Look for the Message in Real Estate Market Reports

Depending on your point of view, you can read a real estate market report and draw completely different conclusions than Joe Blow Realty down the street. Consumers find it difficult to understand the market because they don't whose opinion to trust. You can pretty much read a market report any which way you want.

Few real estate agents want to talk about how bad the market might be. They tend to gravitate toward the positive news in a market report and focus on that. For example, I read a Trendgraphix press release last week that my company puts out. The headline was "Pending Sales Rebound." The headline might be designed to make a reader conclude that the market is recovering.

Further on in the press release you learn that, in Sacramento, inventory jumped in June by 8% and sales declined by 3%. In fact, the per-square-foot price dropped 2% to $125.

Because I list a lot of homes all over the county, I am constantly preparing a CMA in dozens of areas for sellers. I see a different picture than most agents because my view is not concentrated on one specific neighborhood. I see active and pending sales prices that are lower than the last 3 months of comparable sales. That means prices are falling. So a 42% increase in pending sales doesn't mean diddly-squat. Pending sales increased in June over May last year, too.

More Articles by Elizabeth Weintraub:

• How to Price Your House
  
• The Worst Mistake a Seller Can Make
  
• How to Handle an Expired Listing

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_{At the time of writing, Elizabeth Weintraub, DRE # 00697006, is a Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate in Sacramento, California.}