Buying a Seattle Home on RSU and Bonus Income: A Mortgage Guide to Documenting Tech Compensation

An RSU income mortgage Seattle tech buyers rely on counts restricted stock and bonus pay toward qualifying, but only with a track record. Lenders generally need a two-year history of RSU receipt plus a three-year continuance shown on your vesting schedule. Stock that is unvested at application does not count. Every figure here is illustrative, subject to qualification.

Most of the buyers I meet near South Lake Union have a pay structure that looks nothing like a traditional paycheck. The base salary is only part of the story. The rest arrives as restricted stock units that vest on a schedule and an annual bonus that lands in the spring. On paper you may earn a great deal, but how much of that an underwriter can actually use to qualify you depends entirely on documentation. I have walked many Amazon, Fred Hutch, and Allen Institute employees through this from my Eastlake office, about a ten-minute walk from the South Lake Union employment core, and the rules are knowable once you see them.

A note up front: this guide covers how lenders qualify equity and bonus income. When and how to sell vested shares, and the tax treatment of your grants, are conversations for your financial adviser and CPA, not your loan officer.

How Does an RSU Income Mortgage in Seattle Actually Work?

An RSU income mortgage in Seattle is not a special loan product. It is a conventional or jumbo mortgage where part of your qualifying income comes from restricted stock units rather than from base salary alone. A restricted stock unit, or RSU, is a grant of company shares that becomes yours, or vests, on a set schedule, often over four years. Once shares vest, they show up as income on your pay stub and your W-2.

The underwriter's job is to decide how much of that stock income is stable and likely to continue. Base salary is easy, because it is fixed and ongoing. RSU income is treated more carefully, because share counts and stock prices both move. To use it, a lender wants evidence that you have received RSU income for a meaningful stretch and that more is scheduled to come.

This matters in Seattle more than almost anywhere, because the central-city buyer pool leans heavily on equity pay. The median condo in South Lake Union runs in the range of 725,000 to 825,000 dollars, and base salary alone often will not carry that payment. The RSU and bonus layer is frequently what makes the file work, which is exactly why documenting it correctly is the whole game.

The Two-Year History and Three-Year Continuance Rule for RSU Income

The single most important rule for RSU income is the history-and-continuance test. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac generally want to see two things before they let restricted stock count toward your qualifying income.

• A two-year history of receipt. You need to show that RSU income has actually hit your pay over roughly the last two years, usually through pay stubs, W-2s, and broker-account statements. A single strong vesting event is not enough on its own.
• A three-year continuance. You also need evidence that the income is likely to keep coming, typically a vesting schedule or grant letters from your employer showing shares that will vest over the next three years.

When both are present, the lender usually averages your documented RSU income over the look-back period to set a monthly figure. Unvested shares that fall outside the documented schedule, or grants that have not yet been awarded, generally cannot be counted, because they are not yet assured. Some portfolio lenders take a more flexible view of the history requirement, which can help a recent hire, though the trade-off is usually different pricing and terms.

For the rules as the agencies write them, the Fannie Mae Selling Guide is the authoritative source on how variable income like RSUs and bonuses is treated. You can review the agency standards through Fannie Mae's single-family originating and underwriting resources. Your own treatment is confirmed at application, subject to qualification.

What Documents an RSU Income Mortgage Seattle Lender Will Ask For

Knowing the document list before you apply removes most of the friction from an RSU income mortgage Seattle file. Gathering these early keeps the process moving and lets me model your qualifying income before you write an offer.

• Recent pay stubs showing base salary and any RSU or bonus income year to date.
• Two years of W-2s, which capture vested stock income as it was reported.
• Your vesting schedule or grant letters, which document the three-year continuance an underwriter needs.
• Broker-account statements showing shares received and any sales history, which corroborate the income story.
• An employment offer or verification letter, especially helpful when bonus structure or grant terms need confirming.

Tech and biotech buyers are usually organized, and most have these within reach through an equity portal like the one their broker provides. The piece people forget is the vesting schedule, because it is the document that proves the income continues. Without it, an underwriter may have a strong two-year history and still be unable to use the income, since the continuance leg of the test is missing.

How Bonus Income Is Averaged for a Seattle Mortgage

Bonus income follows a similar logic to RSUs, with its own wrinkles. For a Seattle mortgage, a lender generally averages your bonus over a two-year history and looks for a pattern that suggests it will continue. A bonus that has paid consistently for two years reads as reliable. A first-year bonus, or one that swings widely from year to year, gets a more cautious look.

A few points shape how bonus income is used:

• Two-year averaging is the default. The lender adds your last two years of bonus income and divides by 24 to set a monthly figure, smoothing out a strong or weak single year.
• Declining bonuses raise questions. If the most recent bonus is meaningfully lower than the prior year, an underwriter may use the lower number or ask for an explanation.
• Documentation ties it together. Pay stubs, W-2s, and an employer letter confirming the bonus structure all support the case.

The practical effect is that your qualifying income reflects what you have reliably earned, not the best single year you can point to. That is usually fair, and it is occasionally frustrating for a buyer whose comp is rising fast. Planning around it early is the difference between a smooth approval and a surprise at underwriting.

Why Total Comp Is Not Your Qualifying Income in Seattle

This is the conversation I have most often with a Seattle tech buyer, and it is worth being blunt about. The total compensation number in your offer letter and the income an underwriter can use are almost never the same. Total comp usually blends base salary, the grant-date value of stock that has not vested yet, a target bonus, and sometimes a sign-on bonus that pays only once.

An underwriter strips that down to what is documented, stable, and continuing. The gap can be large, especially for a newer employee whose grants are front-loaded with unvested value. A buyer who assumes the recruiter's total comp figure is qualifying income can end up shopping above what the loan will support.

