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: < $245,380 (down 2.4%)
- Mid Tier: $245,380 – $386,386
- Hi Tier: > $386,386 (down 2.1%)
First up is the straight graph of the index from January 2000 through January 2011.
Here’s a zoom-in, showing just the last year:
All three tiers continue to mark new post-peak lows. The low tier has “rewound” to March 2004, the middle tier is back to August 2004, and the high tier is at November 2004 pricing.
Flipping back to the pattern we’re fairly familiar with, the low tier lost the most ground in January. The low tier dropped 3.3%, the middle tier fell 1.9%, and the high tier lost 2.2%.
Here’s a chart of the year-over-year change in the index from January 2003 through January 2011.
All three tiers continued to increase their rate of decline in January. Here’s where the tiers sit YOY as of January – Low: -11.6%, Med: -8.7%, Hi: -4.8%.
Lastly, here’s a decline-from-peak graph like the one posted yesterday, but looking only at the Seattle tiers.
New lows for everybody. Current standing is 35.5% off peak for the low tier, 30.2% off peak for the middle tier, and 28.0% off peak for the high tier.
(Home Price Indices, Standard & Poor’s, 03.29.2011)