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: < $254,140 (down 0.8%)
- Mid Tier: $254,140 – $405,866
- Hi Tier: > $405,866 (down 0.6%)
First up is the straight graph of the index from January 2000 through January 2013.
Here’s a zoom-in, showing just the last year:
The middle and high tiers dropped slightly in January, but the low tier actually gained a bit. Between December and January, the low tier rose 0.4%, the middle tier was down 0.4%, and the high tier lost 0.1%.
Here’s a chart of the year-over-year change in the index from January 2003 through January 2013.
The low tier gained nearly four percentage points in the year-over-year standings between December and January. Here’s where the tiers sit YOY as of January – Low: +9.0%, Med: +11.1%, Hi: +8.7%.
Lastly, here’s a decline-from-peak graph like the one posted yesterday, but looking only at the Seattle tiers.
Current standing is 38.2% off peak for the low tier, 28.6% off peak for the middle tier, and 22.5% off peak for the high tier.
(Home Price Indices, Standard & Poor’s, 03.26.2013)