The disappearing $300,000 house ... and other surprising facts

Five Eastside neighborhoods plus Vashon Island led the region last year in home-price appreciation. What the Eastside neighborhoods may have in common: They attract move-up buyers hunting good schools, and/or they attract corporate transfers. The latter can be a driving factor when the region is adding jobs, as it did last year.

The income needed to buy houses in much of the Eastside and Seattle's Laurelhurst/Windermere area jumped 70 percent or more from 2003 through last year. Newport Shores/Kennydale had the most pronounced change; the income needed to buy a median-priced house doubled during that time. Meanwhile, King County's median household income grew 13 percent, according to the state's Office of Financial Management.

From 2003 through 2006, just three areas required income jumps of 40 percent or less to keep up with rising house prices. Those are Duvall/Snoqualmie Valley, Covington and S.I.R./Lake Morton. The last required 24 percent more income. Modest house-price appreciation is the reason.

The $300,000 house is rapidly disappearing. In 2005, 28 neighborhoods from Everett south through King County had median prices under that threshold. Last year, just 11 did — nine in King and two in Snohomish. Auburn and Everett were the least expensive, at roughly $255,000.

King County's appreciation rate last year — 16 percent — was the highest since 1990's 28.9 percent. That's on a price-per-square-foot basis. The lowest during that time period: 0.1 percent in 1992. Four intervening years recorded less than 2 percent annual appreciation.

In 2004, the Eastside's Medina/ Clyde Hill area became the first in King County to report a median price above $1 million. (It climbed steadily to $1,375,000 in 2006). Last year, Seattle's Madison Park neighborhood became the second to join the $1 million club. Most likely to join that group: Laurelhurst/Windermere and Mercer Island, which both had medians between $900,000 and $1 million last year.

The most expensive neighborhoods don't necessarily have the most expensive houses. Why? Because size counts. Take Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood, where homes are smaller than in pricier Eastside neighborhoods. Queen Anne ranked 13th most expensive last year by sales price alone. But on a cost-per-square-foot basis — a more accurate indicator of housing's true cost — it was third, with a median price of $415 a square foot.

King County's most expensive neighborhood on a per-square-foot basis — Madison Park — is 186 percent pricier than its least expensive — Jovita (in South King County). So, a 1,500-square-foot house in Jovita last year would cost a median $250,500, while in Madison Park it would have fetched $714,000.

The most expensive area in southern Snohomish County — North Bothell/North Creek, at a median $569,950 — was still cheaper than 25 King County neighborhoods, including nearby Cottage Lake, where the median was $797,000.

In 2004, Central Shoreline and North City were King County's only areas north of downtown Seattle that were affordable to median-income households. But 26 areas south of downtown still were considered affordable. By 2006, no areas in North King County and only two in South — Auburn and Enumclaw — held that distinction. Everett was the only area in the south half of Snohomish County considered affordable last year to median-income earners.