Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA
The Inland Empire's quiet builder. Spokane pulled 2,985 building permits over the trailing twelve months — 5.10 per 1,000 residents, above both the Washington and national medians. Home prices climbed +47.2% over five years on the FHFA HPI, but year-over-year growth has cooled to +2.8%. Net IRS migration of +1,963 signals steady demand without overheating.
The numbers that matter most
What an investor checks first when sizing up a new metro — affordability ratio, rent vs income, cap rate proxy, and where the market is moving. Each metric shown vs. state and national medians for instant context.
expensive
Price to income
5.02×
The single most-cited 'is this market still cheap' check. Below 3× and you're in an affordability tailwind.
- vs Washington
- 5.13×-0.11
- vs U.S.
- 3.43×
Benchmark
ACS median home value ÷ median HHI
moderate
Rent to income
25.2%
What share of a typical household's income goes to rent. Below 30% means tenants can absorb modest rent increases.
- vs Washington
- 24.7%
- vs U.S.
- 23.3%
Benchmark
(HUD FMR 2BR × 12) ÷ median HHI
tight
Cap rate proxy
3.3%
Rough first-pass yield assuming a 35% expense ratio. Not an underwriting number — a 'is this even worth modeling' filter.
- vs Washington
- 3.1%+0.1
- vs U.S.
- 4.4%
Benchmark
(FMR 2BR × 12 × 0.65) ÷ ACS median home value
steady
Net migration
+0.34%
Forward-looking demand signal. Positive net migration drives rent growth and absorbs new supply.
- vs Washington
- 0.25%+0.09
- vs U.S.
- 0.04%+0.30
Benchmark
IRS net migration ÷ population
pipeline contracting
Permit pipeline
5.10
permits per 1,000 residents
Forward-supply indicator. Above ~5 means the metro is building meaningfully relative to its size; below 2 means supply is tight.
- vs Washington
- 4.97+0.13
- vs U.S.
- 3.49+1.61
Benchmark
Census BPS permits TTM ÷ population × 1,000
softening
Unemployment
5.2%
Tighter unemployment means higher wages, more rental demand, lower vacancy.
- vs Washington
- 5.5%-0.3
- vs U.S.
- 3.9%
Benchmark
BLS LAUS, latest month
Section index — click any row to jump
What the data says about Spokane
Spokane is eastern Washington's quiet builder — a two-county metro of 585,485 residents that pulled 2,985 building permits in the trailing twelve months per the Census Building Permits Survey. That works out to 5.10 permits per 1,000 residents, above both Washington's state median (4.97) and the national metros median (3.49). Median household income is $72,836, the FHFA House Price Index is up +47.2% over the last five years per the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and BLS unemployment sits at 5.2% (Bureau of Labor Statistics LAUS). That unemployment figure is above the national average (3.9%) but below Washington's state median (5.5%) — softer, but not alarming for a metro anchored by healthcare (Providence Sacred Heart, MultiCare), education (Gonzaga, Eastern Washington University), and Fairchild Air Force Base.
The permit mix tells a specific story: 1,606 single-family permits (53.8%) and 1,190 five-plus-unit multifamily (39.9%), with 189 two-to-four-unit permits filling the gap. The multifamily share is higher than you'd expect for a mid-size inland metro — and it's driven almost entirely by Spokane County.
- Spokane County dominates the metro: 538,711 residents (92% of population), 2,785 permits TTM (93.3% of the pipeline), and a median home value of $370,500. The county's permits dipped only -2.2% year-over-year — a mild pullback.
- Stevens County is the rural satellite: 46,774 residents, just 200 permits TTM (-33.1% YoY), and a lower median home value of $308,000 with median household income of $67,405. This is timber, agriculture, and outdoor recreation country — not a growth corridor.
Net migration into the metro was +1,963 returns in the most recent IRS Statistics of Income vintage, or +0.34% of metro population. The top feeders are revealing: Kootenai County, ID (Coeur d'Alene) sent 1,124 returns, King County, WA (Seattle) sent 1,057, and the rest of the top six are Washington counties — Snohomish (545), Pierce (477), and Stevens (476, intra-metro churn). Spokane is pulling from the expensive Puget Sound corridor and the north Idaho growth belt. That's a quality inflow: workers who can earn remote salaries or retirees looking for mountain proximity at a lower price point.
So what does an investor do?
