Washington Rent Increase Calculator 2025 Statewide Cap

Washington spent decades without any statewide limit on rent increases, then rewrote the rulebook in a single legislative session. RCW 59.18.700 (HB 1217, 2025) took effect May 7, 2025 and created the state's first statewide rent cap: after the first 12 months of a tenancy, an increase is limited to the lesser of 7% plus the Seattle-area CPI or a hard 10% ceiling. The Department of Commerce publishes the operative number every June. 10.000% for the law's first year, and 9.683% for the period beginning June 1, 2026.

The bottom line for both sides of the lease: most Washington rent increases are now capped at 9.683%, and no increase at all is allowed during a tenant's first 12 months. Manufactured- and mobile-home lot rents are held to a lower 5% cap, while new construction, small owner-occupied buildings, and regulated affordable housing are exempt. The calculator on this page applies the current cap to your actual rent.

What RCW 59.18.700 actually caps

The statute uses a lesser-of formula: once a tenant has been in place for 12 months, annual rent increases are limited to 7% plus the Seattle-area CPI, but never more than 10%. In the law's first year the formula hit the ceiling, so the operative cap was a flat 10.000%. For the period beginning June 1, 2026, the CPI component came in at 2.683%, producing a working cap of 9.683%, the first time the formula, rather than the ceiling, sets the number.

Because the cap is statewide, Washington has no city-by-city rent-control map to decode. There are no separate Seattle or Tacoma ordinances layered on top; one formula governs every non-exempt rental in the state. Manufactured- and mobile-home lot rents follow their own, stricter track: a flat 5% cap.

How the June number is set

Each June, the Washington Department of Commerce publishes the maximum allowable increase for the coming year. The inflation input is the Seattle-area CPI-U, June 12-month change, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, meaning Seattle-metro price trends set the cap for the entire state, from Vancouver to Spokane.

• Year one (effective May 7, 2025): formula exceeded the ceiling, so the cap was 10.000%.
• Period beginning June 1, 2026: 7% + 2.683% CPI = 9.683%.

Practically, this gives landlords a predictable annual rhythm: the number to plan around changes once a year, in June, and the Commerce publication, not a landlord's own inflation math, is the authoritative figure.

Which Washington rentals are exempt

HB 1217 carves out several categories, and the exemptions decide more disputes than the formula does:

• New construction, exempt for the first 12 years after the building's first certificate of occupancy, a runway meant to keep the cap from chilling development.
• Small owner-occupied buildings. 4 or fewer units where the owner lives on-site.
• Nonprofit and LIHTC (Section 42) affordable housing operating under a recorded regulatory agreement, which already restricts rents by contract.
• Manufactured- and mobile-home lots, not exempt, but governed by the lower 5% cap instead of the 7%-plus-CPI formula.

A landlord claiming an exemption should be prepared to document it, the certificate-of-occupancy date or the recorded regulatory agreement is what proves the unit sits outside the cap.

The first-year freeze and just cause

Two features make Washington's regime stricter than the headline percentage suggests. First, no rent increase of any amount is permitted during the first 12 months of a tenancy, not a capped increase, none. A landlord's pricing decision at move-in is locked for a full year. Second, Washington requires just cause to end most tenancies, which closes the classic workaround of non-renewing a tenant simply to reset the rent with a new lease.

Against an average rent of about $1,495 statewide and an Eviction Risk Map tenant-protection score of 6.7 out of 10, Washington now sits firmly in the protective tier of states, a striking shift for a jurisdiction that had no cap at all before May 2025.

Key Rules Summary

Units Exempt from the Cap

Even where a cap applies, the following unit types are typically not covered:

• New construction, for the first 12 years after the building's first certificate of occupancy
• Owner-occupied buildings of 4 or fewer units where the owner lives on-site
• Nonprofit and LIHTC (Section 42) affordable housing under a recorded regulatory agreement
• Manufactured- and mobile-home lots (subject to a lower 5% cap rather than the 7%-plus-CPI cap)

If your unit is exempt, the landlord may raise rent to any market-rate amount with proper notice.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much can my landlord raise my rent in Washington in 2025-2026?

For most tenancies, the ceiling is the lesser of 7% plus the Seattle-area CPI or 10%. That worked out to 10.000% for the law's first year and 9.683% for the cap period beginning June 1, 2026. Two big exceptions cut the other way: no increase of any size is allowed during the first 12 months of your tenancy, and manufactured- or mobile-home lot rent is capped lower, at 5%.

Is rent control legal in Washington?

Yes, and it now comes from Olympia, not city hall. HB 1217, codified at RCW 59.18.700, took effect May 7, 2025 as Washington's first statewide rent cap. Unlike states where you have to check a patchwork of local ordinances, Washington has no separate city rent-control laws to track: one statewide formula applies whether the rental is in Seattle, Spokane, or a small town, unless the unit falls under one of the statute's exemptions.

What notice does a Washington landlord have to give before raising rent?

RCW 59.18.700 controls how much rent can rise; Washington's Residential Landlord-Tenant Act separately requires that any increase be delivered in advance, in writing, a verbal announcement or a surprise line on next month's invoice is not enforceable. And timing matters as much as paperwork: because no increase is permitted during the first 12 months of a tenancy, an increase cannot take effect until that first year is complete, no matter when notice is served.

Can my landlord raise rent in the middle of my lease?

Not unilaterally. A fixed-term lease locks the rent for its duration unless the lease itself contains an increase provision, and even then, the statewide cap and the first-12-months freeze still apply. In practice, most Washington tenants see increases at renewal or during month-to-month tenancies, and after the first year those increases are limited to the lesser of 7% plus Seattle CPI or 10% (currently 9.683%) unless the unit is exempt.

Researched and written by the Eviction Risk Map research team using RCW 59.18.700 (HB 1217, 2025), the maximum annual rent-increase percentage published by the Washington State Department of Commerce each June, and the Seattle-area CPI-U 12-month change reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Last reviewed July 2026. This page is general information for Washington landlords and tenants, not legal advice; consult a Washington landlord-tenant attorney about your specific situation.

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Rent Increase Laws in Other States

Statutory data sourced from published Washington law (RCW 59.18.700 (HB 1217, 2025)), BLS Consumer Price Index (2024-2025), and state agency publications. Census ACS 2023 5-Year Estimates for average rent. Last updated August 28, 2026. This page is informational only and does not constitute legal advice.