local real estate news, statistics, and commentary without the sales spin.
A reader pointed out that we haven’t looked at how the affordability index is doing in the Seattle area since late last year. Let’s update our standard charts. So how does affordability look as of April? Despite median home prices shooting up, falling interest rates that are back below 4 percent again have kept the…
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 few months of changes in home prices and interest rates. So how does affordability look as of October? With home prices stagnating this fall and interest rates inching back down close to 4 percent, the affordability index moved back…
Hat tip to the West Seattle Blog, who yesterday posted about a City of Seattle advisory committee on affordable housing. The city is gearing up to attempt to “develop a bold agenda for increasing the affordability and availability of housing in our city by convening a Housing Affordability and Livability Advisory Committee.” Here are some…
Continuing our “Another Bubble?” series, it’s time to take a look at the affordability index. As King County’s median home price has surged from $405,400 in February to $468,000 in July, the affordability index has dropped from slightly above the long-term average to just below 100. An index level above 100 indicates that the monthly…