Let’s start with the Standard, and Poors Case Schiller report link: http://www.standardandpoors.com/indices/sp-case-shiller-home-price-indices/en/us/?indexId=spusa-cashpidff–p-us—-
Next up is Zillow: http://www.zillow.com/
And Trulia: http://www.trulia.com/
We also have our own North West Multiple Listing Service: http://www.nwrealestate.com/nwrpub/
There is a lot of information about Real Estate on the internet. You can also go to any Brokerage’s web site to do a search for homes. There is also a wide variety of statistics that come with the home search, but most fall back on the report links I just posted.
A fact of life is that none of it means anything unless you can read the data from a historical, experienced, and forward thinking perspective.
When I was a kid you had to go down town to the Assessor’s office, and County Records to get information about property. There was always the same group of guys hanging around down there. Some of them would go to the foreclosure auctions, some were just doing research.
The point is that this was a dedicated group.
The information age has given us a shot gun approach to data, and statistics. There is a ton of information out there. For real estate most data is sales statistics. It’s how much people paid for properties, and the price per square foot they paid. Many people try to read larger economic information into those statistics. There may be some, but not that much.
I’m going to use Las Vegas as an example. I just read a report saying that high unemployment was to blame for the huge price drops in property. Sales of single family homes is very low, and prices are continuing to decline.
Actually prices are just returning to normal, and the job market there is as strong as it ever was. The only difference is that all the construction jobs left after they over built the residential housing market by a few thousands, or tens of thousands, or maybe a million.
So looking at housing market statistics can be fun, but it takes some perspective to know what it means.
