All places > Snohomish County > Brier
An editorial illustration of Brier, Washington
Snohomish County · Washington

Brier, WA

Most of Brier’s working life connects to jobs beyond its borders.

Population
6,630
1% more from 2021 to 2026
Family households
87.5%
±8 points at 90% confidence
Local jobs
420
10% more from 2018 to 2023
Median income
$132,045
±$25,811 at 90% confidence
City overview

The forces shaping Brier now.

01
The city’s regional role

Most of Brier’s working life connects to jobs beyond its borders.

Brier has 0.06 workplace jobs per resident—420 jobs for 6,630 people. Seattle is the largest observed outside destination for resident workers.

That makes regional access an economic issue: an employer change or a slower commute elsewhere can matter more than activity in Brier’s own business district.

Jobs and workplace flows: 2023 · population: 2026
02
The commute that shapes the city

Brier sends its largest stream of resident workers to Seattle.

39% of observed resident job destinations are in Seattle, followed by Everett at 8%.

Current GTFS schedules 38 weekday stop departures at 12 stops inside Brier; that supply still needs to be tested against the route to Seattle, the largest outside job destination. Schedule supply is not ridership.

Workplace flows: 2023 · commute modes: ACS 2024
03
The trajectory

Workplaces are expanding faster than the resident base in Brier.

Brier’s population rose 1% from 2021–2026; its workplace job count rose 10% from 2018–2023. The source periods differ because the two series are released on different schedules.

With jobs moving 9 points faster than population, Brier is likely to rely more on inbound workers. The practical test is whether those workers can reach—or afford to live near—the expanding workplaces.

Population: 2021–2026 · jobs: 2018–2023
04
The local economic engine

Administrative & Support Services supplies 31% of the jobs inside Brier.

Brier contains 420 workplace jobs. Administrative & Support Services accounts for 31% of them. Construction / Real Estate is next at 22%.

Brier needs a defensible named-employer source before this sector lead can be interpreted as either a broad cluster or dependence on one anchor. The sector total alone cannot make that distinction.

Workplace jobs: 2023
05
The commercial pulse

Brier’s taxable sales rose 13% to $77.4M.

Taxable sales totaled $77.4M, 13% higher than the previous year. Retail trade produced 34% of that total.

Brier’s 13% increase can reflect new stores, construction, visitors, inflation, or more local spending. The next release will show whether the $77.4M total is durable.

Washington taxable sales, 2024
People

Who lives here—and which households shape demand?

The typical household estimate is 2.8 people. 87% are estimated to be family households, while 9% are estimated to be people living alone.

Average household size
2.8

±0.2 people at 90% confidence

Living alone
9%

±4 points at 90% confidence

Bachelor’s degree+
51%

Among residents age 25 and older. ±7 points at 90% confidence

Residents, 2026
6,630

Official annual city estimate from Washington OFM.

Population composition

Who lives here

Estimated share of all Brier residents. Each percentage uses the city’s total population as its denominator.

White, non-Hispanic71% ±7 pts
Black, non-Hispanic6.8% ±7 pts
Two or more races, non-Hispanic5.0% ±3 pts
Hispanic / Latino, any race3.0% ±2 pts
Vietnamese2.9% ±3 pts
Korean1.7% ±1 pts
Chinese, except Taiwanese1.7% ±1 pts
American Indian / Alaska Native, non-Hispanic1.4% ±1 pts
Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic1.4% ±2 pts
Filipino1.2% ±1 pts
Japanese0.9% ±0.6 pts
Two or more Asian groups0.8% ±0.7 pts
Another race, non-Hispanic0.6% ±1.0 pts
Asian Indian0.6% ±0.8 pts
Taiwanese0.4% ±0.7 pts
Cambodian0.3% ±0.6 pts
Malaysian0.1% ±0.2 pts
Other Asian, not specified<0.1% ±0.1 pts

0% published estimate: Hmong, Mongolian, Okinawan, Other East Asian, Burmese, Indonesian, Laotian, Mien, Singaporean, Thai, Other Southeast Asian, Bangladeshi, Bhutanese, Nepalese, Pakistani, Sikh, Sri Lankan, Other South Asian, Afghan, Kazakh, Uzbek, Other Central Asian, Other Asian, specified. Zero is not proof that no residents identify with that group.

