It’s time once again to take an updated look at how King County’s sales are shifting between the different regions around the county, since geographic shifts can and do affect the median price.
In order to explore this concept, we break King County down into three regions, based on the NWMLS-defined “areas”:
- low end: South County (areas 100-130 & 300-360)
- mid range: Seattle / North County (areas 140, 380-390, & 700-800)
- high end: Eastside (areas 500-600)
Here’s where each region’s median prices came in as of December data:
- low end: $246,000-$429,950
- mid range: $350,000-$664,975
- high end: $473,000-$1,413,593
First up, let’s have a look at each region’s (approximate) median price (actually the median of the medians for each area within the region).
The median-median in the Eastside regions hit a new all-time high for the second month in a row, reaching $703,200 in December.
Month-over-month, all three tiers rose between November and December. The low tier rose 2.9 percent in the month, the middle tier increased 12.0 percent, and the high tier gained 2.3 percent.
Twenty-four of the twenty-nine NWMLS regions in King County with single-family home sales in December had a higher median price than a year ago, while sixteen had a month-over-month increase in the median price.
Here’s how the median prices changed year-over-year. Low tier: down 0.2 percent, middle tier: up 22.6 percent, high tier: up 26.0 percent.
Next up, the percentage of each month’s closed sales that took place in each of the three regions.
Sales in all three regions rose between November and December as the mix changed slightly away from the middle tier and into the low and high tiers.
Year-over-year sales also increased in all three tiers. Compared to a year ago, sales increased 14.9 percent in the low tier, rose 16.8 percent in the middle tier, and edged up just 0.3 percent in the high tier.
As of December 2014, 33.8 percent of sales were in the low end regions (up from 32.4 percent a year ago), 34.8 percent in the mid range (up from 32.9 percent a year ago), and 31.5 percent in the high end (down from 34.7 percent a year ago).
Here’s that information in a visual format:
Finally, here’s an updated look at the percentage of sales data all the way back through 2000:
Still looks like a pretty strong sellers market just about anywhere you look in King County.