wide view of a dilapidated craftsman home, peeling paint, broken windows, holes in roof, on a Seattle neighborhood street on a rainy day

Homebuyers are taking on monthly payments 59% higher than at the 2007 peak of the previous housing bubble.

As of February, the monthly payment for the median-price single-family home sold in King County at current mortgage rates was $3,945. The good news: This is down from an eye-watering $4,758 in October. The bad news: It’s up dramatically from just a year prior, and 59% higher than what we saw at the peak of the previous housing bubble…

King County Affordability Index

So… what the heck is going on with the Seattle housing market?

Since we’ve been gone for so long, I thought I’d start back up with somewhat of an overview post. Let’s just take a look at what’s going on in the Seattle-area (King County) housing market recently.

One of the biggest topics on everybody’s mind lately is home prices, so let’s start there…

The difference between affordable and actual home prices hit an all-time record in May

As promised yesterday, here’s an updated look at the “affordable home” price chart.

The “affordable” home price has bounced around between about $550,000 and $590,000 since the beginning of 2017. The current “affordable” home price of $568,758 in King County would have a monthly payment of $2,319…

Low affordability may be why sales are stalling out

By popular request, let’s take a look at our affordability index charts for the counties around Puget Sound.

As of August, the affordability index has bounced up slightly from its May low (which was the lowest point since nearly a decade ago in July 2008), but still sits at the very low level of 85.0.

For context, eighty-six percent of the 306 months on record back through 1993 have had a higher affordability index than what we had in August 2018…