Sehome Eviction Risk: High , Bellingham

The score leans hardest on tenant-organizing strength at 9.4/10. 96% of occupied units are rented, so comparables are plentiful and vacancy risk is low, but a mispriced renewal loses the tenant to a building nearby. Set annual rent against average income of $31,761 and the ratio lands at 44%, above the conventional 30% ceiling.

Severe burden reaches 25%. Those are renters paying half their income or more, and that is where non-payment filings originate. On the softer side, court filing pressure reads 1.1/10. The poverty rate is 33%. Judgments in high-poverty tracts are collectible far less often than filing counts suggest.

On the high side, rent-regulation exposure reads 8.7/10. Cost burden runs 59% here against 49.6% across Whatcom County. At $1,174 a month, rents run 26% under what the rest of Bellingham commands.

Court records carry 24 eviction filings across 3 observed years. Filings peaked in 2018 at 1.0% of renter households.

In a typical year about 0.8% of renter households face a filing. On the national scale it lands near the 94th percentile of the 84,120 tracts scored. Social vulnerability reads 9.1/10 on the CDC index, a measure of exposure to housing and economic shocks.

Statewide the WA average is 5.9, so this tract runs 2.8 points hotter. Of its three components the housing type and transport measure is the most pressured.

These are ACS 5-year estimates; the score moves when the ACS, court-record, or statute inputs behind it move.