The Bottom Line on Seattle Commuting Costs

Buyers in Seattle looking for a median-priced home should anticipate a 7.5 percent price premium, or an extra $35,000, if they want to live five minutes closer to the downtown area during rush hour.

Those who live closer to the city center may be shaving time off of their commute, but they are also likely paying a higher price for less living space. The typical home for those commuting less than 20 minutes to the city is about 865 square feet, less than half of the size of the median home for the entire metro. Zillow found that the median single-family home within the 20 minute commute threshold to the city center is roughly one-third smaller than the metro median of 1,830 square feet.

Not everyone owns a home – and renters seem to enjoy a somewhat better bargain in the Seattle commuting costs game. Across the Seattle area, 5 minute decreases in car- and transit-commute times were associated with 3 percent and 1.3 percent increases in rent for otherwise similar apartments, respectively. Still, quick commutes aren’t cheap: rents per square foot were about 34 percent higher for units with the shortest commutes (under 20 minutes), relative to units with 20 to 40 minute commutes.

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