Some ranges are wide, which is common for smaller populations. Treat small differences as uncertain rather than as a precise ordering.

ACS 2020–2024 · 5-year estimates
Dataset
U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates · tables B03002 and B02015
Period
2020–2024
Geography
Brier Census place
Definition
Race and Hispanic/Latino origin are self-reported Census concepts. Hispanic/Latino may be of any race; the broad display uses non-Hispanic race categories plus Hispanic/Latino of any race.
Method
Every percentage is shown with its 90% margin of error. Detailed Asian estimates use the Asian-alone universe and are divided by the city population for display.
Open the official source ↗
Work

What powers the local economy—and how dependent is it?

Administrative & Support Services accounts for 31% of jobs located in Brier. The city’s job base changed +83% between 2010 and 2023.

Jobs by sector

Workplace jobs inside the city—not the industries of residents who commute elsewhere.

Administrative & Support Services31%
Construction / Real Estate22%
Professional Services (partial technology proxy)14%
Logistics / Industrial10%
Hospitality7%

Historical employer snapshot

Official city employment and home-business finding; no ranked employer table · Historical employer snapshot · 2019 jobs in the 2024–2044 comprehensive plan. The source is older than the current employer publication window; headcounts are historical, not current.

The city publishes employment totals and the number of home occupations, but not a verified ranked employer list or organization-level headcounts.

City of Brier Comprehensive Plan land-use element ↗. Headcounts change faster than Census employment totals.

Housing

What kinds of homes exist—and where is pressure showing?

The firmer current signal is construction intent: 13 homes were authorized in 2025, versus a recent pace of about 13 per year.

Home value profile

What owner-occupied homes are worth

Owner estimates from the 2020–2024 American Community Survey—not listings, recorded sales, or appraisals. The final Census band is open-ended: $2 million and above.

Median estimate$867k±25668.0 at 90% confidence
Middle half of homes$712k–$1.0MLower to upper quartile of owner estimates
Luxury-home concentration1%≈19 homes · estimated at $2M+
Under $500k3%
$500–749k26%
$750–999k45%
$1–1.49M18%
$1.5–1.99M7%
$2M+1%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-year tables B25075–B25078. Values cover owner-occupied homes only and do not measure current asking prices or recent purchase prices.

The housing mix we can estimate confidently

This describes the existing stock. It does not imply that one building type is preferable.

5+ unit buildings1%
Other<1%
Homes authorized, 2025
13

Permit authorizations—not construction starts or completed homes.

Residential buildings, 2025
13

One building can contain one home or many housing units.

2023–2025 annual pace
13 homes

Average housing units authorized per year across the latest three final annual estimates.

Recent pace vs prior 3 years
+44%

2023–2025 average compared with 2020–2022.

Permit activity: U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey, final annual estimate for 2025. Housing units authorized are not starts or completions.

Mobility

Where do residents need to go—and who has a real alternative to driving?

Current transit schedules include 12 stops and 38 weekday stop departures inside Brier. The 2020–2024 ACS separately estimates how workers usually commuted; it does not count every transit trip or describe today's schedule.

Weekday departures
38

Scheduled stop departures in the current covered-feed snapshot—not riders.

Transit stops
12

Matched inside city limits; nearby cross-border stops are separate.

Top outside workplace
Seattle

39% of observed resident job destinations in 2023 LODES.

Where resident workers go

Top observed workplace destinations.

Seattle39%
Peak drive: 25–50 min
Everett8%
Peak drive: 30–60 min
Bellevue7%
Peak drive: 25–50 min
Redmond6%
Peak drive: 25–50 min
Lynnwood6%

The strongest outside connection is Seattle. Employer or corridor changes there can alter everyday life in Brier, even when nothing changes inside the city boundary.

How residents usually get to work

Citywide ACS 2020–2024 estimates describe workers’ usual commute—not every trip made today.

