | Metro area | U.S. |
|---|---|---|
| Unemployment rate, 2025 average | 4.6% | 4.3% |
| Median wage, all jobs (May 2025) | $72,610 | $50,980 |
| Wage and salary jobs (May 2025) | 2.1 million | 155.5 million |
Climate: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020 averages at the Seattle Tacoma International Airport station (USW00024233). Weather varies across a metro area, especially with elevation and distance from the coast. Jobs: unemployment from BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics; wages and job counts from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, which count wage and salary jobs, not the self-employed; wages are before taxes. The 2025 average covers 11 months: October 2025 data were not collected during the federal government shutdown.
Retiring in Seattle
Our modeled retiree budget is about $3,581 a month here with a home owned outright, or $4,586 renting. It uses spending benchmarks for households with a reference person age 65 or older (BLS 2024), adjusted for local prices. These are household-based estimates, not observed spending by a single retiree in Seattle. See where your budget goes furthest.
Where people move to and from Seattle
- Seattle to Olympia
- Seattle to Los Angeles
- Seattle to Phoenix
- Seattle to Portland
- Seattle to Bremerton
- Seattle to New York
- Seattle to San Francisco
- Seattle to Dallas
- Los Angeles to Seattle
- Portland to Seattle
- San Francisco to Seattle
- New York to Seattle
- Olympia to Seattle
- Phoenix to Seattle
- Bremerton to Seattle
- Dallas to Seattle
IRS county-to-county migration data, 2022–2023, aggregated to the 149 metro areas we cover.
Natural hazard risk
RelocateMath's population-weighted mean of FEMA county risk scores for the Seattle area is 99 of 100 (very high county-score mean), with modeled expected losses of about $653 per resident per year. A mean of county percentiles is not an official FEMA metro rating or a national metro percentile. It describes the counties in the metro; your property's risk can differ. Disaster risk by county in Washington.
The vertical line marks county-score scale midpoint (50).
Frequently asked questions
What salary do you need to live in Seattle?
In a fixed single-filer W-2 example living inside the principal city, about $86,400 in Seattle matches the buying power of $75,000 in an average-priced area with no state income tax. The example uses 2026 federal taxes, Washington state taxes and modeled resident local taxes where applicable. It stays fixed when calculator inputs change. Renting the median home at 30% of income takes $82,000, and buying the median home with 20% down takes about $200,732.
Is Seattle expensive?
The Seattle metro area's price level is 111.1 (U.S. = 100), #6 of the 149 metro areas we cover, from most to least expensive. Its housing rents price index is 151.3, 51% above the U.S. average.
Are people moving to Seattle?
Counting moves to and from the other 148 metro areas we cover, Seattle had a net gain of about 5,159 households in 2022–2023 (IRS county migration data).
What is the weather like in Seattle?
In NOAA's 1991–2020 climate normals for the Seattle area (Seattle Tacoma International Airport weather station), the average January low is 38°F and the average July high 77°F. The area has about 4 days a year at 90°F or hotter and gets 39 inches of precipitation a year and about 6.3 inches of snow.
What are jobs and pay like in Seattle?
The Seattle metro area's unemployment rate averaged 4.6% in 2025, above the U.S. rate (4.3%). The median wage across all jobs was $72,610 a year in May 2025, 42% above the U.S. median of $50,980 (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
What natural disasters affect Seattle?
RelocateMath's population-weighted mean of FEMA county risk scores is 99 out of 100 (very high county-score mean). This is not an official FEMA metro rating or a national metro percentile. The highest county-score means by hazard are earthquake, landslide, riverine flooding.
Compare Seattle with other cities
Moving from Seattle to…
Cities with similar prices
- Honolulu, HI 111.0
- Oxnard, CA 110.5
- San Jose, CA 110.4
- San Diego, CA 111.9
- New York, NY 112.6
- Poughkeepsie, NY 109.4
- Moving from Washington
State-agency links identify the responsible tax office; they do not verify every modeled rule. Use forms and guidance for the year you are filing.