Washington continues to rack up poor rankings as one of the most unaffordable states in the country. A recent report shows the Evergreen State as the fifth most expensive state in the United States. As legislative sessions come to an end across the nation, this report is a reminder that legislation passed in every state capitol has a tangible effect on everyday residents’ lives.
The Washington Roundtable and Kinetic West released an economic analysis, Prices We Pay, which takes an in-depth look at Washington’s overall affordability. The report examines the cost of living, personal consumption expenditures, and recent economic trends that should worry Washington’s citizens. Prices We Pay finds and determines its figures from the U.S Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S Department of Labor, and the Cost-of-Living calculator from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Since 2013, price parity has shot up in Washington, while other states like Idaho have actually gone down. Some defenders of the state’s policy decisions claim that rising costs are due to inflation and nationwide trends, but multiple states have the same goods costing less than they did in 2013 in the same time period.
A majority of the high item costs listed in Washington’s table can be attributed to the highest statewide minimum wage in the country at $17.13 an hour. In the example of food, businesses with razor-thin profit margins can’t absorb the ever-increasing costs, which drives up the price of food for the residents who are consuming it.
One of the biggest problems facing Washington is its outrageously high housing costs. Costly mortgages and rental rates can be attributed to government regulations imposed at the state level. The process of building new homes proves to be lengthy and expensive for builders. Washington’s State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) requires projects to have a tedious environmental review that subjects them to public appeals and lawsuits, and delays breaking ground for years.
Frustrating zoning laws have also prohibited natural urban growth from taking place outside city boundaries, which limits the number of lots that are available to develop. This, coupled with the highest minimum wage in the U.S mentioned before, creates a housing market that is unaffordable for most buyers and tenants.
It shouldn’t be surprising that Washington is ranked so poorly. Citizens have been voting with their feet by migrating to more affordable states. There has been a mass migration out of Washington State largely due to these economic factors. Between 2021 and 2023, Washington experienced a net loss of more than 55,000 people to states like Arizona, Idaho, and Texas, where the cost of living is much more reasonable. Since 2020, the largest county in Washington, King, has cumulatively lost 95,000, while Idaho’s biggest county, Ada, gained 39,000.
As Washington’s unconstitutional income tax was being considered in the legislature, the Association of Washington Businesses (AWB) found through its survey that 44% of business owners were looking to move their primary residency out of the state. Unfortunately, since then, the income tax was signed into law by Governor Ferguson, and time will tell if AWB’s survey results prove true.
Policy debates can be so divisive, and it’s hard to figure out which voices are telling the truth. But facts don’t lie. The statistics found in Prices We Pay paint a bleak vision of Washington’s reality. It is forcing citizens to seek refuge in other states by enacting regulations and taxes that increase the cost of living and make everyday life more and more expensive.
A survey of some of its eastern neighbors, like Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, shows that it isn’t a regional issue. While Washington is yet again reminded of its policy failures through a struggling economy, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana’s economic outcomes show that it doesn’t have to be that way.