Written & reviewed by Stephen A. Sobin, President of Select Commercial Funding LLC
Washington
Washington Apartment Loans
Select Commercial arranges Washington apartment loans from $1,500,000, up to 80% LTV, with rates as low as 5.80%. We compare Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, bank and bridge programs to fit your property. On larger balances, see multifamily loans. See current rates on every loan type we offer.
Get a Free QuoteFinancing Options in Washington
Washington apartment, multifamily and commercial properties each have dedicated financing. Pick the page that matches your property:
Financing more of the state? See Washington commercial mortgages.
Financing in another state? Explore our apartment loans, multifamily loans and commercial mortgages nationwide.
Washington Apartment Loan Rates
Rates updated as of September 3, 2026
| Loan Type | Rate* | Max LTV |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Year Fixed | 6.20% | Up to 80% |
| 7 Year Fixed | 6.28% | Up to 80% |
| 10 Year Fixed | 6.33% | Up to 80% |
| Loan Type | Rate* | Max LTV |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Year Fixed | 5.80% | Up to 75% |
| 7 Year Fixed | 5.88% | Up to 75% |
| 10 Year Fixed | 5.93% | Up to 75% |
- Streamlined underwriting for institutional multifamily
- Cash-out refinances are acceptable
- Interest-only and non-recourse options
- Minimum 1.25x debt-service-coverage ratio
Rates last updated September 3, 2026. Rates and maximum LTV shown represent our best-case pricing scenarios. Actual rates, LTV, and loan terms are subject to underwriting approval and may vary.
Compare Washington Apartment Loan Programs
As a broker we compare every program for your best-fit Washington apartment financing:
| Program | Typical rate* | Max leverage | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fannie Mae Small Loan | 6.20% | Up to 80% | Non-recourse, fixed to 30 yrs |
| Freddie Mac SBL | 6.15% | Up to 80% | $2M to $10M small balance |
| FHA / HUD | 6.30% | Up to 85% | Highest leverage, longest term |
| Bank / portfolio | 6.25% | Up to 75% | Flexible, value-add |
| Bridge | 9.00% | Up to 80% LTC | Reposition, lease-up |
Most apartment lenders look for a debt-service-coverage ratio (DSCR) of at least 1.25x.
2026 Washington Apartment Loan Market
Two things changed the arithmetic on a Washington apartment loan, and neither of them is the interest rate. The state adopted a statutory cap on residential rent increases in 2025, which puts a ceiling on how fast a lender will let you grow net operating income. And the construction pipeline has fallen off a cliff, which is doing the opposite.
Supply has collapsed. Seattle metro deliveries ran 3,813 units through the first half of 2026, down about 53% from the same period a year earlier, with second-quarter completions of 2,039. Demand cooled too: net absorption of 6,085 units year to date was down roughly 37%. Vacancy still improved, to 6.7% on an all-product basis in the second quarter from 7.0% a year earlier, because so little new product arrived to compete.
Rents are flat and values have reset. Seattle metro asking rent ran about $2,048 a month, up under 1% over the year. Statewide, stabilized apartment vacancy was 5.5% in the second quarter of 2026 with average rent near $1,904, up about 1.1%. On the investment side, average pricing of roughly $276,610 a unit was down close to 15% year over year at a 5.7% cap rate, with Puget Sound deals in the first quarter trading nearer $239,000 a unit. For a buyer that reset is the opportunity; for an owner refinancing, it is the reason to look closely at what value the appraiser lands on.
Two different vacancy numbers, both correct. The 5.5% statewide figure counts only stabilized buildings of twenty units and up that are at least two years old. The 6.7% Seattle figure counts everything, lease-up included. Neither is wrong and they are not comparable. Ask which basis any quoted Washington vacancy figure uses before you rely on it.
Across Washington we arrange apartment building loans from $1,500,000 through agency, bank, FHA and bridge programs. Rate and leverage follow the rent roll and the trailing twelve months of operating income, not your personal income.
Washington Markets We Finance
The Puget Sound corridor holds most of Washington’s apartment stock, but it is not one market, and the eastern half of the state runs on completely separate economics. A Washington apartment mortgage is structured to the county, not to the state line.
Seattle and King County
The deepest apartment market in the Pacific Northwest and the one where the supply reversal is sharpest. Deliveries down about 53% in the first half of 2026, vacancy improving to 6.7% on an all-product basis, asking rents near $2,048 and roughly flat, and pricing off about 15% year over year at a 5.7% cap rate. Seattle submarket cap rates ran slightly tighter, near 5.5%. Agency, bank and life company money all compete here, and Seattle apartment loan rates for a stabilized building with a clean rent roll are as sharp as anywhere in the region.
