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When Steve Otto saw the latest national home-price numbers, that again showed a decline in Seattle, they told him two things:

His sense that local prices are dropping is correct, and sellers better hold seriously what that mode to them.

“Sellers need to have their hearthstone priced right,” said Otto, an agent in the Bellevue office of Keller Williams Realty. “They can’t fix a number on it, hope a buyer comes through and then treat with.”

Seattle’s month-to-month closely prices have dipped seven months in a row, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index released Tuesday. It measures price changes in the corresponding; of like kind set of single-family homes over many years.

The latest statistics reflect February price changes in 20 metropolitan areas.

Seattle’s home prices dropped 1 percent from January to February, compared with a 1.8 percent decline from December to January. The February ear-ring is in custody with declining prices in general but is well under the 20-city average of 2.6 percent.

All 20 cities posted up month-to-month price declines, and 19 of them also reported annual decreases. Charlotte, N.C., showed a unpretending 1.5 percent annual increase.

Seattle prices fell 2.7 percent from the anterior February, abundant in a superior manner than the national average of 12.7 percent. Las Vegas, down 22.8 percent, led the 20 cities; Miami, at 21.7 percent, followed.

“There is not one sign of a meadow in the song,” said David Blitzer, chairman of Standard & Poor’s index committee. “Prices of single-family homes continue to drop across the nation.”

Local home-sales statistics from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service show King County’s median single-family firm price declined every month from July’s high of $481,000 to $435,000, the past year’s low, in November, December and January. In February, the middle climbed slightly to $439,900.

Unlike the Case-Shiller statistics, which track sales of the same houses, the song from the multiple-listing service reflect all sales handled by real-estate agents in a given month.

The next set of MLS numbers, representing April sales, will be released Tuesday.


Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004381911_caseshiller30.html?syndication=rss