With the big increase in the county-wide median price between May and June, let’s take an updated look at how King County’s sales are shifting between the different regions around the county. This data is interesting to keep tabs on 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 May data:
- low end: $290,500-$409,200
- mid range: $415,000-$850,000
- high end: $528,444-$1,811,250
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).
All three tiers saw month-over-month gains in their respective median-median price, but none are quite at record levels. The middle tier hit an all-time high in April, and the high tier hit its all-time high in December. The low tier still hasn’t beat its 2007 high. Month-over-month, the median price in the low tier rose 6.8 percent, the middle tier increased 5.2 percent, and the high tier gained 0.8 percent.
Twenty-eight of the twenty-nine NWMLS regions in King County with single-family home sales in June 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: up 10.5 percent, middle tier: up 12.0 percent, high tier: up 5.4 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 again between May and June, while month-to-month the mix shifted slightly away from the South King low tier and into the Eastside high tier region. Month-over-month sales were up 2.1 percent in the low tier, up 3.8 percent in the middle tier, and up 20.2 percent in the high tier.
Year-over-year sales increased in all three tiers as well. Compared to a year ago, sales increased 17.3 percent in the low tier, rose 11.8 percent in the middle tier, and increased 23.4 percent in the high tier.
As of June 2015, 32.2 percent of sales were in the low end regions (flat from 32.2 percent a year ago), 34.0 percent in the mid range (up just slightly from 35.7 percent a year ago), and 33.8 percent in the high end (up from 32.1 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:
Prices are rising in most parts of the Seattle area, but the sales mix shifted pretty strongly toward the more expensive parts of the county in June. This shift is likely a big part of why the county-wide median price shot up from $480,000 in May to $500,000 in June.