Moving to Seattle from Austin: What to Know (2026 Guide)

Updated October 2026. By Ryan Palardy, JD, Real Estate Agent and Washington Attorney, Get Happy at Home at Compass.

Everyone moving from Austin to Seattle gets the same two warnings: it rains all the time, and everything costs more. One of those is mostly wrong. Austin gets about 36 inches of rain in a normal year. Seattle gets about 39. (Seattle just spreads it over a lot more gray days, which is a different problem. More on that below.)

The other warning is right, though not always in the way people expect.

You’d have company, too. In the most recent IRS migration data (tax filings from 2022 to 2023), about 1,040 people moved from the Austin area to King County, and about 1,620 went the other way. (Austin won that trade. We’re working on it.)

The money: what your Austin budget buys in Seattle

Sources: Austin prices from the Unlock MLS September 2026 report. Seattle detached median from our own pull of NWMLS data (1,162 sales, July 1 to September 30, 2026). King County median from the NWMLS September 2026 snapshot. Rents are average apartment asking rents from Apartments.com, October 2026. Effective property tax rates from Ownwell (updated April 2026). Rainfall from NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 climate normals.

So figure on paying roughly 74% more for a house in the city, and about double at the metro level. (The two MLSs don’t define “residential” identically, so treat the gap as a range rather than a decimal.)

The pace is different, too. Homes in the City of Austin sold for 92.5% of their original asking price on average this September. In Seattle, about 31% of the detached houses that sold this summer went for more than list price, and the median one went pending in 9 days. Austin buyers are used to negotiating. Seattle buyers on the right house are still competing. That said, Seattle buyers have more choice than they did a year ago: King County had 31% more listings in September than the year before.

Here’s the part that surprises people. The property tax rate here is lower than what you’re used to. On the median Austin home at 1.25%, the yearly bill is about $7,100. On a $993k Seattle house at 0.98%, it’s about $9,700. So the house costs about 74% more and the tax bill goes up about 36%. Rough math, and your actual bill depends on the street and the levies, but the tax bill is not where the Seattle premium lives. Your mortgage is. (If you want to check an assessment once you’re here, we wrote about King County assessment errors.)

Taxes: what’s different in Washington

If someone told you Washington and Texas are a wash on taxes because neither has an income tax, they’re mostly right. A few exceptions are worth knowing before you move.

The new tax on income over $1 million

In March 2026, Washington passed a 9.9% tax on household income above $1 million, starting with tax year 2028. Initiative 645, on the November 3, 2026 ballot, would repeal it. If your household earns under $1 million a year, it doesn’t touch you either way.

Capital gains

Washington taxes long-term capital gains at 7% above an annual deduction ($278,000 for 2025, adjusted each year for inflation), and 9.9% on gains over $1 million. Texas has nothing like it. The good news for homeowners is that real estate sales are exempt. The tax mostly hits stock, including the RSUs a lot of tech transplants are sitting on. If you have a big sale coming, talk to your CPA about timing before you establish Washington residency, not after.

Estate tax

Washington has its own estate tax. For deaths on or after July 1, 2026, the first $3 million is excluded and the rate on the rest runs from 10% to 20%. Texas has none. A paid-down Seattle house plus retirement accounts can get to $3 million faster than people expect, so update your estate plan when you move.

Sales tax

Seattle’s sales tax is 10.55%, compared with 8.25% in Austin. You’ll notice it most on cars, furniture and appliances, which is to say right after you move.

If you freelance or run a business

This one catches self-employed Texans off guard. Washington has no income tax, but it does have a business and occupation (B&O) tax, and it’s charged on gross receipts, not profit. If you’re a contractor or consultant earning $12,000 or more a year, the Department of Revenue expects you to register and file. A small business credit wipes out the tax for a lot of solo operators, but you still have to register to get it. Seattle also requires its own business license. The good news: starting in 2026, Seattle’s own B&O tax doesn’t kick in until $2 million in revenue, so most one-person businesses just file a $0 return.

Which Seattle neighborhood is like your Austin neighborhood?

One warning: Seattle neighborhoods change block to block more than Austin’s do, partly because of the hills and partly because of the age of the houses. Two houses six blocks apart in the same neighborhood can be completely different purchases. That’s why we start new clients with a learning tour before anyone writes an offer.

Seattle houses are older, and that’s where the surprise costs live

This is the section I’d read twice. Among the detached houses that sold in Seattle from July through September 2026, the median one was built in 1945. About 39% were built before 1940, and 72% before 1960 (our NWMLS pull, 1,162 sales). Much of Austin’s housing went up in the last few decades. Seattle’s close-in neighborhoods are full of Craftsmans, Tudors and bungalows with basements, crawl spaces, old pipes and old wiring. That’s a lot of the charm. It also comes with a predictable list of expensive things that are hard to see on a tour. (Our decade-by-decade guide to Seattle homes covers what each era tends to have.)

Here’s what those things usually cost, from our construction company’s billed jobs where we have them and current Seattle contractor pricing where we don’t:

None of these is a reason to skip an old house. They’re reasons to read the inspection for dollars. Get the sewer scoped on video on every house. Ask whether the house ever heated with oil. Look for anchor bolts in the crawl space. A Seattle home inspection will flag most of this, and we price the big items on the spot when we tour, because that’s the number that should move your offer.

Speaking of earthquakes: Texans usually insure against hail and hurricanes, not the ground moving. Here, earthquake coverage is something you add to your homeowners policy or buy separately, and the deductible typically runs 10% to 25% of the coverage on the house, according to the Washington Insurance Commissioner. On a $1M house, that’s $100k or more out of your pocket before the policy pays. Whether it’s worth it is a judgment call. Get the quote before you close so you can decide with real numbers.

