… is what the headline could have read. Instead the headlines read something along the lines of the Seattle Times' "Home prices fall in Seattle and most major U.S. cities in September."

Home values have been largely affected by the volume of foreclosures on the market, and we have just recently seen more foreclosures come to the market which has led to falling prices in the last two months. Varying home values should be expected month to month due to a number of factors that affect the market, and these variances have been large at times due to influences like the first time home buyer tax credits that altered prices and shifted demand as recently as the first half of last year.

Locally speaking, prices have moved all over the place from month to month (check out our Bellevue real estate statistics or Seattle real estate statistics pages for a month by month breakdown), so it's always a good idea to look at the longer trends. And in this case, the Standard and Poor's / Case-Shiller home price index put home values unchanged quarter over quarter.

In Bellevue, for example, the average median single family home selling price for the three months ending in October, 2011 was higher than the three month averages ending in 10 of the last 19 months. Taking it further, averaging out the monthly three month average of median selling prices dating back to December of 2009 gives an average three month median selling price of $552,066, which is only slightly higher (less than 1%) compared to this October's three month average of $546,666.

BOTTOM LINE: Swings in the median selling prices of homes should be expected, but as you can see there is a reason I have been saying prices have trended largely flat for quite some time locally.

- Robert E. Wasser - Seattle and Bellevue real estate analyst