Questions:

How often do the Micro Market Indicator Maps get updated?

Why do the Micro Market Indicator Maps show the date “Preliminary”?

Why do the Micro Market Indicator Maps only show the ‘year’ as the date?

Answer:

Micro Markets, which consist of counties, zip codes and neighborhoods, require special and unique analysis methods compared to metropolitan markets,

The ‘problem’ with micro markets is that they typically do not have enough actual home sale transactions in a given time period to provide a statistically valid sample size for precision analysis.

Our Technical Analysis based market scoring and ranking tools require maximum accuracy, which can only be obtained from tracking specific, actual home sales. (Inferior micro market analysis approaches sacrifice accuracy and reliability by attempting to use cheap, readily available data sourced from Multiple Listing Services (MLS) or elsewhere.

We employ custom, proprietary technology to periodically update and analyze all micro market data throughout the year, as follows:

Step 1:
In the second calendar quarter of each year, (after there is enough micro market data to get started), we download the new data available and begin the current year analysis process. We assign the current year as the date and call it “Preliminary” because this is just the first of several updates.

The data will continue to be noted as ‘Preliminary’ throughout the year because it will go through several rounds of updates during the year and into the next year.

Step 2:
Finalize the previous year’s ‘ending’ data by reconciling it to the current year’s ‘starting’ data and remove the ‘Preliminary’ designation.

Step 3:
Throughout the year and into the following year, continue to upload new micro market data and provide ongoing updates while keeping the ‘Preliminary’ designation.

Upload new micro market data when it becomes available in the next calendar year, repeat the cycle starting with Step 1 above.

NOTE: Micro market maps and tools will not match the metro level maps and tools exactly because of the different methodologies and a greater time delay in obtaining and curating micro market data.