Weather: about the same rain, a very different gray

The annual totals are close. The difference is how the rain arrives. Austin tends to get it in heavy bursts. Seattle gets a long, light drizzle from roughly October through May, then a dry summer. August in Seattle averages about an inch of rain over five days. Seattle summers are lovely. Seattle Novembers are not.

Sources: NOAA 1991 to 2020 climate normals (Camp Mabry in Austin, Sea-Tac Airport for Seattle). Daylight from sunrise-sunset.org.

So Seattle gets about 70 more rainy days a year to deliver only three more inches. And the winters are milder than people expect: January nights here average about 38 degrees, only four colder than Austin’s. Snow does happen some winters, and when it does, the hills mostly shut the city down for a day or two.

The bigger adjustment for most people is light. Around the winter solstice Seattle gets about eight and a half hours of daylight, versus about ten and a quarter in Austin. A good lamp and a winter trip somewhere sunny do a lot of work here.

And then there’s heat. You won’t miss 100-degree Augusts, but Seattle does get hot spells, and a lot of houses aren’t built for them. About 53% of Seattle-area homes had air conditioning in 2021, per the Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey. Austin was above 99% in the same survey’s 2015 numbers. If you sleep hot, budget for a heat pump (see the table above), and get the quote in spring, before every HVAC company in town is booked.

Getting around: you might be able to drop a car

This one goes in Seattle’s favor. Link light rail now runs 63 miles, and since March 28, 2026 the 2 Line crosses Lake Washington, connecting Seattle with Mercer Island, Bellevue and Redmond. If you’ll work at Microsoft and want to live in the city, that’s a real option now. Extensions to West Seattle and Ballard are planned for the 2030s (we have opinions about Ballard’s). Plenty of our Capitol Hill clients use their cars less than once a week.

Driving is its own adventure. Hills, bridges and the I-5 and 405 corridors mean your commute depends more on which side of the water you’re on than how many miles it is. Pick the neighborhood around the commute, not the other way around.

If you’ll drive across the lake, know the bridges. I-90 is free. SR 520 is tolled in both directions: as of October 2026, up to $4.90 at weekday rush hour with a Good To Go pass and $6.90 if they mail you the bill. A daily 520 commute adds up to real money, so it’s worth factoring into which side of the lake you buy on.

One more thing nobody mentions: the time zone. A 9 a.m. meeting in New York is 7 a.m. in Austin and 6 a.m. here. If you work with the East Coast, your mornings start earlier.

Jobs and schools

If you’re transferring with Amazon, Microsoft or another big employer, you already know the address. If you’re moving without a job lined up, be careful. The Seattle tech market tilts toward a few very large employers, and it’s been a rough few years for them. By our count, King and Snohomish counties added about 42,000 tech jobs from late 2019 to August 2022, then lost about 29,000 of them by early 2025. (We dug into what that’s doing to Eastside home prices in this post.) My advice: get the offer letter before you sign a purchase agreement.

For schools, Seattle Public Schools assigns by address, and the Eastside cities have their own districts (Bellevue, Lake Washington for Kirkland and Redmond, Mercer Island, Issaquah and Northshore). Boundaries don’t follow neighborhood names, so check the district’s boundary lookup for the exact address before you offer. Not after.

A lot of families moving here rule out Seattle Public Schools on reputation alone and head straight for the Eastside. I think that’s often a mistake, and we wrote about why Seattle’s schools are better than their reputation. If you’re buying for the long haul, our post on Seattle’s sleeper schools covers the ones we think will improve the most.

Your first 30 days in Washington

Driver’s license. State law gives you 30 days after you move to get a Washington driver’s license, and you need it before you can register your car here.

Car registration. New residents also have 30 days to register their vehicles in Washington. Keeping Texas plates longer can get expensive if you’re cited.

Register to vote. Washington votes entirely by mail, so register at your new address and the ballot comes to you.

Good To Go pass. If you’ll cross SR 520 or use the express toll lanes on 405, set up a Good To Go account before your first trip. Pay-by-mail costs $2 more per crossing on 520.

No homestead filing. There’s no Texas-style homestead exemption to file. Washington’s property tax exemptions are for seniors and people with disabilities who meet income limits.

Fall maintenance. This is new for most Texans. Gutters and roof moss are an annual thing here. Gutter cleaning runs about $200 to $500 and roof moss removal about $500 to $800 from Seattle companies.

Should you sell in Austin first? Buy or rent here?

The two markets are moving at different speeds, and that shapes the plan. The City of Austin had 5.4 months of inventory in September and sales were down almost 13% from a year earlier, so your Austin sale may take longer than your Seattle purchase. Offers contingent on selling another house are hard to win on Seattle houses that are still drawing multiple offers. Most people in your spot either sell first and rent here for a bit, or line up a bridge loan with a lender who does them. Condos are the exception: King County had 7 months of condo inventory in September, so a condo buyer has more room to negotiate. (Our guide to the main loan types is a decent primer before you call a lender.)

Buy or rent? If you know where you’ll work and you’ve spent real time in a couple of neighborhoods, I think buying soon makes sense, because buyers have more room now than they did in 2025. If you don’t know the neighborhoods yet, rent for six months to a year. Seattle neighborhoods are small and different from each other, and picking the wrong one is an expensive lesson. If you’re buying your first place here, our list of first-time buyer mistakes applies to transplants too.

FAQ: moving from Austin to Seattle

Disclaimer: This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Tax rules, ballot measures and market numbers change, and costs vary by house. Talk with your own CPA, attorney, inspector and contractor before making decisions.