- If you're hunting cash flow, the numbers are tight. The cap rate proxy sits at 3.27% — below the national median (4.35%) and below Washington's state median (3.13%). HUD Fair Market Rent for a 2BR is $1,531/month against a $365,700 median home value. You need to find below-market acquisitions or value-add deals to make the cash flow math work.
- If you're playing appreciation, the five-year HPI run of +47.2% has cooled to +2.8% year-over-year — the post-pandemic surge is over, but steady in-migration from Seattle and north Idaho supports a moderate forward appreciation story. The flattening slope since 2023 means you're buying into price discovery, not a frenzy.
- If you already own here, hold. The Puget Sound migration pipeline, healthcare employment anchor, and Fairchild Air Force Base provide structural floor demand. Watch the multifamily pipeline — 1,190 five-plus-unit permits is significant for a metro this size and could pressure vacancy rates through 2027.
Where prices are and where they've been
FHFA House Price Index — repeat-sales index across the metro, sized against this metro's median household income and benchmarked against the Indiana metros average and U.S. metros average.
5-year price appreciation
+47.2%
FHFA HPI · Q1 2020 → Q4 2025
+2.8% YoY
$365,700 median home value
Spokane home prices climbed 47.2% over the last 5 years according to the FHFA repeat-sales index — a steady appreciation pace for a Midwest metro of this size. The 1-year change of 2.8% suggests steady appreciation continuing.
See the chart below for how the metro's appreciation curve stacks up against the Indiana metros average and the U.S. metros average. The gap between the metro and the national line is the "catch-up" or "lag" signal — and the slope tells you whether the gap is widening or closing.
How to read it
- 01Spokane (teal) ran nearly parallel with the Washington state average through 2021, then diverged slightly higher — peaking at 406.19 in Q2 2022 before correcting.
- 02The 2022 correction erased roughly 13 index points in two quarters, but prices stabilized by early 2023 and have held a narrow band between 391 and 423 since.
- 03Year-over-year growth has cooled to +2.8% — below the pandemic-era surge but above the national average, which sits around +2.3%.
- 04Spokane's HPI sits at 422.33 as of Q4 2025, above the Washington state average (405.76) and well above the national average (358.43), reflecting the region's relative affordability premium during 2020-2021 pandemic migration.
- 05The flattening slope since mid-2023 signals price discovery — supply is catching up to the post-pandemic demand wave that pushed the index from 262 to 406 in just two years.
Where the value tier sits — top 2 counties by home value
| County | Median home value | Median HHI | Price-to-income | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spokane County | $370,500 | $73,513 | 5.04× | stretched |
| Stevens County | $308,000 | $67,405 | 4.57× | moderate |
How to read the FHFA House Price Index
FHFA HPI is a repeat-sales index — it tracks the price change of the same properties over time, smoothing out new construction and luxury transactions. It's built from the mortgage data the GSEs (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac) already see, which makes it free of MLS survey error and immune to listing-feed gaps.
- 01Repeat-sales method. Tracks the same properties over time, so new construction and luxury transactions don't skew the trend.
- 02Federally sourced. Built from GSE mortgage data — no MLS survey error, no commercial license required to publish.
- 03Slope, not level. Watch the slope of the line, not the absolute index value — a steepening curve is a more reliable buy signal than the level.
The rent ladder
HUD Fair Market Rent by bedroom count, sized against this metro's median household income and benchmarked vs Indiana and the U.S.
Typical 2-bedroom rent
$1,531
/ month · HUD FMR FY 2026
25.2% of median HHI
A typical 2-bedroom in costs the median household 25.2% of their income — 1.9 points above the U.S. average (23.3%) 0.5 points above Washington (24.7%).
HUD calls anything above 30% "rent-burdened." This metro sits comfortably under that line, which means tenants can absorb modest rent increases — and landlords have headroom on rent hikes before pushing tenants out of the market.
Fair Market Rent — by bedroom count
| Bedroom | Monthly | Annual | % of median HHI | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 BR | $1,193 | $14.3K | 19.7% | comfortable |
| 2 BR | $1,531 | $18.4K | 25.2% | moderate |
| 3 BR | $2,088 | $25.1K | 34.4% | rent-burdened |
Why HUD Fair Market Rent matters
FMR is HUD's 40th-percentile rent estimate by bedroom count — refreshed every fiscal year, sourced from Census surveys (not commercial listing data), and used as the cap for Section 8 voucher payments. Three things investors should know:
- 01Defensible benchmark. Federal source, no commercial license required to publish or compare against.
- 02Section 8 ceiling. A property at or below FMR is voucher-eligible — government-paid rent at the FMR cap.
