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: < $279,674 (down 1.2%)
- Mid Tier: $279,674 – $438,716
- Hi Tier: > $438,716 (down 1.3%)
First up is the straight graph of the index from January 2000 through January 2014.
Here’s a zoom-in, showing just the last year:
After showing the smallest month-over-month decline in December, the middle tier took the biggest month-over-month hit in January. Between December and January, the low tier fell 0.8, the middle tier dropped 1.6%, and the high tier lost 0.2%.
Here’s a chart of the year-over-year change in the index from January 2003 through January 2014.
Year-over-year changes slipped a bit for all three tiers in January. Here’s where the tiers sit YOY as of January – Low: +18.5%, Med: +13.0%, Hi: +10.1%.
Lastly, here’s a decline-from-peak graph like the one posted yesterday, but looking only at the Seattle tiers.
Current standing is 26.8% off peak for the low tier, 19.4% off peak for the middle tier, and 14.7% off peak for the high tier.
(Home Price Indices, Standard & Poor’s, 03.25.2014)