Renton Lot Sizes by Neighborhood: The County Record

Renton lot sizes by neighborhood are one of the few things about a home you can never change, and one of the least understood. Buyers tell us they want “a bigger yard” or “room for a backyard cottage” and then tour neighborhoods where the typical lot could not fit either. Sellers assume a large lot adds a set amount to the price. The King County Assessor records the square footage of every parcel it values, so there is no need to guess.

At The Rache Team we have guided Renton buyers and sellers for more than 26 years. For this guide we pulled the Assessor’s parcel and sales files on October 1, 2026 (sales recorded through September 18, 2026) and measured the lots under roughly 11,000 single-family homes in the six neighborhoods we cover. The ranking that came out is not the one most people expect, including us.

How We Measured Renton Lot Sizes by Neighborhood

The Assessor’s parcel file carries a lot size in square feet for every parcel. We matched it to the residential building file, kept parcels with one single-family home, and sorted them into neighborhoods using the Assessor’s own area codes, narrowed by street where an area crosses into a neighborhood we do not cover. Condos are not in these figures. Homes in townhouse-style plats that sit on their own small lot are.

Three things to keep in mind as you read:

• The number is the whole parcel. It includes slopes, stream buffers, easements and any strip of driveway that reaches the street. A 12,000 square foot lot on a hillside can have less usable yard than a flat 6,000.
• We report the median and the middle half. The median is the lot in the middle of the list. The middle half is the range that holds 50% of lots, which says more about what you will see on a tour than an average pulled up by a few acreage parcels.
• An acre is 43,560 square feet. A 10,000 square foot lot is a little under a quarter acre.

Renton Lot Sizes by Neighborhood: The Ranking

From largest typical lot to smallest, here is what the county has on record for each neighborhood.

Renton Hill: 9,100 Square Feet

The oldest hill in the city has the largest typical lot. Across 229 single-family homes on Renton Ave S, Cedar Ave S, Grant Ave S, High Ave S, Jones Ave S and Beacon Way S, the median lot is 9,100 square feet and the middle half runs from about 6,400 to 10,900. Ninety-two lots, 40% of the hill, are 10,000 square feet or more. Only 4% are under 5,000.

The streets differ. High Ave S and Jones Ave S have a median lot of about 10,100 square feet and Renton Ave S about 9,600, while Cedar Ave S and Grant Ave S sit closer to 7,400. Much of the hill was platted long before modern subdivisions, and more than 40% of the homes were built before 1940. Many of these lots are deep and sloped, so read the number alongside the topography. Our Renton Hill neighborhood guide covers the housing stock.

Earlington and the West Hill: 8,096 Square Feet

The city’s West Hill streets hold 709 single-family homes with a median lot of 8,096 square feet and a middle half from about 6,300 to 11,500. A third of the lots are 10,000 square feet or more, and 50 are a half acre or larger. The original Earlington Addition, the largest plat here with 176 homes, has a median lot of 8,520 square feet. The 65 homes in the Earlington Acre Tracts have a median of about 15,500.

Age tells the story. Homes built before 1940 sit on a median lot of about 10,100 square feet. The 30 homes built since 2010 sit on about 5,500. Newer houses here have mostly gone onto pieces of older, larger lots. See the Earlington neighborhood guide for the rest of the picture.

Talbot Hill: 8,008 Square Feet

Talbot Hill’s 1,270 single-family homes have a median lot of 8,008 square feet, with the widest spread of any neighborhood we measured: the middle half runs from about 5,800 to 11,000. That spread is two different neighborhoods sharing a name.

• Homes built from 1950 through 1969: 318 homes, median lot about 10,300 square feet.
• Homes built from 1970 through 1989: 377 homes, median lot about 8,700.
• Homes built from 1990 through 2009: 464 homes, median lot about 5,500.

The largest lots line Talbot Rd S itself, where 91 homes have a median lot of about 15,200 square feet. Talbot Hill also has 76 lots of a half acre or more and 30 of an acre or more, the most acreage parcels of any city neighborhood we cover. The Talbot Hill guide has more on the newer and older sections.

