SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Lower priced homes felt biggest pop of bubble
Jan 16, 2012, 12:12 PM | Updated: Mar 4, 2016, 5:56 am
Everyone talks about how much the housing market has declined "since the peak," but which segment of the market suffered the biggest setback? (AP Photo)
(AP Photo)
Everyone talks about how much the housing market has declined “since the peak,” but which segment of the market suffered the biggest setback?
Clear Capital, a valuation and analytics firm, categorized the market in terms of “tiers” and used 2006 as the starting point – or the national peak of the market.
Homes that sold for less than $150,000 were in Clear Capital’s bottom tier, homes between $150,000 and $395,000 were labeled mid tier and homes selling for more than $395,000 were considered top tier.
Clear Capital revealed that homes in the lowest tier fell by an average of 46.3 percent, homes in the middle fell by 41 percent and homes in the top tier fell by 26.8 percent.
“You may argue that by percentage, what happened in the top tier is an easier hit to take,” Alex Villacorta, director of research and analytics for Clear Capital, told Time Moneyland. “But for people who are a little bit overextended, that’s an absolute hit of $106,000.”
The value of homes in the lowest tier lost $69,500 while mid-tier homes dropped $100,900, according to Clear Capital.
