This is a GREAT question – asked by everyone interested in buying, selling or even renting. Unfortunately, there is no one magic answer except to say that it depends on what you are trying to do.
For some, they are wondering how long it would take to sell their home in today’s market, for others, they are wondering about how many properties are for sale in their price range to purchase or rent. Still, some people just want a general understanding of the market that might look like the following: Are prices trending up, or down? (which really depends on your location, price point, and quality of homes for sale), Is this a buyers or seller’s market? (which also depends on your specific price range, time to close, and availability of supply of both homes for sale and homes recently sold).
For the sake of simplicity (though not necessarily accuracy or precision, we’ve decided to put a couple regional averages – like the ones you’d see in the Orange County Register, or the Case-Shiller Housing Index (unfortunately they are not a very detailed metric, but they can serve as the starting place for great conversations).
The first metric is the regional value trend for average sale prices (again this includes everything from inexpensive condos through multi-million dollar estates for sale).
We also decided to add a metric to let consumers see the trend of list prices for homes in the regional market, again, not very accurate, but at least a decent place to begin a great conversation.