Work from home
30%

Share of workers usually working from home. ±7 points at 90% confidence

Use public transit
2.9%

Usual commute mode—not all transit trips. ±2 points at 90% confidence

Commute 45+ minutes
24%

Share of workers with a one-way commute of at least 45 minutes. ±7 points at 90% confidence

Households without a vehicle
0.7%

Households, rather than workers. ±1 points at 90% confidence

For someone choosing a home in Brier, the practical test is the trip to Seattle, the leading outside workplace destination in the published flows. These citywide shares cannot show whether that trip works from a particular address.

Typical drive times

About how long does it take to get where people go?

Work destinations are selected from observed resident job flows. These are broad, reviewed planning ranges from representative parts of Brier—not live-traffic or door-to-door predictions.

Starting area
Downtown Seattle employment core

Seattle is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Brier, representing 34% of matched resident jobs from this city.

25–50 minWeekday morning peak
Details

Highway-dominant corridor: distance converted with a reviewed 1.25x circuity factor and an assumed 45 km/h peak-effective / 70 km/h off-peak effective speed, then widened and rounded to a broad band. The morning inbound peak is shown; the evening outbound return is assumed to fall within the same broad band.

Everett employment area

Everett is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Brier, representing 7% of matched resident jobs from this city.

20–40 minWeekday morning peak
Details

Highway-dominant corridor: distance converted with a reviewed 1.25x circuity factor and an assumed 45 km/h peak-effective / 70 km/h off-peak effective speed, then widened and rounded to a broad band. The morning inbound peak is shown; the evening outbound return is assumed to fall within the same broad band.

Downtown Bellevue employment core

Bellevue is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Brier, representing 6% of matched resident jobs from this city.

25–50 minWeekday morning peak
Details

Highway-dominant corridor: distance converted with a reviewed 1.25x circuity factor and an assumed 45 km/h peak-effective / 70 km/h off-peak effective speed, then widened and rounded to a broad band. The morning inbound peak is shown; the evening outbound return is assumed to fall within the same broad band.

Overlake employment core

Redmond is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Brier, representing 5% of matched resident jobs from this city.

25–50 minWeekday morning peak
Details

Highway-dominant corridor: distance converted with a reviewed 1.25x circuity factor and an assumed 45 km/h peak-effective / 70 km/h off-peak effective speed, then widened and rounded to a broad band. The morning inbound peak is shown; the evening outbound return is assumed to fall within the same broad band.

Method, review date, and sources

Planning estimate; actual time varies by departure time, route, traffic, weather, incidents, and closures.

Estimates are derived from reviewed origin/destination coordinates using a documented distance-to-time heuristic (circuity factor and assumed effective speed by corridor type and period), then deliberately widened and rounded to a broad band. No live routing or traffic API was called.

Estimates reviewed 2026-09-10. Starting point: selected representative area.

City boundary and regional context● nearby   ● work destinations
Daily life

Community institutions and local activity

Public schools, libraries, pharmacies, and listed everyday places show part of the local inventory inside Brier; taxable sales show the scale and direction of local commercial activity. Residents also use places across city lines, so a boundary count is not the same as access.

Local field guide

Places for everyday needs in Brier

Care, errands, food, fitness, and personal services gathered into one browsable directory.

Counts reflect current directory records associated with the city, not a complete business census or a measure of access. Large categories show a sample.

Sources: U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), snapshot 2026-08-13; Overture Maps Foundation, release 2026-08-19.0; U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (NPPES NPI Registry), snapshot 2026-09-09.

Public library footprint

Brier Library

Floor area shows the scale of the physical branches. Physical circulation is 2024 checkouts—not visits, unique users, or digital borrowing—and people routinely use libraries across city lines.

Branch floor area
2,840 sq ft

All matched branches must report floor area before a city total is shown.

Physical checkouts
88,965

Annual branch activity; not limited to city residents. All matched branches must report before a city total is shown.

Brier LibrarySno-Isle Libraries
2,840 sq ft88,965 physical checkouts40 scheduled hours/week

Source: Washington State Library public-library statistics, 2024. System-wide visits, digital circulation, and program attendance cannot be assigned honestly to one branch, so they are not folded into these city totals.

Education footprint

The schools inside Brier.

Institution counts and enrollment will remain separate. A school can serve students from outside the city, and residents may attend a school across the boundary or elsewhere in their district.

