Let’s have a look at the latest data from the Case-Shiller Home Price Index. According to January data that was released today, Seattle-area home prices were:
Up 1.1 percent January to February
Up 11.0 percent YOY.
Down 1.7 percent from the July 2007 peak
Over the same period last year prices were up 0.9 percent month-over-month and year-over-year prices were up 7.1 percent.
The Seattle area’s month-over-month home price change hit the highest level since May. The year-over-year price change in February hit its highest point since April 2014. If you were hoping for some price relief, so far 2016 is not delivering.
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 rank for month-over-month changes was shot up from #8 in January to #1 in February.
Hit the jump for the rest of our monthly Case-Shiller charts, including the interactive chart of raw index data for all 20 metro areas.
In February, just one of the twenty Case-Shiller-tracked metro areas gained more year-over-year than Seattle (the same as January):
- Portland at +11.9%
Washington and Oregon obviously still have an economy that is literally the envy of other states.
San Francisco joined Denver, Portland, and Dallas in the club for metro areas that hit new all-time highs in February.
Eighteen metro areas gained less than Seattle as of February: Denver, San Francisco, Dallas, Tampa, Los Angeles, Detroit, Las Vegas, San Diego, Miami, Atlanta, Phoenix, Charlotte, Minneapolis, Boston, Cleveland, New York, Chicago, and Washington.
Here’s the interactive chart of the raw HPI for all twenty metro areas through February.
Here’s an update to the peak-decline graph, inspired by a graph created by reader CrystalBall. This chart takes the twelve metro areas 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 103 months since the price peak in Seattle prices are down 1.7 percent.
Lastly, let’s see what month in the past Seattle’s current prices most compare to. As of February 2016, Seattle prices are approximately where they were in April 2007. Note that this does not adjust for inflation.
Check back tomorrow for our monthly look at Case-Shiller data for Seattle’s price tiers.
(Home Price Indices, Standard & Poor’s, 2016-04-26)