Consider an illustrative example, dated to June 2026 and for illustration only. A new Seattle hire has an offer showing 400,000 dollars in total comp: 200,000 dollars base, 150,000 dollars in annual RSU value, and a 50,000-dollar sign-on bonus. With no two-year history of RSU receipt yet and a one-time sign-on bonus, the underwriter may initially qualify only the 200,000-dollar base. Two years later, with a documented vesting history and continuance schedule, much more of that stock income can come into play. The lesson is to qualify on what is documented today and plan the rest. Your actual qualifying income is confirmed against a full loan estimate, subject to qualification.

How New Hires Document Sign-On Bonuses and Relocation Pay in Seattle

Relocators arrive in Seattle constantly, moving from the Bay Area, Boston, New York, Austin, and abroad for roles at Amazon, Meta, Google, and the biotech cluster around Fred Hutch and the Allen Institute. The new-hire file has a few specific quirks worth flagging.

• Sign-on bonuses are usually one-time. Because they do not repeat, they generally cannot be used as ongoing qualifying income, though they can sometimes help as documented funds for the down payment or reserves.
• Relocation packages vary. A lump-sum relocation benefit is typically not qualifying income, but it can ease the cash-to-close picture when documented properly.
• Start-date timing matters. A buyer who has not started the new job yet may qualify on an offer letter under specific conditions, with the first pay stub required before or shortly after closing. This is program-specific and worth confirming early.
• New-to-US credit. International relocators sometimes have a thin US credit file, which is a solvable issue but one to surface at the start, not the week of closing.

The thread running through all of this is timing. A relocating buyer who talks to a local lender before the move can sequence the documentation so the file is ready when the right condo appears, rather than scrambling once it does.

RSU Income and the Jumbo Crossover in South Lake Union

Because South Lake Union is an effectively pure condo market with view and penthouse units in towers like 2200 Westlake and Onyx, RSU-heavy buyers often cross from conforming into jumbo financing quickly. The King County 2026 conforming loan limit is 1,063,750 dollars for a one-unit property, per the FHFA conforming loan limit table, and a higher-floor unit in a newer tower can clear that line on its own.

Jumbo financing layers extra requirements onto the RSU conversation:

• Stronger credit and reserves. Jumbo programs generally look for higher credit scores and several months of reserves, sometimes more, beyond the down payment.
• Full documentation of variable income. The two-year history and three-year continuance review on RSUs and bonuses tends to be even more rigorous on a jumbo file.
• HOA dues in the math. South Lake Union HOA dues commonly run several hundred to over a thousand dollars a month, and they sit inside your debt-to-income calculation, which is your monthly debts divided by your monthly income. Folding them in early keeps the pre-approval honest.

When a stock-heavy file meets a jumbo price point, the planning layers stack. The Seattle jumbo mortgages guide covers what changes above the conforming line, and pairing it with the RSU documentation here gives a complete picture for a central-Seattle tower purchase.

The South Lake Union Tech Buyer, Specifically

Central Seattle produces a particular buyer, and South Lake Union is its center of gravity. The corridor is anchored by Amazon's headquarters campus and a dense cluster of biotech and research employers, including Fred Hutch, UW Medicine, the Allen Institute, and Adaptive Biotechnologies. The Spheres sit at its heart, the streetcar and the Westlake light rail station make it walkable and car-light, and Lake Union Park gives it a waterfront edge.

A few patterns show up again and again in these files:

• Stock-heavy comp at a first-time condo price. Late-twenties and early-thirties buyers making their first purchase, leaning on RSU income to reach a 700,000 to 900,000 dollar condo.
• Condo warrantability questions. South Lake Union has the densest condo stock in Julie's territory, and a building's warrantability can affect financing as much as the buyer's income. It is worth checking before writing an offer.
• Cross-shopping with Eastlake. Many South Lake Union condo shoppers also tour Eastlake townhomes a short walk across the lake, where the product mix and the qualifying picture can shift.

My office sits at 2701 Eastlake Ave E, minutes from the South Lake Union core, so I see this buyer profile constantly. The value of a local advisor on an RSU file is not a secret rate. It is reading your vesting schedule and your bonus history the way an underwriter will, and telling you your real number before you fall for a view unit you cannot yet document your way into.

Which Income Counts on an RSU and Bonus File?

Because buyers ask which parts of their pay actually qualify, it helps to see the income types side by side. The table below is a program-level summary of how each piece is generally treated.

All entries above are illustrative and program-level, dated to June 2026. Your actual qualifying income, documentation requirement, and eligibility are confirmed against a full loan estimate, subject to qualification and underwriting approval.

Where This Fits in the Rest of This Series

An RSU and bonus file rarely lives on one page, because the income documentation, the property type, and the price point all interact. A few related reads round out the picture for a central-Seattle tech buyer.

• The jumbo layer. The Seattle jumbo mortgages guide covers what changes when a stock-heavy file crosses the conforming limit, which happens fast in South Lake Union towers.
• Self-employment income. The self-employed mortgage guide for Seattle covers the other major alternative-income conversation, for buyers whose pay runs through a business rather than a W-2.
• Bank statement qualifying. The bank statement loan guide for Seattle covers the deposit-based path for a tech buyer who also runs 1099 consulting on the side.
• The neighborhood foundation. The South Lake Union home loans hub gives the full area picture, and the Eastlake, Seattle home loans hub covers the corridor a short walk away.

I keep these cross-linked because the income documentation answers only the qualifying question. The building and the price point often decide which program fits.

Frequently Asked Questions About RSU Income Mortgages in Seattle