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: < $286,378 (up 0.8%)
- Mid Tier: $286,378 – $453,899
- Hi Tier: > $453,899 (up 0.4%)
First up is the straight graph of the index from January 2000 through August 2013.
Here’s a zoom-in, showing just the last year:
All three tiers posted gains again in August, but the month-over-month increases were dramatically muted compared to July. Between July and August, the low tier rose 1.4%, the middle tier was up 1.1%, and the high tier gained 0.2%.
Here’s a chart of the year-over-year change in the index from January 2003 through August 2013.
After hitting an all-time high of 20.6% in July, the year-over-year gain for the low tier backed off a bit in August. Here’s where the tiers sit YOY as of August – Low: +20.0%, Med: +16.4%, Hi: +11.4%.
Lastly, here’s a decline-from-peak graph like the one posted yesterday, but looking only at the Seattle tiers.
Current standing is 26.7% off peak for the low tier, 18.1% off peak for the middle tier, and 13.6% off peak for the high tier.
(Home Price Indices, Standard & Poor’s, 10.29.2013)
