Comparison figures

What this dataset measures

Permanent supportive housing gives formerly homeless people an apartment with on-site services. The Washington State Department of Commerce publishes every application to its Housing Trust Fund with the project's estimated total residential development cost and its count of supportive housing units, and its annual cost data reports list final costs for finished buildings. These are the only public, project-by-project totals we found; the City of Seattle's reports give only the City's share. We kept every Seattle new-construction application from 2021 to 2025 in which all apartments are supportive housing.

Geography

Seattle, Washington, United States, King County, Washington, United States

Unit of observation

One building (project), with its cost per apartment

Update cadence

Yearly, when Commerce posts a new application list or cost report

Curator

FactHub Research Team

Curated data tables

Comparison figures

A typical new apartment's cost per unit in Seattle, King County program averages and the state's King County median.

Unit of observation: One comparison figure

benchmarks.csv text/csv · 842 bytes

All 4 rows 6 columns Download the file

All 4 rows

benchmark_id	description	value_usd U.S. dollars (see unit)	unit	source_id	note
typical-new-apartment-seattle	Typical new six-story apartment building in Seattle, about 143 units, estimated full cost per unit (spring 2023 interviews)	490000	USD per apartment	bae2024	Report says "nearly $490,000 per unit"
hth-average-capital	King County Health Through Housing average capital cost per unit among bought buildings, 2021-2024	285772	USD per unit	hth2024	County-reported average
hth-operating-2024	King County Health Through Housing average operating cost per unit, 2024	33718	USD per unit per year	hth2024	Program operations and building maintenance
commerce-king-median-fy2023	Median final cost per unit, all new state-funded multifamily buildings finished in King County, fiscal 2023	356813	USD per apartment	cost2023	Five projects; all populations

6 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
benchmark_id	string	Identifier	—	derived
description	string	What the figure measures	—	observed
value_usd	number	The figure	U.S. dollars (see unit)	observed
unit	string	Unit of the figure	—	observed
source_id	string	Source	—	observed
note	string	Notes	—	observed

Supporting files

Source snapshots, manifests, quality reports, documentation, and other materials used to produce or review this release.

• build.py Transformation manifest · text/x-python · 10.2 KB (10,486 bytes)

  Python script that writes the three tables from the transcribed figures and computes every median.

Sources

1. Washington State Department of Commerce, list of 2021 Housing Trust Fund and Cottage applications Estimated cost and supportive housing units for DESC Greenlake and DESC Woodland (2021)

   Retrieved November 11, 2026. Public record (Washington State government). Figures only; the source file is linked, not hosted

   Reliability: Government. Commerce runs the state Housing Trust Fund and posts every application it receives. Costs are the applicants' own estimates.

2. Washington State Department of Commerce, list of 2022 Housing Trust Fund applications Estimated cost and supportive housing units for DESC 15th Avenue and Plymouth's Kenmore building (2022)

   Retrieved November 11, 2026. Public record (Washington State government). Figures only; the source file is linked, not hosted

   Reliability: Government. Posted by the agency that runs the fund. Costs are the applicants' own estimates.

3. Washington State Department of Commerce, list of 2023 Housing Trust Fund applications Estimated cost for DESC Lake City and DESC Woodland, and for 15 Seattle affordable buildings with no supportive housing (2023)

   Retrieved November 11, 2026. Public record (Washington State government). Figures only; the source file is linked, not hosted

   Reliability: Government. Posted by the agency that runs the fund. The list also gives each project's activity type, such as new construction (NC).

4. Washington State Department of Commerce, 2024 Traditional Housing Trust Fund Applications Received (NOFA #MHU-2024-02), updated 11/08/2024 Anticipated cost and supportive housing units for DESC Belmont, Plymouth's Norkirk and Redmond buildings (2024)

   Retrieved November 11, 2026. Public record (Washington State government). Figures only; the source file is linked, not hosted

   Reliability: Government. Posted by the agency that runs the fund; column 'Anticipated Total Residential Development Costs'.

