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Metropolitan Seattle is now among several places across the U.S. where buying a home is considered impossible, and renting in Washington state isn’t any easier, according to a pair of recent reports that add to the dismal housing data.

MoneyGeek, a personal finance website, has added Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue to its list of 26 locations where owning a home is unaffordable.

“By the fourth quarter of 2021, the Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price index had risen by 18.6% within the previous 12 months. It’s no wonder that nearly 50% of Americans are concerned about affordability, wondering if they can handle soaring mortgage payments,” MoneyGeek said in a report released Wednesday, April 13.

In Bellingham, the online real-estate company Zillow tracks the median home price at $674,577 in March 2022, up more than 25% over 2021.

For renters, the median rent in Bellingham is about $1,900 a month, according to recent Herald reporting. In its most recent ALICE Report, the United Way of Whatcom County found that 39% of residents were “asset-limited, income-constrained, employed.”