Market Trends: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The table is updated daily. The graphs are updated weekly.

The most common case is that Redfin opened our search site on that date, so we don't have any more historical data. However because we can usually historical data from public records, we may have sales data further back. In smaller areas, there just be no sales or listings of that particular type during that time period. For example, a neighborhood may be almost comprised of condos. In that case, there will be few single family homes shown and the lines for those appear only during those rare occasions.

This may happen when Redfin enters a new market. There may be many homes for sale now, we may not have been in a market long enough to create a trend line for that market. The graphs will appear when Redfin has been in the market for 6 weeks.

The graphs, summary, and list of homes at the top of the page update at different rates. Because the graphs are updated weekly, homes that are newly placed on the market may not be reflected in those graphs right away even though they are displayed in the summary and list of homes at the top of the page. This is most evident in areas with very few homes since each home can have a much greater impact on the graphs.

Once again, this is an issue with how long Redfin has been servicing a market. Even though there may be many homes for sale now, we may not have been in a market long enough to create a trend line for that market. So the $/Sq. Ft. graphs may only have sold data until we have been in a market long enough to have a trend line for list data.

While Redfin has the most homes for sale in a market, we do not have all the homes for sale. No site has all the homes for sale. However, all sales from any source are recorded by assessors so we get the data for all sales. To see all the types of homes Redfin has for sale, go to the The Most Homes page.

This can happen when Redfin adds a new type of home to the ones we display. For example, originally Redfin only showed MLS listings. Then we expanded to show FSBO and foreclosures. We are constantly striving to add more homes. These new types of homes for sale typically do not represent a large percentage of the homes for sale but they can be noticeable in the graphs.

The price reductions graphs includes BOTH homes that were sold OR simply taken off the market. The sold price graphs inlcudes ONLY homes that have actually sold. Some areas may have only homes taken off the market but did not sell in the last 90 days. Also, there needs to be enough sold data to create a graph so even if a home did sell, not enough homes sold to make a graph.

The count of Homes for Sale in the table removes duplicate listings of the same home. For example, certain markets such as Southern California have multiple MLSs that overlap service areas. Many homes are listed in all the MLS that cover a specific area. The map shows all the listings separately. The summary table removes all the duplicate listings so a home should be counted only once.

There are 2 reason why we use homes sold or taken off the market and not just sold.

• For graphs about inventory, if a home is taken off the market for any reason, sold or otherwise, it is no longer available for sale and has the same affect on the ability to purchase as being sold.
• It is difficult to know when a home has sold in a timely manner. Many MLSs do not provide data when a home is sold. The listing is simply pulled from the MLS with no indication as to the reason. The best way to know a home has sold is to look up public records but there is typically a delay from when a home has sold to the time is shows up in public records. As a result, in order to provide the timeliest data, we have chosen to display homes that have been sold or taken off the market in the last 90 days. We only include sold homes in the sold price and sold price/sq. ft. table because the list and sale price may not be the same.

Sales are discrete events and there may be many days or weeks between home sales for any given area even if there are many homes for sale. If we graphed just the sales only on any given day, there would be drops to zero for most of the graph and spikes when a home sells. Using homes taken off the market in the last 90 days smooths the lines to make the graphs easier to interpret. The range of the past 90 days is also a well established period to do a CMA in most markets.

There are three ways to access these pages:

• You can see all the cities, neighborhoods, or zip code where a specific listing is located in the bottom left corner of the full home details page. Remember that a home may be in several neighborhoods at the same time. The list price and price per square foot is only for the type of home currently being viewed. For example, if you are currently looking at a listing for a house, you will see the values for houses. If you are looking at a condo, you will see the value for condos.
• If you do a search for a city, neighborhood, or ZIP code in the map i.e. you see a red polygon on the map, you will see a link to these pages in the search summary box in the upper left hand corner of the map.
• If you are already on a city, neighborhood, or ZIP codes overview page, you can click the links in the upper right hand corner of the page to see other cities, neighborhoods, or zip codes in the area.