Trying to wrap your arms around market data in Northern Virginia these days is like trying to catch a greased pig at the county fair.  Everyone has a different take on the numbers and trying to figure out why might get you a blue ribbon but that is about all.

Recently I read a market report indicating only one townhouse had sold in a local neighborhood last year.  Instinctively I knew the data was incorrect.  There was just no way that only one townhouse sold in this very popular local neighborhood.

So  I went to the MLS to check the data.  This is where the slippery pig appeared.  How do you define a neighborhood?  Is it by geographic location, is it by how the "locals" classify the neighborhood or is it by the county tax records.  If two neighborhoods run together geographically and by'locals" definition, are they really one?  Or is it only the tax record definition that makes them a neighborhood?

At first when I ran my MLS search I came up with sixteen sales to their one. So of course I figured it had to be our definition of the neighborhood that accounted for this big discrepency.  But then when I looked at the report I noticed how they had defined the neighborhood.  Our definition of the neighborhood appeared to be the same.  So our numbers should have been the same or at least a lot closer.  How did they miss fifteen sales and what impact does that have on a buyer or seller looking for a market comparison?

There is no way to know how they actually derivered their data but it points out how two agents can look at the same information in the MLS and draw two different conclusions.  Buyers and sellers depend on us to give them the best information possible.  Every number tells a story and I'm going to read the whole book not just the cliff notes. I want to make sure the information I provide to my client's covers every chapter and not just the last  one.