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: < $286,068 (up 1.8%)
- Mid Tier: $286,068 – $456,009
- Hi Tier: > $456,009 (up 2.0%)
First up is the straight graph of the index from January 2000 through March 2015.
Here’s a zoom-in, showing just the last year:
All three tiers shot up strongly in March, with the high tier gaining the most ground.
Between February and March, the low tier increased 1.1 percent, the middle tier rose 1.9 percent, and the high tier gained 2.9 percent.
Here’s a chart of the year-over-year change in the index from January 2003 through March 2015.
Year-over-year price growth actually shrank slightly in the low and middle tiers, but grew in the high tier. Here’s where the tiers sit YOY as of March – Low: +9.7 percent, Med: +5.8 percent, Hi: +7.7 percent.
Lastly, here’s a decline-from-peak graph like the one posted yesterday, but looking only at the Seattle tiers.
Current standing is 18.0 percent off peak for the low tier, 12.6 percent off peak for the middle tier, and 5.6 percent off peak for the high tier.
(Home Price Indices, Standard & Poor’s, 2015-05-26)