local real estate news, statistics, and commentary without the sales spin.
Let’s take a look at the breakdown of what sectors are adding jobs locally and what sectors are losing jobs. I had intended to post this yesterday but the day got away from me. Sorry about that! First up, year-over-year job growth, broken down into a few relevant sectors over the past four years. Now…
This poll was active 12.22.2013 through 12.28.2013
Jobs data for November was released this week, so let’s take an updated look at the Seattle area’s unemployment rate and approximate labor participation rate alongside the national numbers. In November the Seattle area’s unemployment rate broke a four-month streak of increases, dipping just slightly from 5.7% in October to 5.6% last month. We are…
As promised in yesterday’s affordability post, here’s an updated look at the “affordable home” price chart. In this graph I flip the variables in the affordability index calculation around to other sides of the equation to calculate what price home the a family earning the median household income could afford to buy at today’s mortgage…
Let’s take a look at how affordability is doing in the Seattle area after the last couple months of changes in home prices and interest rates. So how does affordability look as of November? Slightly improved from July, August, and September. The index inched back up to 104.7 (i.e. the monthly payment on a median-priced…