S&P/Case-Shiller released its housing numbers for January on Tuesday, and while Seattle’s home-price index is up 6.8 percent over the year, it saw a slight drop of 0.5 percent over the month. By comparison, both the 10-city and 20-city indexes grew by slower yearly rates of 4.4 percent and 4.6 percent respectively, but decreased by only 0.1 percent over the month. Of all the cities in the index, San Francisco saw the largest monthly decrease of 0.9 percent.
Home prices are still rising, but are rising at a slower rate. According to The Seattle Times, the average price for a single-family home in King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties was up 0.7 percent from December, whereas prices grew by 1.4 percent from November to December 2014. David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the S&P/Dow Jones index committee stated in a press release that the housing market is currently relatively strong due to low interest rates, strong job growth, and low oil prices, but that stagnant wage growth could lead to an eventual downturn.
“Home prices are rising roughly twice as fast as wages, putting pressure on potential homebuyers and heightening the risk that any uptick in interest rates could be a major setback,” Blitzer said in the release. He also noted that new home starts are at rates normally seen during a recession.
While the median home price in Seattle is still 12 percent below its 2007 peak, prices have bounced back to spring 2006 levels, according to the Times, and they reported that Zillow records the median home value for all three counties at $358,200.
If you are interested in buying or selling your home in the Seattle area, contact your local real estate agent today!
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