Who Actually Owns Washington State Homes?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Gaze down at our fair state from cyberspace and the numbers begin to paint a curious picture of who owns Washington real estate. Fewer landowners may vote (or live) here than you might think. A bill written up this session to fence off your neighborhood from Wall Street begged the expensive question of just how many people live in what they own.

That bill in question from Sen. Emily Alvarado aimed to cap the number of houses private equity firms could put under their belts. The Seattle Democrat’s proposal was inspired in large part by the Emerald City’s allure to investors. As much as nine percent of its single-family rental homes were owned in 2022 by real-estate players with more than 1,000 houses in their pockets, per federal data. That’s in the neighborhood of 15,000 houses.

Washington is many thousands of homes short of its goal to meet mid-century demand of a million more homes. Wall Street money is alleged to drive up home prices, dry up housing stock, and elbow would-be home buyers out of the market. In that scenario, hot housing markets like Seattle’s could boil over.

The crux of this story is hard data on the above — or rather, lack thereof. Private equity is private, after all. Still, the concentration of out-of-state homeowners can give us an inkling of what’s catching their eye. You can thank Alex Alsup and Matthew Klovski over at Regrid who map out the matter in part below using street addresses, land-use classifications, and mailing addresses for property-tax bills.

https://www.postalley.org/2025/06/21/who-actually-owns-washington-state-homes/?mc_cid=3f2fa2ece8&mc_eid=a0c4847065