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: < $304,883 (down 0.3%)
- Mid Tier: $304,883 – $485,949
- Hi Tier: > $485,949 (up 0.1%)
First up is the straight graph of the index from January 2000 through January 2016.
Here’s a zoom-in, showing just the last year:
There was a slight divergence in January, with the low and middle tiers increasing and the high tier decreasing month-over-month.
Between December and January, the low tier increased 0.5 percent, the middle tier rose 0.8 percent, and the high tier dropped 0.4 percent.
Here’s a chart of the year-over-year change in the index from January 2003 through January 2016.
Year-over-year price growth was up in all three compared to December, with all three tiers now firmly showing double-digit gains. Here’s where the tiers sit YOY as of January – Low: +11.1 percent, Med: +11.3 percent, Hi: +10.4 percent.
Lastly, here’s a decline-from-peak graph like the one posted yesterday for the various Case-Shiller markets, but looking only at the Seattle tiers.
Current standing is 11.0 percent off peak for the low tier, 4.6 percent off peak for the middle tier, and 0.04 percent below the 2007 peak for the high tier.
(Home Price Indices, Standard & Poor’s, 2016-03-29)