Full disclosure: The Tim is employed by Redfin. Wednesday afternoon, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman posted an interesting story on Redfin’s Seattle blog: "Everything Changed in the Past Six Weeks" Bryon Ziegler, part of Redfin’s crack Capitol Hill team, just wandered into my office to talk about bidding wars. The last ten straight offers he has…
Seattle Home Prices Average 4% Annual Gains Since 1990
I updated my chart that compares the gains in Seattle’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index with consistent annual increases at various levels, and noticed that for the first time since 1997, home prices dropped below the level of 4% annual gains since 1990. I’ve also added a plot of the Consumer Price Index for the Seattle…
Case-Shiller Tiers: Middle Tier Also Hits Double-Digit Drops
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…
Case-Shiller: Seattle Home Prices Rewound to June 2004
Happy Case-Shiller day, everybody. Yes, it’s time once again for us to take a look at the latest data from the Case-Shiller Home Price Index. According to February data, Seattle home prices were: Down 1.9% January to February. Down 7.5% YOY. Down 30.9% from the July 2007 peak Last year prices fell 1.1% from January…
There is no such thing as “a great time to buy.”
With home prices off a third or more around Seattle from their hyper-inflated housing bubble levels, interest rates still hovering in the sub-five-percent range, and numerous economic fundamentals indicating a market more balanced than it has been in nearly a decade, has the perennial claim of home salesmen come true? Is now, finally, “a great…