Let’s Talk About Seattle Real Estate

MARKET FACTORS TO CONSIDER/ NATIONAL STATISTICS: IMPROVEMENT!
Below is this month’s statistical snapshot of the top 20 U.S. real estate markets, based on Standard and Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, comparing value changes between November of 2008 and November 2009. Good news: the statistics below show that the amount of loss of home value has improved compared to the same time last year in all 20 metro areas covered by the survey. Even Las Vegas and Detroit improved their value levels compared to a year ago. Here are the comparisons between November of last year and November of this year (the latest reporting month):

Atlanta/-6.2% Detroit/-13% Portland, OR/-7.5%
Boston/-.68% Las Vegas/-24.5% San Diego/+.4%
Charlotte/-5.5% Los Angeles/-3.5% San Francisco+1.0%
Chicago/-8.5% Miami/-12.1% ***SEATTLE/-10.6%***
Cleveland/-2.5% Minneapolis/-6.8% Tampa/-13.2%
Dallas/+1.4% New York/-7.1% Washington, D.C./-.6%
Denver/+.49% Phoenix/-14.23%

Note that there are now only 5 other markets with worse losses than Seattle’s, so this means that most other American cities are improving at a better rate than Seattle (Seattle is where I live). Although four of the cities (Denver, San Diego, San Francisco and Dallas) are actually in positive territory (It’s true, look at the chart above) and higher than they were a year ago, all the rest of them, even though still negative, are doing better than they were a year ago as well.

I’m just trying to provide positive empirical evidence that there really is improvement. But we all know the brutal fact that from the peak in 2006 and 2007 every one of the 20 markets is down significantly. Las Vegas and Phoenix, for example, are still down over 50% from their peaks.

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