Skyway-West Hill: 7,480 Square Feet

Skyway-West Hill has 4,126 single-family homes with a median lot of 7,480 square feet. The middle half runs from about 6,200 to 9,600, and very few lots are small: just 6% are under 5,000 square feet. At the other end, 921 lots are 10,000 square feet or more, 171 are a half acre or more and 43 are an acre or more. No neighborhood we cover has more large lots by count.

The large lots are not where most buyers look first. On the slope that faces Lake Washington, the Assessor’s sub-area of 2,516 homes has a median lot of 7,200 square feet, and the big early plats there are tight: Bryn Mawr Addition has a median of 6,000 across 581 homes. On the Campbell Hill and S Langston Rd side, 1,239 homes have a median lot of about 8,500 square feet, 36% are 10,000 or more and 9% are a half acre or more. Along S 135th St the median lot under 53 homes is about 26,900 square feet. S Langston Rd, with 99 homes, has a median of 12,000.

So in Skyway the lake view and the big yard are usually on opposite sides of the ridge. Our Renton view homes guide maps the view side, and the Skyway-West Hill neighborhood guide covers daily life.

Renton Highlands: 6,312 Square Feet

The Highlands are often described as the place for generous yards, and we have said as much ourselves. The record is more mixed. Across 4,341 single-family homes the median lot is 6,312 square feet, the middle half runs from about 5,100 to 8,100, and 22% of lots are under 5,000. Only 12% reach 10,000.

As on Talbot Hill, the decade a home was built predicts its lot:

• 1940s homes: 628 homes, median lot about 6,000 square feet. The original Renton Highlands Addition, 455 homes, has a median of 5,600.
• 1950 through 1969: 1,441 homes, median lot about 7,650.
• 1990 through 2009: 1,793 homes, the largest group, median lot about 5,300.
• 2010 and later: 224 homes, median lot about 5,600.

The larger Highlands lots cluster on a handful of streets: Hoquiam Ave NE (median about 12,200 square feet across 43 homes), Nile Ave NE (about 10,900), Monroe Ave NE and Field Ave NE (about 10,500 each). At the small end, the Liberty Ridge phases have medians near 4,100 to 4,400, and a few townhouse-style streets are under 3,000. If a large yard is the goal in the Highlands, search by street and by decade built, not by neighborhood name. The Renton Highlands guide walks through the sub-areas.

North Renton: 4,738 Square Feet

North Renton is the most uniform neighborhood in the file. Its 360 single-family homes have a median lot of 4,738 square feet, and the middle half sits between about 4,100 and 5,000. Sixty-four percent of lots are under 5,000 square feet, and only 7 reach 10,000.

This is the original street grid, and two thirds of the homes were built before 1940. In the Car Works Addition, lots on Meadow Ave N, Garden Ave N and Factory Ave N have a median of 4,120 square feet. Wells Ave N comes in at 4,500, Pelly Ave N at about 4,800 and Williams Ave N at 5,250. What North Renton trades for yard is a flat, walkable grid near downtown and the lake, which our North Renton neighborhood guide covers. The Landing next door is almost entirely condos and apartments, so we did not measure it.

Renton Lot Sizes by Neighborhood vs Sale Prices

We then sorted the past 12 months of clean, arm’s-length sales (October 1, 2025 through September 18, 2026, waterfront excluded) by lot size. Three neighborhoods had enough sales to compare.

Renton Highlands: 97 Sales

• Lots under 5,000 square feet: 17 sales, median $715,000, $382 per square foot of house.
• 5,000 to 7,199: 35 sales, median $700,000, $469 per square foot.
• 7,200 to 9,999: 30 sales, median $795,000, $457 per square foot.
• 10,000 or more: 15 sales, median $793,451, $434 per square foot.

