Let’s check out the three price tiers for the Seattle area, as measured by Case-Shiller. Remember, Case-Shiller’s “Seattle” data is based on single-family home repeat sales in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties.
Note that the tiers are determined by sale volume. In other words, 1/3 of all sales fall into each tier. For more details on the tier methodologies, hit the full methodology pdf. Here are the current tier breakpoints:
- Low Tier: < $264810
- Mid Tier: $264810 – $387274
- Hi Tier: > $387274
First up is the straight graph of the index from January 2000 through March 2009.
All three tiers dropped again in March, with the middle tier taking the smallest hit at -1.7% and the low tier taking the largest at -2.4%. The low tier has rewound to March 2005, the middle and the high tiers to May 2005.
Here’s a chart of the year-over-year change in the index from January 2003 through March 2009.
The high tier reversed its trend of improvement from February, hitting a new low in March at -15.8%. The low tier fell furthest over the year yet again. Here’s where the tiers sit YOY as of March – Low: -18.5%, Med: -15.8%, Hi: -15.8%.
Lastly, here’s a decline-from-peak graph like the one posted yesterday, but looking only at the Seattle tiers.
The declines in each tier seem to be tracking fairly close to each other the last couple of months.
(Home Price Indices, Standard & Poor’s, 05.26.2009)