Public elementary1
  • Brier Elementary SchoolEdmonds School District
Public middle1
  • Brier Terrace Middle SchoolEdmonds School District
Public high0

None in the current OSPI city-boundary match.

Other public programs0

None in the current OSPI city-boundary match.

Public-school names and levels come from OSPI. Private schools, complete IPEDS college coverage, enrollment by level, and graduate destinations are active additions; absence here should not yet be read as “none.”

Retail role

Brier records relatively little retail activity for its population.

Retail sales per resident fall below 95% of the cities tracked by Metroscope. That may mean residents rely more on nearby cities for shopping, but sales records alone cannot prove where they shop.

Retail sales per resident, 2024
$3,927

Higher than 5% of 82 tracked cities.

Change from 2023
+6%

Nominal retail-sales change; inflation can account for some or all of an increase.

See the underlying sales totals
Retail trade, 2024
$26.0M

Sales reported by businesses classified in retail trade.

All taxable sales
$77.4M

Includes taxable activity outside retail trade.

Retail share
34%

Retailing industries’ share of all taxable sales.

Tracked-city median
$10,670

Median retail sales per resident across cities with comparable data.

Civic life

In Brier, voters directly choose who runs City Hall.

Brier voters elect the mayor separately from the council. The mayor leads city administration, while the council adopts laws, policy, and the budget—so executive accountability sits directly with an elected office.

Government form
Mayor–Council

The mayor is separately elected to lead administration.

Mayor listed
Dale Kaemingk

The separately elected chief executive.

Council representatives listed
7

Current directory entries; vacancies or updates can make this differ from authorized seats.

Incorporated
1965

Code city under Washington law.

Where decisions happen

When does the Brier council meet?

Regular meeting schedule listed in the current municipal directory:

Tue - 7:00pm1st & 3rd Tue - 7:00pm Workshops

Schedules change and special meetings are separate. Check the city site for the live agenda, staff reports, public-comment rules, and video.

Election record

Where to check Brier election results.

Regular municipal offices generally return in 2027. Special measures can appear earlier, and charter provisions can differ.

The next data step is city-specific turnout, contested-seat share, ballot measures, and campaign money. Until those are normalized, Metroscope links the official record instead of guessing from partisan elections.

Structure, meetings, and current officials: Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington (MRSC), checked 2026-09-08. Election administration and certified results: the county election offices listed above. Confirm live agendas and officeholders at the source.

Change

What is changing the city’s trajectory?

Population and jobs do not always move together. Reading both helps distinguish a growing employment center from a city whose households are increasingly tied to opportunities elsewhere.

Residents
6,630

1% more from 2021 to 2026

Local jobs
420

10% more from 2018 to 2023

Retail trade, 2023–2024
+6%

Nominal taxable-sales change; not adjusted for inflation.

Data & details — selected comparable metrics across 82 places
Local jobs
LODES
420
1,506656,821
Higher than only 0% of places
Long-run job change
LODES
+83%
−3%+166%
Higher than 86% of places
Weekday transit departures
GTFS snapshot
38
19256,385
Higher than only 4% of places
Multifamily permitting
Census BPS
Near a 15-year low
Recent annual pace compared with this city's own 2010–2025 record
2BR Fair Market Rent
HUD, county-level
$2,549
FY2027 HUD program benchmark; chart shows FY2020–FY2027 history. Shared across this HUD metro area—not a place-specific market rent.
Work — sector breakdown
Share of local jobs by sector · LODES · workplace location, not resident industry
Administrative & Support Services31% (129)
Construction / Real Estate22% (92)
Professional Services (partial technology proxy)14% (59)
Logistics / Industrial10% (41)
Hospitality7% (31)
Healthcare & Social Assistance5% (19)
Other4% (17)
Government (Public Administration)4% (15)
Education (includes academia/research)1% (6)
Information (partial technology proxy)1% (5)
Retail1% (4)
Manufacturing (includes, but is not limited to, aerospace)0% (2)
Finance0% (0)
Where Brier's workforce lives (inbound)
LODES OD — commuting flows into local jobs
Seattle
17.6%
Brier
13.5%
Everett
11.0%
Lynnwood
6.9%
Marysville
5.3%