New Apartments Opening in Seattle

Eighteen apartment buildings finished in Seattle in the first half of 2026. Together they hold 1,089 homes. The ones with a story count on the record run from three to eight stories, and they are spread from Northgate down to West Seattle rather than clustered in one part of the city.

This post lists those buildings by the month they opened, then covers the larger buildings under construction now, which is where the next openings come from. Every address and every home count below comes from a permit record that BuildVue tracks.

How we decide a building has opened

A project can carry a construction label in the permit system long after the work is done, and it can carry one long before anyone moves in. The permit dates are what we go by. A building counts as open once its record shows a certificate of occupancy date or a final inspection date, because those are the days the city signed off and people could move in. A building appears here in the month the city closed out its permit.

Only development projects appear on this list. Single family houses and remodels are not counted.

Apartment buildings that opened this year

The neighborhood in each row comes from that project's own page, which is sometimes more precise than the wider area a building gets grouped into.

Our monthly records cover January, February, March, May, and June. There is no April record, so any April opening is missing from this table.

Our January record puts that month's total at 351 homes, one more than the three January buildings above add up to. The table uses 350, the figure we can attach to named buildings.

The largest building of the year so far is 14343 15th Ave NE in Northgate, an eight story building with 243 homes that opened in January. Behind it, 1314 E Union St opened in June with 139 homes on First Hill, and 12059 Lake City Way NE opened the same month with 120 homes on the Lake City Way corridor.

Where the new homes landed

Queen Anne had the most openings with four buildings, though three of them are small and the four together come to 94 homes. Fremont had three openings totaling 118 homes, almost all of that in the 95 home building at 4905 Aurora Ave N. The International District had two openings worth 123 homes.

The home counts rank differently. One Northgate building delivered 243 homes, more than any neighborhood managed across multiple sites. First Hill and Lake City each got over 100 homes from a single building. Across the whole list, a few large buildings carry most of the housing while the smaller four story infill projects add five to thirty homes at a time.

None of these buildings started this year. A mid rise apartment building takes about two to three years from the start of construction to leasing, so the ones that opened in June pulled their construction permits well before 2026.

What opens next

Our ranking of the largest active construction projects reports that about 130 Seattle projects have an issued building permit and are actively under construction. That count and the buildings below are current as of July 29, 2026, and both move as new permits are issued. Permit records do not carry an opening date, so we cannot tell you the month any of them will finish. The next round of openings comes from this group.

These are the residential buildings on that ranking.

The biggest is 3020 NE 45th St near University Village, a Quarterra project with 734 homes. The tallest is 2405 7th Ave, a 44 story apartment high rise downtown with 442 homes from Holland Development. 800 Seneca St is a 33 story addition to a retirement community, and it received its west tower construction permit in December 2025.

Two Fremont buildings started this year. 4401 Fremont Ave N pulled its permit in May 2026 for 145 homes, and 508 N 36th St pulled its permit in June 2026 for 169 homes. They are the newest starts in the neighborhood. For more on that corridor, see what is being built in Fremont.

Following a building you are waiting on

Open the project page for any building above and you get its permit history, including the date the city issued the construction permit and the date it closed the permit out. When a certificate of occupancy or final inspection date lands, the project page shows it. You can also browse by area from the Seattle project index or browse the whole city on the map, which filters projects by design review, land use, construction, and complete.

Frequently asked questions

What new apartment buildings just opened in Seattle?

The three most recent openings on the record are 1314 E Union St on First Hill with 139 homes, 12059 Lake City Way NE in Lake City with 120 homes, and 2009 S Norman St in the International District with nine homes. All three closed out their permits in June 2026.

How many new apartments have opened in Seattle this year?

Eighteen buildings holding 1,089 homes finished between January and June 2026. January was the biggest month at 350 homes across three buildings, June came next at 268 homes across three buildings, and March was the quietest at 102 homes across four.

Which Seattle neighborhoods are getting the most new apartments?

By homes delivered this year, Northgate leads on the strength of one 243 home building, followed by First Hill at 139 and Lake City at 120. By number of buildings, Queen Anne and Fremont lead with four and three openings, though most of those are small infill projects. The largest buildings under construction sit in Ravenna, downtown, the University District, South Lake Union, Roosevelt, Fremont, and First Hill.

When will the big towers downtown open?

The permit record does not include an opening date, and we will not guess one. A tower shows as open on BuildVue the day a certificate of occupancy or final inspection date appears in its permit record. Until then the project page shows the construction permit issue date, which is the closest thing to a real start date and the best way to judge how far along a building is.