Seattle apartment loans · Seattle commercial · Bellevue
Southwest Washington and the Portland side
Vancouver and Clark County are functionally part of the Portland metro economy while sitting under Washington law, which is a combination worth understanding before you buy. Borrowers get Washington’s absence of a state income tax alongside Oregon’s employment base across the river. The rent cap applies here the same as everywhere else in the state, so confirm coverage before projecting income on a Vancouver apartment building.
Vancouver apartment loans · Vancouver commercial
Tacoma, Everett and the wider Puget Sound
Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap counties trade at a materially lower basis than King County on stock that is generally older, and they have historically run slightly looser on vacancy. Military employment around Joint Base Lewis-McChord and aerospace work in Snohomish give both counties demand bases that do not move with the Seattle technology cycle. Regional banks and credit unions compete hard for apartment building loans in these counties because they know the submarkets directly.
Spokane and eastern Washington
A different market entirely: a much lower cost per unit, higher going-in yields, and very little new construction competing with existing buildings. Spokane, Yakima, the Tri-Cities and Wenatchee run on healthcare, agriculture, food processing and government employment rather than on technology. The statewide rent cap still applies, but the same borrower frequently clears more leverage on an eastern Washington apartment building than on a comparable asset in King County.
Where we do not yet have a dedicated apartment page for a Washington city, the link goes to our commercial mortgage page for that market, which covers apartment and mixed-use property alongside other commercial types.
Washington’s Rent Cap and What It Does to Your Loan
Washington adopted statewide limits on residential rent increases in 2025, and it is now the first thing a lender establishes about a Washington apartment building. The structure matters more than any single year’s number.
How the cap works. Annual increases on covered units are limited to the lesser of seven percent plus the change in the consumer price index, or ten percent. Manufactured and mobile home lots are capped separately and more tightly, at five percent. No increase at all is permitted during the first twelve months of a tenancy, and notice of an increase must be given ninety days in advance rather than the sixty days the state previously required. The applicable percentage is recalculated and published each year, so confirm the figure that applies to your next increase rather than working from one you were quoted previously.
What is exempt. Buildings whose certificate of occupancy was issued within the last twelve years are exempt on a rolling basis, which is the exemption most new construction relies on. Public housing authority, nonprofit and regulated affordable properties, and LIHTC properties under an active regulatory agreement, are also outside it. There is an exemption for an owner-occupied duplex through fourplex where the owner lives in one unit, but note carefully that it does not apply where the owner is a REIT, a corporation, or an LLC with a corporate member. Most investors hold in exactly those structures, so that carve-back catches more people than the exemption helps.
What it means for proceeds. A statutory ceiling on rent growth means an underwriter will not credit a growth assumption the law does not permit. What still gets credited is the spread between in-place and market rents on units that turn, your expense control, and the accuracy of your rent roll. In practice, Washington files are sized on demonstrated in-place income more than on any forward projection, which puts a premium on clean documentation. Owners who bring a current rent roll, twelve months of operating statements and clear evidence of which exemption if any applies to the building consistently get better terms.
Because this law is recent and the annual figure moves, confirm the current cap and your building’s exemption status with your counsel or the state before you set next year’s increases.
Refinancing a Washington Apartment Building, and Why the Excise Tax Matters
Washington charges one of the higher real estate transfer costs in the country, and it changes the sell-versus-refinance calculation more than most owners realize.
The excise tax is graduated and it bites at the top. The state real estate excise tax runs on brackets: roughly 1.10% on the first portion of the price, 1.28% on the next, 2.75% above about $1.5 million, and 3.00% on everything above roughly $3.0 million. Most cities and towns add another half a percent on top. Because the brackets are marginal, a larger apartment sale blends across all of them and lands near the top of that range overall. Confirm the local add-on for the specific jurisdiction rather than assuming, because it varies.
Selling the entity does not avoid it. Washington treats the transfer of fifty percent or more of the ownership interest in an entity that holds real property, aggregated across a thirty-six month period, as a taxable sale of the underlying real estate. Structuring an apartment disposition as a membership-interest sale does not sidestep the excise tax once that threshold is crossed. Owners who assume otherwise get an unpleasant surprise at closing.
