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: < $328,245 (up 1.0%)
- Mid Tier: $328,245 – $522,635
- Hi Tier: > $522,635 (up 0.8%)
First up is the straight graph of the index from January 2000 through August 2016.
Here’s a zoom-in, showing just the last year:
All three tiers are up month-over-month, but the rate of increase is slowing for the low and middle tiers.
Between July and August, the low tier increased 0.7 percent, the middle tier rose 0.4 percent, and the high tier was up 0.5 percent.
Here’s a chart of the year-over-year change in the index from January 2003 through August 2016.
Year-over-year price growth in August was slightly larger than it was in July for the middle and high tiers, and flat for the low tier. Prices in all three tiers are still double-digits above last year’s levels. Here’s where the tiers sit YOY as of August – Low: +12.4 percent, Med: +11.9 percent, Hi: +10.9 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 2.3 percent below peak for the low tier, 4.4 percent above the 2007 peak for the middle tier, and 9.7 percent above the 2007 peak for the high tier.
(Home Price Indices, Standard & Poor’s, 2016-10-25)