How expensive is it to live in Spokane?

Spokane is not cheap, but it is one of the more affordable metro areas left on the West Coast. The median asking price was $449,000 as of June 2026, at $217 per square foot, with 1,884 active listings on the market. Utilities, groceries, and gas run close to ordinary, and Washington has no personal income tax. For most households, the answer to “is Spokane expensive” comes down almost entirely to what you pay for the house.

Housing: the number that drives everything

As of June 2026, the metro looks like this: Spokane at a $449,000 median asking price and $217 per square foot, Spokane Valley at $465,000 and $219, Cheney at $470,000 and $233, and Airway Heights at $394,900 and $241. Demand is steady but not frantic — about 30% of Spokane’s active listings were under contract that month.

Context matters. Those per-square-foot figures are a fraction of what comparable homes cost in Seattle or coastal California — we cover that math in detail in our Spokane vs. California cost comparison. And they’re meaningfully below the Idaho side of the line: Coeur d’Alene’s median was $749,900 the same month. If you’re weighing both sides of the border, the Idaho-or-Washington answer isn’t as obvious as the sticker prices suggest.

Within Spokane itself, price varies block by block. Neighborhoods like Hillyard and Bemiss sit below the citywide median; the South Hill, Five Mile, and newer construction in Mead and Colbert sit above it. The spread is wide enough that your target neighborhood matters as much as the headline number.

Utilities, taxes, and the rest of the monthly bill

Spokane’s day-to-day costs don’t carry a coastal premium. Electricity is comparatively inexpensive thanks to regional hydropower, though winter heating is a real line item — this is a four-season climate with genuine cold from roughly November through March. Water, garbage, and internet run near national norms.

On taxes, the structure works in a wage earner’s favor: Washington has no personal income tax. The trade-off is a higher sales tax at the register and a graduated real estate excise tax that sellers pay at closing. Property tax is assessed locally — the Spokane County Assessor publishes current levy information, and the Washington Department of Revenue covers the rest. Rates change, so run your own numbers with a CPA before you commit; this is general information, not tax advice.

What a budget actually looks like here

A practical way to frame it: take the $449,000 median (June 2026), apply current mortgage rates and your down payment, and add property taxes and insurance. For most buyers, that monthly payment is the cost-of-living question — everything else is rounding by comparison. Commute costs are modest too; most drives within the metro run 25 minutes or less, so fuel and time don’t compound the way they do in larger cities.

If you want the breakdown beyond the median — by neighborhood, price band, or property type — our market reports track live MLS data on both sides of the state line each month.

If you’re budgeting a move and want real numbers for a specific neighborhood, reach out and we’ll pull current data for you.