Seattle has started to chill out ... with more AC

It used to be common for Seattleites to ask, "Who needs air conditioning around here?"

After all, Seattle enjoys a maritime climate. It has long been known as the least air-conditioned big city in the United States. But not anymore. Seattle Times FYI Guy Gene Balk looked at some numbers and says San Francisco is now the least-airconditioned city.

"I think, Seattle people, of course, maybe take a little bit of pride in not having air conditioning, while the rest of the country, you know, is sweltering, and we've always had — in the past, at least ... cool summers. But, you know, it's something that really does affect people's lives, too. I mean, the heat waves we've had, some have been pretty intense."

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Balk pulled his reporting from the American Housing Survey, done by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2021.

"The first time this survey was done in Seattle, which was 2013, less than a third of homes had air conditioning, so it was really in the minority," Balk told KUOW. "That number was now more than half, so it's been a huge increase in a 10-year period."

In fact, Balk counts himself among the many Seattle residents who contributed to the change. He recently got an AC unit, a small portable one for his bedroom, after two decades of holding out.

"Everyone told me when I moved here like, 'Don't bother with it, it's just not worth it.' And you know, that was true. What finally broke me down was 2021, when, of course, we had that record-breaking heat wave in the end of June, when we hit 108 degrees. That was just so miserable."

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Income is a major factor in whether people have air conditioning in their homes, according to Balk's reporting. Almost two in three households with an income of $200,000 have some kind of AC. That drops to about two in five among households making less than $50,000.

The West Coast is an outlier from the rest of the country. More than 90% of households have air conditioning in many other states. That could be changing around Seattle.

"You know, having to get air conditioning, I don't think people really want it, but a lot of people, myself included, have felt forced to do so."

Read Balk's full reporting here.