Which is why refinancing often wins. A refinance carries no excise tax at all. For an owner who wants liquidity but is content with the building, pulling cash out where the equity and coverage support it is frequently cheaper than selling and redeploying, by a wide enough margin to outweigh a difference in rate.
The mechanics of the file. Start with the current rent roll and the trailing twelve months, because proceeds are sized on in-place income and, under the rent cap, forward projections carry less weight than they would elsewhere. Confirm the maturity date on your existing note and whether prepayment is yield maintenance, a step-down or open. Start six to nine months ahead of a balloon so there is room to shop more than one lender rather than take an extension. And be realistic about valuation: with metro pricing off roughly 15% year over year, the appraisal is worth discussing before you order it.
Send the rent roll and the trailing twelve and we will underwrite the building the way the lender will, then come back with written options inside 48 hours at no cost. Washington apartment loans start at $1,500,000, whether it is a fifteen-unit building in Tacoma or a garden complex in Spokane.
Washington Multifamily Financing
Apartment loan and multifamily loan describe the same thing: debt secured by a building with five or more residential units. We arrange it across Washington, from a small Spokane walk-up to an institutional Puget Sound portfolio, and the underwriting is indifferent to which word you use.
Loan size decides the bidder list. Smaller Washington balances usually price best with regional banks, credit unions and the agency small-balance programs, where local knowledge and a clean rent roll carry the file. Larger balances open the field to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, life companies and CMBS, and multifamily loan rates there are often tighter because the loan is big enough to securitize, at the cost of a heavier package: full appraisal, property condition report, environmental review, and sizing driven by net operating income, debt service coverage and debt yield.
Washington multifamily lenders now look at two things before almost anything else: whether the building is covered by the rent cap or exempt from it, and how much new product is still leasing up in the immediate submarket. Answer both with documents and the file moves. Send the rent roll and the trailing twelve months and we will tell you which multifamily lenders are sharpest on your property, and what multifamily financing looks like at that size.
Washington Apartment Loan Types We Serve
We arrange financing across Washington for:
- Urban high-rise apartment buildings
- Suburban garden apartment complexes
- Small apartment buildings with 5+ units
- Underlying cooperative apartment loans
- Portfolios of small apartment and rental properties
- Mixed-use and other multifamily property
Apartment Loans Across Washington
We arrange apartment loans throughout Washington, not only in the Puget Sound corridor. Spokane, Yakima, the Tri-Cities, Bellingham and Olympia are financed through the same agency, bank and credit union programs, and a well-occupied building east of the Cascades often supports more leverage than its owner expects.
For larger balances see our Washington multifamily loans. For office, retail, industrial and owner-occupied property see Washington commercial mortgages, and nationwide we lend in most major U.S. cities.
Recent Apartment Loan Closings
A sample of apartment and multifamily loans we have arranged for investors nationwide.
Other Property & Loan Types We Finance in Washington
As a full-service commercial mortgage broker, we arrange Washington financing across every major property and loan type:
We consider commercial loan requests of all sizes, beginning at $1,500,000.
What Our Clients Say
“I am a veterinarian who purchased an existing practice. I was surprised to find a company that offered 100% financing at a good rate, with great terms and rates for medical office financing.”
Carol K. · Chicago, IL“I spoke to several commercial lenders before finding Select Commercial. They got me a lower rate and their service was exceptional. If you need a multifamily loan, you need to talk to Stephen.”
Nathan B. · Philadelphia, PA“Select Commercial was very helpful with my multifamily mortgage. Stephen went over several options and we came up with the best lender to meet my needs. I got the funds and also lowered my payments.”
Gary M. · Portland, OR“Select Commercial offered 100% financing for my medical practice when my bank would have required 20% down. They delivered something my bank could not, and handled everything professionally.”
John C. · Boston, MAGet Your Washington Apartment Loan Quote
No cost, no obligation. Written answers within 48 hours on Washington apartment loans from $1,500,000.
- No application or processing fees
- Written answers within 48 hours
- For 5+ unit and commercial properties, $1.5M and up
Washington City Spotlights: 2026 Apartment Market Notes
Beyond the major metros, we finance apartment buildings across Washington. Current market notes for cities where borrowers ask us to lend:
- Tacoma: median 1-bedroom rent about $1,400, flat year over year (Zumper, August 2026), a steady South Sound market.
National baseline for context: the U.S. median rent was $1,388 in July 2026, down 1.1% year over year, with rental vacancy near 7.2% (national rent report, July 2026). Each city above links to our local commercial mortgage page, and we finance 5+ unit apartment properties in every Washington market from $1,500,000.