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Today’s S&P/Case-Shiller report on housing prices revealed a not-great end to 2007, nationally and closer to home. The Seattle-Tacoma market remained one of three in the country to see price appreciation, but just barely – December prices were nearly flat with year-over-year growth of just 0.5 percent, according to the widely followed index. (For some recent context, Pierce County home prices declined year-over-year in January by 2.5 percent, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.)
Prices in the 20 U.S. market areas tracked by the Case-Shiller report showed a far greater decline at 9.1 percent.
The best market, according to the report, was Charlotte, N.C., with 2.3 percent price increases. The worst: Miami, with a year-over-year price drop of 17.5 percent.
Champions of the local market will likely say that 0.5 percent growth is better than the double-digit declines seen in several of the other markets. But many of the worst-off areas have farther to fall than Seattle-Tacoma. The Case-Shiller index tracks the value of a typical home tied to a base value from Jan. 2000. While Seattle-Tacoma area prices have increased nearly 85 percent in that time, Los Angeles prices appreciated 133 percent and Tampa saw appreciation of 100 percent.
Also significant: December was the fifth consecutive month the index has revealed a lower rate of appreciation in the Seattle-Tacoma area. As recently as July, the index reported Seattle-Tacoma’s price growth was nearly 7 percent.
November: 1.8 percent
October: 3.3 percent
September: 4.7 percent
August: 5.7 percent
July: 6.9 percent
Any thoughts on the numbers? Any thoughts on where they'll be headed in 2008?
Washington state continued to hold on to its middle-of-the pack position in January foreclosure-related filings. Washington came in No. 27 with only a 3.5 percent increase in filings from the same month in 2007, according to figures released this morning by research firm RealtyTrac.
The No. 1 state was Nevada with Vermont ranking No. 50.
RealtyTrac follows default and auction notices and bank repossessions.
