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: < $232,614 (up 2.0%)
- Mid Tier: $232,614 – $369,281
- Hi Tier: > $369,281 (up 1.2%)
First up is the straight graph of the index from January 2000 through March 2012.
Here’s a zoom-in, showing just the last year:
The middle and high tiers both increased between February and March, while the low tier continued to fall. The low tier fell 1.1% MOM, the middle tier rose 2.1%, and the high tier gained 1.5%.
Here’s a chart of the year-over-year change in the index from January 2003 through March 2012.
Improvement on all three tiers, with the low tier moving to dead even double-digits, and the high tier moving a bit further into the black. Here’s where the tiers sit YOY as of March – Low: -10.0%, Med: -1.6%, Hi: +0.4%.
Lastly, here’s a decline-from-peak graph like the one posted yesterday, but looking only at the Seattle tiers.
Current standing is 44.2% off peak for the low tier, 34.5% off peak for the middle tier, and 27.9% off peak for the high tier. The low tiers set a new post-peak low point.
(Home Price Indices, Standard & Poor’s, 05.29.2012)