- 03Conservative estimate. 40th percentile means more than half of actual market rents in the metro come in higher.
Labor market direction
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — LAUS (unemployment) + CES (nonfarm employment), benchmarked against the U.S. average.
Unemployment rate
5.2%
BLS LAUS · latest month
Spokane's labor market is softening, with unemployment running at 5.2% — 1.3 points above the U.S. metros average (3.9%).
For an investor, tighter unemployment means higher wages, more rental demand, and lower vacancy. The trend chart below shows how the metro's unemployment has moved over the last 30 months.
Unemployment rate
5.2%
Nonfarm jobs
—
Median household income
$72,836
ACS 5-year
How to read the labor market
Two BLS series tell you almost everything you need about a metro's labor market: LAUS (unemployment, refreshed monthly) and CES (nonfarm payroll counts, refreshed monthly). LAUS is the tightness signal; CES is the size and direction signal.
- 01Unemployment is rental demand. Tighter labor markets mean higher wages and lower vacancy — landlords have pricing power when employers are competing for workers.
- 02YoY change is the trend signal. A negative pp YoY change means the labor market tightened over the last year — usually a leading indicator for rent growth.
- 03Nonfarm growth is supply absorption. Positive nonfarm payroll growth absorbs new housing supply and supports the rent + price trajectory together.
What's being built
U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey — trailing 12 months, broken out by structure type, with the YoY change as the directional signal.
Total permits TTM
2,985
Census BPS · trailing 12 months
-4.3% year-over-year
5.10 permits per 1,000 residents
Spokane pulled 2,985 building permits over the trailing 12 months, a contraction 4.3% year-over-year. That works out to 5.10 permits per 1,000 residents, vs the U.S. metros average of 3.49.
Single-family vs multifamily mix matters: 5+ unit permits are lumpy (developers file for entire projects at once), while single-family permits are smoother and more reliable as a demand signal. The chart below breaks out the monthly mix.
Single family
1,606
trailing 12 months
2–4 unit
189
trailing 12 months
5+ unit
1,190
trailing 12 months
How to read the supply pipeline
Census BPS publishes building permit counts every month at the county level, by structure type. Single-family permits are the smooth signal — they reflect ongoing builder demand. 5+ unit permits are lumpy and project-level — one apartment approval can spike a month.
- 01Permits per 1,000 residents. The size-adjusted comparison number. Above ~5 means the metro is building meaningfully relative to its population; below 2 means supply is tight.
- 02YoY change is the direction. Year-over-year change in TTM permits tells you whether builders are leaning in or pulling back. Watch this number for trend reversals.
- 03Mix matters for cap rates. Heavy 5+ unit permitting tends to compress cap rates; single-family-dominated pipelines preserve them.
All 2 counties, ranked by population
Census Bureau (population, ACS demographics) + Census Building Permits Survey.
How to read it
- 01Spokane County dominates with 2,785 of the metro's 2,985 permits — 93.3% of all building activity.
- 02Stevens County contributes just 200 permits, reflecting its rural character and smaller population (46,774 vs. Spokane County's 538,711).
- 03Spokane County's permits dipped only -2.2% year-over-year — a mild pullback compared to Stevens County's -33.1% decline.
- 04The metro's combined permit pipeline of 2,985 translates to 5.10 permits per 1,000 residents, above both the Washington state median (4.97) and the national median (3.49).
How to read the map
- 01The darker shading on Spokane County reflects its 2,785 permits — nearly 14 times the activity in neighboring Stevens County.
- 02Spokane County's permit concentration mirrors the metro's economic center of gravity: the city of Spokane, Spokane Valley, and the growing suburbs around Liberty Lake.
- 03Stevens County's lighter shading reflects both its lower permit count (200) and its mountainous rural geography — this is timber and agriculture country, not suburban growth.
- 04The two-county metro has a clear primary/satellite structure: Spokane County is the economic engine, Stevens County is the rural hinterland.
| # | County | Population | Median HHI | Home value | Permits TTM | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spokane County | 538,711 | $73,513 | $370,500 | 2,785 | |
| 2 | Stevens County | 46,774 | $67,405 | $308,000 | 200 |
Similar metros nationally
5 metros closest to Spokane by population and median household income — head-to-head on the metrics that matter for an investor.
Peer set
5
metros nearest by population + HHI
Spokane is closest in size to Palm Bay, Chattanooga, Harrisburg, Lansing.
