You'll have to work a few more hours to afford Seattle rent, Zillow says

If you want to pay your rent in Seattle, you're going to have to work more hours. That's the message from Zillow in its latest assessment of rising rents in the United States.

Zillow calculates that a Seattle renter would have to work a total of 56.3 hours to pay the "typical" rent for the city of $2,285. The real estate company notes that rent has increased by 29% in Seattle over the past five years, yet the average wage has only risen 12%.

Nationally, renters need to work six more hours a month than they did before the pandemic to make the typical U.S rent of $2,040, according to Zillow.

"The rental market has cooled this year, but so far that has meant prices growing more slowly, not any real relief for renters," said Zillow senior economist Jeff Tucker in a statement. "Rents were growing at a record pace for much of 2021, squeezing budgets for renters moving or renewing leases. Now, it appears more people are opting to double up with roommates or family, which means more vacancies and pressure on landlords to price their units competitively, offering some hope of relief on the horizon. Rents fell last month for the first time in two years, possibly the start of more price drops to come, or at least a signal that we are back to the usual seasonal rhythms of the rental market."

Zillow's assessment comes shorty after Redfin, another Seattle real estate company, announced that a person needs to earn at least $205,000 annually to by a median-priced home in the city. That is up from $141,000 a year ago.