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: < $283,340 (up 0.7%)
- Mid Tier: $283,340 – $453,622
- Hi Tier: > $453,622 (up <0.1%)
First up is the straight graph of the index from January 2000 through August 2014.
Here’s a zoom-in, showing just the last year:
Only the high tier lost ground between July and August, while the middle and low tiers both turned in slight month-over-month gains Between July and August, the low tier increased 0.4%, the middle tier rose 0.3%, and the high tier lost 0.2%.
Here’s a chart of the year-over-year change in the index from January 2003 through August 2014.
Year-over-year price growth keeps on dropping all three tiers, losing the most once again on the low tier. Here’s where the tiers sit YOY as of August – Low: +8.6%, Med: +5.9%, Hi: +6.6%.
Lastly, here’s a decline-from-peak graph like the one posted earlier this week, but looking only at the Seattle tiers.
Current standing is 20.4% off peak for the low tier, 13.3% off peak for the middle tier, and 7.9% off peak for the high tier.
(Home Price Indices, Standard & Poor’s, 10.28.2014)