Buyers and Sellers should be asking their agents for up to date current market information, especially when we are all looking for the best time to buy or sell and what is the current market value for a home.  You should definitely have as much data on the market you are buying or selling in to help you make wise choices.  Looking at the entire market is fine, including those active listings gives you a sense of the competition but pay close attention to those properties that successfully closed as well as those who's listing has expired.

Successfully closed properties gives you a true sense of what the current market value is in a particular area.  Keep the view to the previous six months with an emphasis on the most recent closes. Then look at those listings that did not sell, expired listings, and compare their prices against those on the market and those that have sold.

In the end, understand your goals, if you really need or want to move soon, price is the most important lever at your disposal.  All of the other surrounding elements of the Marketing Plan will boost your odds for success, but they will almost never help if the home is priced out of the market.  You never really know, this business runs on emotion so the right buyer can come along and be willing to pay above market value ... but you need to ask yourself if you really want to go through all the efforts and emotion of selling and looking if your odds of selling are low.

 Below is one of the visuals I use to help me understand the market.  It shows New Listings, Closed, On Deposits back to January of 2006 up to February 9, 2007.  In the current month I look in smaller frames to get a sense of what is currently happening....we are all looking for that tipping point where Deposits begin to equal or outpace New Listings, at this point you will start to see a shift to stabilizing and increasing prices.

Contact me with any questions or your own insights of the local market.

Tom Burland -

email tom.burland@cbmoves.com  web site www.ct-shore-homes.com or visit me back at Active Rain