Bellingham, Washington.
Typical home $657,528 (-0.3% in a year), asking rent $1,908 (+2.7%). Bellingham, WA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,796 (+108%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $1,787 -0%
- $659,315$657,528 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $70,535 +12%
- $586,994$657,528 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Bellingham$3,451
- Washington$3,084
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 31 years.
Typical home values in Bellingham, WA fell 0.3% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Bellingham, WA rose 2.7% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Owning the typical home in Bellingham runs $2,630/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $2,835 in Jan 2025.
That is $4,537 a month against $1,908 rent: a $3,451 mortgage payment, plus $382 property tax and $704 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Bellingham
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$4,537
- Renting$1,908
- Mortgage only$3,451
Property tax · $382/mo 0.70% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Whatcom County, WA
Insurance & upkeep · $704/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Bellingham, Whatcom County, Washington
Bellingham is a city of 91,482 people in Whatcom County. Half its households earn more than $66,755 a year and half less, against $81,784 across Whatcom County; 19% of its people live below the poverty line. 45% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 55% are rented. Unemployment in Bellingham was 4.0% in August 2026, and Whatcom County had 0.3% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Bellingham is a city on the Washington coast, home to a young population, with a median age well below what is common across the country. Fewer households own their homes than rent, and incomes run below the county's overall, while homes and rents here are priced high for the area. Winters are cool and wet, with only a little snow, and summers stay mild.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by restaurants, hotels and entertainment, and professional and business services. St. Joseph Medical Center, Western Washington University and the Bellingham School District are among the largest workplaces in town. Commutes are short, and a noticeable group of residents work from home.
Things to do. Whatcom Falls Park is a park in or beside town, and the Whatcom Museum of History and Art is a museum in the same easy reach. Lake Whatcom is a lake a short drive away, and Larrabee State Park is a protected area a short drive away.
Report a mistake
- 41,500households
- 48%of adults have a degree
- 19%below the poverty line
- 18 mintypical commute
- 15%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Whatcom County had 93,720 jobs in 2025, 0.3% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 47° and lows near 35°; warmest in July, with highs near 75° and lows near 54°. About 3 inches of snow and 36 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Bellingham Ssw weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Bellingham
- St. Joseph Medical CenterGeneral hospital2,356FTE
- Western Washington UniversityUniversity or college2,208
- Bellingham School DistrictSchool district1,325FTE
- Whatcom Community CollegeUniversity or college497
- Costco WholesaleWholesale grocer422
- Bellingham Technical CollegeUniversity or college341
- Fred Meyer StoresWarehouse clubs and supercenters335
- Fred Meyer StoresWarehouse clubs and supercenters329
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 94 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 12,344 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- AvalanchesVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Earthquakesrelatively high in parts of BellinghamRelatively moderate
- Coastal floodingRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Bellingham’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Whatcom County and the Bellingham, WA metro.
Bellingham home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Bellingham$657,528
- Washington$587,533
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Bellingham listings, and the typical home goes pending in 28 days — the market is cooling.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Bellingham31.23%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Bellingham28
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Bellingham475
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Bellingham146
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Bellingham$649,802
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Bellingham98.88%
Zip codes with a Bellingham address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Bellingham — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Bellingham
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 98225 | Bellingham | 50,216 | $1,776 | $652,905 |
| 98226 | Bellingham | 46,782 | $2,024 | $640,182 |
| 98229 | Bellingham | 33,298 | $2,178 | $687,720 |