PSBJ: Downtown Seattle is home to 1 in 10 Seattleites as urban housing push continuues

This story was originally published by the Puget Sound Business Journal on Jan. 16, 2026.

By Rob Smith

Residential construction is increasingly driving development in downtown Seattle, as more than one in 10 residents now live in the city’s core.

More than 109,000 people now live downtown, and nearly 8,500 residential units were under construction citywide at the end of 2025. Of those units, 3,325 — about 40% — are downtown. Downtown residents skew younger, are more diverse and more likely to be men.

The Downtown Seattle Association’s 2025 year-end Development Guide notes that Seattle, in general, is still among the fastest-growing big cities in the U.S., with a 2.2% population increase last year.

“The past 15 years of downtown commercial and residential development have fueled Seattle’s growth, vibrancy and tax base,” DSA President and CEO Jon Scholes said in the report. “More recently, downtown Seattle has benefited from significant housing production that has produced hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax revenues, created more opportunities for people to ditch their cars and live near transit and generated thousands more customers for small businesses.”

Ten buildings were completed in downtown last year, consisting of residential projects, a hotel and affordable housing. Twelve projects are currently under construction that will add residential units, 247 hotel rooms and 1 million square feet of commercial space.

Despite permit applications well below the boom period between 2013 and 2019, the city still ranks second among peer cities in downtown projects, along with Chicago, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. Denver, with 15 projects, ranked No. 1.

“For Seattle, the reduced permit activity signals a slower pipeline for the next two to five years,” the report notes, adding that the commercial sector slowdown is a national phenomenon because of high interest rates, increased construction costs and the remote work trend. “However, the city’s existing large base of under-construction residential projects mitigates near-term concerns.”

The DSA takes an expanded view of downtown, and its analysis covers a dozen neighborhoods: Uptown, South Lake Union, West Capitol Hill, Belltown, Denny Triangle, West Edge, the retail core, First Hill, the Waterfront, Pioneer Square, the Chinatown International District and Sodo.