I guess it's all in how you look at it. The latest Case-Shiller statistics show the national housing market as dismal. But if you dig deeper, you'll see Seattle is only down 1.3% from a year earlier, compared to 14% nationally. That means while most markets are struggling, ours has barely seen a dent in values.
But it's all in how you look the numbers. What had been an appreciating market has plunged everywhere. And when you look at from that perspective, even Seattle isn't all roses.
The Case-Shillar data has some interesting quirks to it that make it suspect, though. They count “Seattle” as all of the tri-county area (King, Snohomish, Pierce). Which means we get lumped in with all of Tacoma and Pierce county. Those areas have been hit much harder by the real estate slow down than Seattle itself.
Another interesting phenomena shown in this data is how the areas with the highest appreciation rates over the last few years are the hardest hit now that the market has dropped. Phoenix and Las Vegas are good examples of “the higher they go, the farther they fall.” Seattle had strong, but steady growth during this period, making us less susceptible to a big drop.
See our current Bain Business Minute video for more statistical information (updated weekly here on this site).