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: < $256,396 (down 1.3%)
- Mid Tier: $256,396 – $400,191
- Hi Tier: > $400,191 (down 0.6%)
First up is the straight graph of the index from January 2000 through November 2010.
Here’s a zoom-in, showing just the last year:
The low tier gave up its fastest-falling title to the middle tier this month, but both the low and middle tier hit new post-peak lows. The low tier has now given up seven percent just since the last month of the tax credit.
There wasn’t a huge variation between the MOM drops in the tiers this month. The low tier dropped 0.7%, the middle tier fell 1.4%, and the high tier lost 0.9%.
Here’s a chart of the year-over-year change in the index from January 2003 through November 2010.
All three tiers continued to fall faster in November. The low tier is rapidly approaching double-digit losses again. Here’s where the tiers sit YOY as of November – Low: -9.4%, Med: -7.2%, Hi: -2.6%.
Lastly, here’s a decline-from-peak graph like the one posted yesterday, but looking only at the Seattle tiers.
New low points again for the low and middle tier. The high tier still sits slightly above its February low. Current standing is 32.1% off peak for the low tier, 27.8% off peak for the middle tier, and 24.4% off peak for the high tier.
(Home Price Indices, Standard & Poor’s, 01.25.2011)