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: < $305,656 (down <0.1%)
- Mid Tier: $305,656 – $484,832
- Hi Tier: > $484,832 (up 2.1%)
First up is the straight graph of the index from January 2000 through November 2015.
Here’s a zoom-in, showing just the last year:
All three tiers were up month-over-month yet again in November. The high tier saw the smallest month-over-month gain, but was also the first tier to surpass its peak level with this month’s data.
Between October and November, the low tier increased 0.6 percent, the middle tier rose 0.6 percent, and the high tier gained 0.3 percent.
Here’s a chart of the year-over-year change in the index from January 2003 through November 2015.
Year-over-year price growth was up in all three compared to October. Here’s where the tiers sit YOY as of November – Low: +9.9 percent, Med: +9.7 percent, Hi: +9.8 percent.
Lastly, here’s a decline-from-peak graph like the one posted earlier this week for the various Case-Shiller markets, but looking only at the Seattle tiers.
Current standing is 12.0 percent off peak for the low tier, 5.5 percent off peak for the middle tier, and 0.1 percent above the previous peak for the high tier.
(Home Price Indices, Standard & Poor’s, 2016-01-26)