By The Tim on November 8, 2012
A reader emailed me with a question about home prices compared to gold: Any easy way for you to compare Case-Shiller home prices to gold? I have a hunch prices have dropped much more dramatically than we realize, as our USD goes in the tank. Maybe Goldman’s 22% drop prediction was closer if the nasty [...]
Posted in Counties, Features, Statistics | Tagged affordability, gold, inflation, NWMLS, original research, roller_coaster, stair step, Statistics
By The Tim on June 29, 2012
A reader pointed out to me this week that it has been three years since I updated the long-term chart of King County home prices back to 1950. So, by request, here is an update to that chart as of May, along with the affordability index over the same time period. In the first quarter [...]
Posted in Counties, Features, Statistics | Tagged affordability, inflation, NWMLS, original research, roller_coaster, stair step, Statistics, Tytler
By The Tim on May 20, 2009
A reader pointed out that I had not provided an updated chart of the long-term (50+ year) trend of local home prices since I originally posted my research in February 2008. So, here’s an updated look at the long-term trends in local home prices and affordability: So much for Steve Tytler‘s famous “stair step” theory [...]
Posted in Features, Statistics | Tagged affordability, inflation, NWMLS, original research, roller_coaster, stair step, Statistics, Tytler
By The Tim on August 11, 2008
There has been some discussion in the comments over the weekend about whether or not the current home price boom in the Seattle area is “unprecidented.” We have already explored the long-term home price trends in King County going back to 1946, but I thought it would be instructive to look at the data in [...]
Posted in Statistics | Tagged boom-bust cycles, original research, Statistics
By The Tim on February 28, 2008
When I posted last week’s 61-year home price history, I promised a follow-up on affordability. So, here it is. Before I get to the chart, here’s a quick refresher on what the “affordability index” is, and what it isn’t. What it is is a simple measure that shows relationship between median home prices, median household [...]
Posted in Features, Statistics | Tagged affordability, original research, roller_coaster, Statistics
By The Tim on February 19, 2008
A while back (September 2006, to be more precise) the Seattle Times published a 22-year “analysis” of King County home prices, which essentially came to the conclusion that Seattle would be immune to the home price drops that were beginning to occur elsewhere around the country. Their graph of local home prices going back to [...]
Posted in Statistics | Tagged inflation, NWMLS, original research, roller_coaster, stair step, Statistics, Tytler