The table below ranks every metric — green cells mark the best value in the column, rust cells mark the worst. Spokane is highlighted as the focal row.
| Metro | Pop | Med HHI | Home value | P/I | Cap proxy | HPI 5y | Permits/1k | Migration | Unemp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
★Spokane | 0.59M | $73K | $366K | 5.02× | 3.3% | +47.2% | 5.10 | +0.34% | 5.2% |
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL | 0.61M | $76K | $304K | 4.01× | 4.4% | +54.5% | 7.15 | +1.07% | 4.8% |
Chattanooga, TN-GA | 0.56M | $69K | $246K | 3.58× | 4.4% | +65.9% | 0.02 | +0.02% | 3.2% |
Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA | 0.59M | $79K | $239K | 3.02× | 4.9% | +52.9% | 2.17 | +0.08% | 3.2% |
Lansing-East Lansing, MI | 0.54M | $71K | $205K | 2.90× | 4.8% | +49.3% | 1.68 | -0.14% | 4.4% |
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR | 0.55M | $78K | $273K | 3.51× | 3.8% | +71.7% | 16.99 | +0.38% | 3.1% |
How to read this comparison
Peer metros are picked by population + median household income — the closest five matches nationally — so the comparison is apples-to-apples on size and economic class. Sun Belt entrants like Las Vegas and Nashville are included when they fall in range, which is why this peer set spans both the Midwest and the Sun Belt.
- 01Green = best in column. The cell with the most-favorable value for that metric, accounting for whether higher or lower is better.
- 02Rust = worst in column. The cell with the least-favorable value. Combined with the green markers, this is your at-a-glance "where does my metro win and where does it lose."
- 03Cap proxy is the yield lens. Cap rate proxy = (FMR 2BR × 12 × 0.65) ÷ median home value. A first-pass yield filter, not an underwriting number — but it puts the peer set on a single comparable scale.
Where people are moving in from
IRS Statistics of Income — Tax Year 2022. Excludes intra-metro suburban churn.
Net migration
+1,963
tax returns · IRS SOI · TY 2022
+0.34% of metro population
1,124 from top origin
Spokane absorbed a net +1,963 IRS returns in the most recent vintage — a modest +0.34% of metro population. The top feeder is Kootenai County, ID (Coeur d'Alene), followed by King County (Seattle). Steady inflow, not a flood, but directionally positive for forward demand.
The IRS data lags by ~2 years (households file taxes the year after they move), but it's the only nationwide county-to-county migration data sourced from administrative records, not survey estimates. The table below shows the top origin counties — the gravitational sources of new residents.
Top origin counties — where new residents are coming from
| Origin county | Tax returns |
|---|---|
| Kootenai County, ID | 1,124 |
| King County, WA | 1,057 |
| Spokane County, WA | 582 |
| Snohomish County, WA | 545 |
| Pierce County, WA | 477 |
| Stevens County, WA | 476 |
Who lives in Spokane
U.S. Census Bureau · American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates · 2019–2023 vintage.
Who lives here
- Median age
- 38.8
- Owner-occupancy
- 65.1%
- Bachelor's+
- 31.2%
Spokane relatively young Midwest metro: Median age 38.8, 65.1% owner-occupancy 31.2% holding a bachelor's degree or higher. Stable, educated, and mostly homeowner-driven.
The catch: 48.9% of renter households are rent-burdened (paying 30%+ of income on rent) — high enough to flag as a constraint on rent growth even though the headline rent-to-income ratio looks comfortable.
- Median household income
- $72,836
- Median age
- 38.8
- Bachelor's+ degree
- 31.2%
- Owner-occupancy rate
- 65.1%
- Vacancy rate
- 6.3%
- Rent burdened (30%+)
- 48.9%
Data sources
| Metric | Source | Type | Vintage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home prices | FHFA — House Price Index | Index | Q4 2025 |
| Fair market rents | HUD — Fair Market Rents | Administrative | FY 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | BLS — Local Area Unemployment Statistics | Survey | Jan 2026 |
| Nonfarm employment | BLS — Current Employment Statistics | Survey | Jan 2026 |
| Building permits | Census — Building Permits Survey | Survey | Mar 2026 TTM |
| Migration flows | IRS — Statistics of Income, Migration Data | Administrative | Tax Year 2022 |
| Demographics | Census — American Community Survey 5-Year | Survey | 2019–2023 |
| Household income | Census — American Community Survey 5-Year | Survey | 2019–2023 |
Page last refreshed: April 10, 2026