Let’s have a look at the latest data from the Case-Shiller Home Price Index. According to April data, Seattle-area home prices were:
Up 2.3% March to April
Up 7.5% YOY.
Down 7.4% from the July 2007 peak
Last year at this time prices rose 2.3% month-over-month and year-over-year prices were up 11.2%.
Year-over-year and month-over-month home price changes for the Seattle area were exactly the same in April as they were in March.
Here’s a Tableau Public interactive graph of the year-over-year change for all twenty Case-Shiller-tracked cities. Check and un-check the boxes on the right to modify which cities are showing:
Seattle’s position for month-over-month changes rose from #2 in March to #1 in April. No other metro area saw home prices increase more over the month than they did in Seattle.
The last time Seattle saw the largest month-over-month gain of all twenty cities was March 2011. Before that though, Seattle experienced a sustained period at or near the top of the month-over-month rankings when it was #1 for seven months between April 2006 and April 2007—just before Seattle’s July 2007 home price peak. It will be interesting to see if we stay at the top of the heap for long.
Hit the jump for the rest of our monthly Case-Shiller charts, including the interactive chart of raw index data for all 20 cities.
In April, five of the twenty Case-Shiller-tracked cities gained more year-over-year than Seattle (the same as in March):
- Denver at +10.3%
- San Francisco at +10.0%
- Dallas at +8.8%
- Miami at +8.5%
- Tampa at +7.6%
Fourteen cities gained less than Seattle as of April: Portland, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Charlotte, Atlanta, San Diego, Detroit, Phoenix, Minneapolis, New York, Chicago, Boston, Cleveland, and Washington.
Here’s the interactive chart of the raw HPI for all twenty cities through April.
Here’s an update to the peak-decline graph, inspired by a graph created by reader CrystalBall. This chart takes the twelve cities whose peak index was greater than 175, and tracks how far they have fallen so far from their peak. The horizontal axis shows the total number of months since each individual city peaked.
In the ninety-three months since the price peak in Seattle prices are still down 7.4%.
Lastly, let’s see what month in the past Seattle’s current prices most compare to. As of April 2015, Seattle prices are still closest to where they were in June 2006.
I’ll post the Case-Shiller data for Seattle’s price tiers later tonight.
(Home Price Indices, Standard & Poor’s, 2015-06-30)