SEATTLE — Like much during the pandemic, the latest news on home prices inspires a definite sense of deja vu.
For the fifth month in a row, home prices around Seattle rose faster in June 6.5%, year-over-year than any of the nation’s other top 18 metro areas, save Phoenix, according to new data from S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index. That’s more or less the same rate of growth we’ve seen since spring.
Price growth in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties topped national averages for the eighth month straight. National year-over-year home price growth of 4.3% in June pointed to a “stable” market, said S&P Managing Director Craig Lazzara in a statement. Prices rose in each of the 19 large cities that Case-Shiller tracks; among just those metros, year-over-year price growth averaged 3.5%. (Typically, Case-Shiller examines home prices in 20 metro areas, but data for the Detroit metro area has been unavailable since the start of the pandemic.)
A major imbalance between the number of homes for sale and a swell of interested buyers on the market has boosted prices. Until very recently, far fewer people were listing their homes than did in 2019. Many would-be sellers decided instead to take advantage of historically low mortgage rates to refinance their homes.