A new report from the Household Pulse Survey found that nearly 10 percent of adult residents of the greater Seattle area have “felt pressure” to leave the embattled city in the last six months as it grapples with soaring cost of living and skyrocketing crime rates.
Nearly half of the more than 600,000 respondents cited “rent increase” as their number one reason for potentially leaving Seattle, followed immediately by over a quarter of a million people who mentioned “unsafe neighborhoods.”
The figure roughly translates to nearly 200,000 residents, making Seattle a national leader in resident dissatisfaction, ahead of Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and New York City. A prior survey conducted by the same research firm a week earlier found an identical result: Seattle bested 15 other metropolitan areas across the country where people felt pressured to leave for their own safety.
