Kent appreciation rates and housing market information

Kent housing market information

With a population of 79,325, 32,534 total housing units (homes and apartments), and a median house value of $347,806, real estate costs in Kent are among some of the highest in the nation, although house prices here don't compare to real estate prices in the most expensive Washington communities.

large apartment complexes or high rise apartments are the single most common housing type in Kent, accounting for 42.43% of the city's housing units. Other types of housing that are prevalent in Kent include single-family detached homes (40.84%), duplexes, homes converted to apartments, or other small apartment buildings (6.33%), row houses and other attached homes (5.90%), and a few mobile homes or trailers (4.21%). Cities with mostly row houses, apartments, and other high density housing types are relatively uncommon, and characteristic of compact cities that frequently have a downtown or other neighborhoods where amenities are within walking distance and a lot of street life can be seen.

People in Kent primarily live in small (one, two, or no bedroom) units, chiefly found in large apartment complexes or high rise apartments. Kent has a mixture of owner-occupied and renter-occupied housing.

There is a lot of housing in Kent built from 1970-1994, so parts of town may have that "Brady Bunch" look of homes popular in the '70s and early '80s, although some of these houses were built up through the early '90s as well. There is also a lot of housing in Kent built from 1940-1969 (22.41%). A lesser amount of the housing stock also hails from 1995 and later (13.07%), and some were built from 1939 and earlier (13.07%).

Kent home appreciation rates

Appreciation rates for homes in Kent have been tracking above average for the last ten years, according to NeighborhoodScout data. The cumulative appreciation rate over the ten years has been 96.09%, which ranks in the top 20% nationwide. This equates to an annual average Kent house appreciation rate of 9.60%.

Over the last year, Kent appreciation rates have trailed the rest of the nation. In the last twelve months, Kent's appreciation rate has been -6.49%, which is lower than appreciation rates in most communities in America. In the latest quarter, NeighborhoodScout's data show that house appreciation rates in Kent were at -1.74%, which equates to an annual appreciation rate of -6.96%.

Notably, Kent's appreciation rate in the latest quarter is one of the lowest in America.

Relative to Washington, our data show that Kent's latest annual appreciation rate is higher than 16% of the other cities and towns in Washington.

One very important thing to keep in mind is that these are average appreciation rates for the city. Individual neighborhoods within Kent differ in their investment potential, sometimes by a great deal. Fortunately, you can use NeighborhoodScout to pinpoint the exact neighborhoods in Kent - or in any city or town - that have the best track record of real estate appreciation, by the latest quarter, the last year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, or even since 1990, to assist you in making the best Kent real estate investment or home purchase decisions.