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: < $259,821 (down 1.2%)
- Mid Tier: $259,821 – $402,705
- Hi Tier: > $402,705 (down 0.7%)
First up is the straight graph of the index from January 2000 through October 2010.
Here’s a zoom-in, showing just the last year:
The low tier continues to fall the fastest, hitting another new post-peak low in October, and is now down 6.4% just since the last month of the tax credit (June). Let’s see… 6.4% of a $250,000 home… say, that’s $16,000. Exactly double the amount of money people rushed into the market to claim from the government. What a deal.
This month the drops in the tiers were fairly close to each other. The low tier dropped 1.5% MOM, the middle tier fell 1.3%, and the high tier lost 1.3%.
Here’s a chart of the year-over-year change in the index from January 2003 through October 2010.
All three tiers ticked down dramatically, since last year at this time prices actually rose month-to-month. Here’s where the tiers sit YOY as of October – Low: -8.9%, Med: -6.2%, Hi: -2.2%.
Lastly, here’s a decline-from-peak graph like the one posted yesterday, but looking only at the Seattle tiers.
New low points for the low and middle tier. The high tier still sits slightly above its February low. Current standing is 31.6% off peak for the low tier, 26.7% off peak for the middle tier, and 23.7% off peak for the high tier.
(Home Price Indices, Standard & Poor’s, 12.28.2010)