The Worst Place To Find Real Estate Statistics

Stories on TV about the national real estate market are misleading to Americans.

This is because there is no such thing as a "national real estate market".

Consider the latest American Housing Survey. It found that there are 124,377,000 homes in America spread across:
50 states, with

1. More than 30,000 incorporated cities, and with
2. An innumerable number of neighborhoods

And yet, the media repeatedly groups all 124 million homes into one giant lump and then gives
an analysis. No matter how you slice and dice the data, a home in Oregon can't be compared to a home in Mississippi.

This is why national real estate statistics are somewhat useless.

To get real estate analysis that matters, look local instead. And I don't mean stats from your state -- I mean stats from your neighborhood. It's the only way to know what's driving home prices on your street.

Unfortunately, finding local data like this isn't easy; it's far too narrow to be covered by the press. So, the best place to get local real estate data is from a local real estate agent or from somebody else with access to raw real estate data in and around your neighborhood.

By talking to "in the market" professionals that know your backyard, you'll get a much clearer picture of your local market -- good or bad -- than the national media could ever provide.

Real estate is a local market so your real estate data should be local, too.

Why "Median Sales Price" Reports Aren't Helpful For Housing Markets

Each month, the Commerce Department and the National Association of REALTORS® release national housing data.

The former's release is called the New Residential Sales report and the latter's is called the Existing Home Sales report.

Both reports highlight the "median sales price", the point at which half of the homes in the U.S. sold for more, and half sold for less.

Last month, the median sales prices were as follows:

Existing homes: Down 8.2 percent
New homes: Down 2.7 percent

The very definition of "median", however, makes this data point useless for national housing statistics.

If a large amount of homes are sold in regions where home prices are traditionally high, the median sales price will trend higher.

If a large amount of homes are sold in regions where home prices are traditionally low, the median sales price will trend lower.

Again, all that the median sales price tells us is the price point at which half the homes in the country sold for more, and half sold for less.

Real estate is a local phenomenon and so grouping the entire country's supply of homes together makes little sense. A home in San Francisco has little to do with a home in Omaha.

To get a true gauge of your local market, talk to a real estate agent that knows the local market well. You'll not only get meaningful statistics about a neighborhood, but you'll get good insights, too.