Homes on lots of 10,000 square feet or more sold for almost exactly what homes on 7,200 to 9,999 square feet sold for, and for slightly less per square foot of house. The smallest lots carried the largest and newest houses, which is why their total price held up.

Skyway-West Hill: 84 Sales

• Lots under 5,000 square feet: 7 sales, median $804,000, $381 per square foot. These are mostly newer, larger homes.
• 5,000 to 7,199: 37 sales, median $695,000, $423 per square foot.
• 7,200 to 9,999: 28 sales, median $592,500, $394 per square foot.
• 10,000 or more: 12 sales, median $640,000, $333 per square foot.

In Skyway the largest lots sold for the least per square foot of house. That is location showing through: the 6,000 to 7,500 square foot lots are where the lake views are, and the large lots sit on the other side of the hill, often under older homes.

Talbot Hill: 25 Sales

Five Talbot Hill homes on lots of 10,000 square feet or more sold at a median of $650,500, against $698,450 for the neighborhood as a whole. One was a 1,140 square foot 1943 home on a 25,590 square foot lot on S 19th St, which closed at $650,000 in August 2026. With five sales, treat this as a pattern to watch and not a rule.

Earlington, Renton Hill and North Renton had 12, 6 and 7 sales, too few to split by lot size.

Why Bigger Lots Did Not Bring Bigger Prices

Across these neighborhoods, the smallest lots sit under the newest houses and the large lots mostly sit under houses from the 1940s through the 1970s. Buyers paid for the house and the location first. Extra land did not add a predictable dollar figure in any of the three neighborhoods, and no rule of thumb per square foot of land survives this data. For sellers, that means a large lot has to be marketed for what it allows, not assumed into the price. Our guide to why Renton neighborhood price data is often wrong explains how small samples mislead.

Renton Lot Sizes by Neighborhood and What You Can Build

Lot size matters most to buyers who want to add something: a backyard cottage, a shop, or a second home on a divided lot. The rules depend on which government has the parcel.

Inside the City of Renton

Renton Municipal Code 4-2-110A sets a minimum size for newly created lots in each residential zone, with footnoted exceptions. In three of the detached-home zones the minimums are:

• R-4: 9,000 square feet.
• R-6: 7,000 square feet.
• R-8: 5,000 square feet.

Each zone also has a density limit and a minimum lot width, so area alone does not decide whether a lot can be divided. Many existing lots are smaller than today’s minimum for a new one. North Renton’s median of 4,738 square feet is under the smallest figure on that list.

Accessory dwelling units are a separate question. The same code allows two ADUs per legal lot in Renton’s residential zones, and whether one fits comes down to setbacks, slope and critical areas more than the lot total. Our guide to Renton homes with ADU potential covers those rules. Middle housing has its own standards in RMC 4-2-110F. Look up any parcel’s zone on the City of Renton’s COR Maps before you assume what applies, and confirm a specific plan with the city’s planning staff.

In Skyway-West Hill

Skyway is unincorporated King County, so none of the Renton figures above apply there. King County’s zoning code and King County Permitting govern lot division and ADUs. Skyway has the most large lots of any neighborhood we cover, which makes this the place where the difference between the two rulebooks matters most. Our guide to whether Skyway-West Hill is part of Renton explains the split.

How to Use Renton Lot Sizes by Neighborhood Before an Offer

1. Look up the parcel. The King County Assessor’s parcel lookup shows the recorded lot size. Compare it with the listing.
2. Walk the lot lines. Find out how much of the square footage is flat, how much is slope, and how much is driveway or easement.
3. Check for critical areas. Steep slopes, streams and wetlands carry buffers that limit building. COR Maps shows them inside the city.
4. Confirm the zone. The zone sets what can be added or divided, and it can change from one block to the next.
5. Compare with the street. A lot that is large for its street is easier to price than one that is large for the city.
6. Price it on sales, not on land math. Use recent nearby sales of similar houses on similar lots.

A larger lot is also valued as more land on the tax roll. Our guide to Renton property taxes by neighborhood covers the rate side.