Third of Seattle homes worth over $1M — more than NYC

Doesn't it seem like every house in the Seattle area costs a million bucks these days? Well, not quite – but now more than one in three do.

Driving the news: The number of Seattle-area homes worth at least $1 million jumped by 21% during the pandemic and now make up 36.5% of the area's housing market, a recent analysis by Redfin found.

Why it matters: Rapidly appreciating home values are a windfall for those who own them, but they also mean more Americans are priced out of the market, writes Axios' Jennifer Kingson.

• Incomes are rising, but not as quickly as home prices — leaving many people priced out and stuck as renters.

Context: The Seattle metro's share of million dollar homes was 15.5% in February 2020, just before the pandemic hit.

• Seattle now ranks eighth among the top 10, leap-frogging New York City during the pandemic.
• For metro areas outside of California, we rank second in the nation, trailing only Honolulu for percentage share of $1M+ homes.

Zoom out: The percentage of U.S. homes worth $1 million or more has reached a record high, led by the Bay Area.

• Seven of the top 10 cities with the biggest share of $1M+ homes were in California as of February.

Methodology: Redfin says its analysis uses the "Redfin Housing Value Index," which uses the Redfin Estimate (a market calculation tool), public records and MLS data to estimate the current and historical value of more than 85 million properties in the U.S.