Seattle Home Prices Still Lagging

Deborah Wang
11/25/2009

There's new data out about the nation's home prices and once again, Seattle seems to be lagging behind the national trend.

The latest Case–Shiller Home Price Index shows in the third quarter of this year, home prices nationally were up by close to 2 percent over the previous quarter. The index measures home prices in 20 major cities.

But in the Seattle area, home prices were down in that same period, just marginally, by .4 percent. For the year, the report says, Seattle area prices were down almost 14 percent.

David Blitzer is chairman of the index committee at Standard and Poors, which produces the index. He says while prices in the rest of country are slowly recovering, Seattle area prices have been flat.

Blitzer: "Seattle home prices reached a bottom last April, and since then have really gone no place at all, they're in the most recent report at the same level they were in April, which is about 22 percent below the peak they saw back in July of 2007."

But Seattle is not the only market still suffering — 9 of the 20 cities in the index experienced price declines last month. Blitzer says home prices have been hit by rising unemployment.

I'm Deborah Wang, KUOW News.

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