5. Washington State Department of Commerce, list of 2025 Housing Trust Fund applications Anticipated cost and supportive housing units for Plymouth's Whittier Housing (2025)

   Retrieved November 11, 2026. Public record (Washington State government). Figures only; the source file is linked, not hosted

   Reliability: Government. Posted by the agency that runs the fund. Costs are the applicants' own estimates.

6. Washington State Department of Commerce, 2022 Housing Trust Fund Affordable Housing Cost Data Report Final cost per unit for DESC 22nd Avenue PSH (Seattle) and Kent Permanent Supportive Housing; definition of total residential project cost

   Retrieved November 11, 2026. Public record (Washington State government). Figures only; the source file is linked, not hosted

   Reliability: Government. Required by state law (RCW 43.185A.190). Built from final cost certifications that funded projects submit to Commerce.

7. Washington State Department of Commerce, 2023 Annual Affordable Housing Cost Data Report Final cost per unit and per square foot for four Seattle supportive housing buildings; King County median for all state-funded new buildings

   Retrieved November 11, 2026. Public record (Washington State government). Figures only; the source file is linked, not hosted

   Reliability: Government. Covers projects that submitted final cost data from July 2022 to June 2023. Commerce notes that only 26% of awardees had submitted cost certifications.

8. King County, 2024 Health Through Housing Annual Report (Attachment A to Motion 16910) Per-unit acquisition and rehabilitation cost for each building the county bought, each building's city and status, average capital and operating cost

   Retrieved November 11, 2026. Public record (King County government). Figures only; the source file is linked, not hosted

   Reliability: Government. Has a stake in this finding. Written by the county department that runs the program, for the County Council. Costs are the county's own accounting, not audited figures.

9. BAE Urban Economics for the Portland Housing Bureau, Residential Development Cost Study Summary (January 30, 2024) Estimated full cost per unit of a typical new six-story apartment building in Seattle

   Retrieved November 11, 2026. Public record (City of Portland). Figures only; the source file is linked, not hosted

   Reliability: Other. Consultant study paid for by the City of Portland. Seattle costs come from spring 2023 interviews with developers and contractors plus public and private data, for one typical building design.

License: FactHub's selection, cleaning and combined tables are licensed under CC BY 4.0. Source data keeps the terms listed above (terms).

Limitations and reproducibility

Reproducible from public sources: Each planned building's cost per apartment is its 'Total Residential Development Cost' (2021-2023 lists) or 'Anticipated Total Residential Development Costs' (2024-2025 lists) divided by its total low-income units, as printed in Commerce's application list for that year. Finished buildings' cost per unit is printed in the cost data reports. County purchase costs are the per-unit acquisition and rehabilitation figures in Figure 20 of King County's 2024 Health Through Housing report, added together. build.py recomputes every table and median from these transcribed figures.

• Costs for planned buildings are the sponsors' estimates when they applied for state money. Final costs can differ; DESC Woodland's estimate rose 38% between its 2021 and 2023 applications.
• Only buildings that applied to the state Housing Trust Fund appear. Seattle supportive housing financed without an application to that fund is missed.
• Four Seattle buildings planned in 2023-2025 is a small sample, so one project can move the median.
• Cost per apartment does not adjust for size. Supportive housing apartments are mostly studios; the typical new apartment benchmark building averages about 700 square feet per unit including common space.
• Costs include land, construction, fees, financing and reserves for the residential part of each building, including shared service space; commercial space is excluded. They are nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation.
• King County's purchase costs are life-to-date through 2024. Several bought buildings were still being renovated or not yet open, so their final cost per unit will be higher. The report does not say whether it divides by the units at purchase or the units after conversion.
• Cost per apartment is a one-time building cost. It is not the cost per resident, and it leaves out yearly operating and service costs.