Seattle dethroned as nation’s hottest housing market

For the first time in nearly two years, the Seattle area no longer leads the nation in home price increases. The monthly CaseShiller home price index, released Tuesday, showed Las Vegas had overtaken Seattle as the nation’s hottest housing market.

Seattle had topped the country for 21 months in a row, the second-longest streak for any metro area in the closely-watched report’s 31-year history. But the housing market there has cooled way down, with King County prices dropping from their spring highs as inventory has shot up and sales have dropped.

The metro area registered a 12.8 percent increase in single-family home prices in June compared to a year earlier, down from 13.6 percent growth a month prior. The difference may not sound like a lot, but it was actually the biggest one-month deceleration in home prices in four years.

Las Vegas led with a 13 percent increase, up from 12.6 percent a month prior.

The bulk of the Seattle-area increase was driven by 16 percent growth in the cheapest homes in the region _ typically those on the outer edges of the metro area, in places like Tacoma and Everett.

Seattle remains No. 2 nationally. It has actually been in the top two hottest housing markets in the country for 30 consecutive months. (Before Seattle became No. 1. in August 2016, it was second, behind Portland, for about half a year.)

A new analysis from Zillow, using more recent numbers, showed Seattle had the biggest slowdown in housing prices in the country, falling to the 12th-hottest housing market in the nation, among the 35 largest.

The change comes just after Nevada passed Washington on the list of states with the fastest-rising home prices. Washington had led the nation for a year and a half.