Real Estate Data and Analysis is Local. And always will be

If you haven’t been paying attention to the national real estate data world for the past week, you might have missed the National Association of Realtors responding to claims that it has been inflating housing sales. CNBC notes that:

As for the Realtors’ data, I find this one more disturbing. While some I have spoken with today call the claim by CoreLogic (a housing data provider) that the Realtors overestimated home sales in 2010 by almost 1.5 million, “overblown,” the Realtors themselves admit there is a problem. They are “re-benchmarking” their sales calculation process.

This is a big and important conversation because the NAR’s data, along with Case Schiller, are important, widely read, and depended on by many to ascertain the psychology of buyers, sellers – real estate consumers. Their data tries to demonstrate where we are now in the real estate market and where we’re going.

To which I say – So. What. I trust my local MLS nearly 85.7324%* myself, so why would I trust others more? I’ve said it before, when you’re evaluating the Charlottesville real estate market, ignore the national data; it will only cloud your opinion. Perhaps use it as a guide, but don’t count on it for anything other than high-level, disinterested trend lines.

Or, as my friend Dan Green said this morning:

No matter what Case-Shiller says about the U.S. housing market as a whole, what matters toyour local market is what’s happening in your local market. Each neighborhood has its own economy and that’s something that will never be captured in a national report.

The NAR, along with Case Shiller, Core Logic, etc provide national perspective. I try to provide (for myself and you) local real estate analysis specific to Charlottesville, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Nelson.

I know this: as usual, I agree with Jonathan Miller; “data drift” is the coolest phrase I’ve heard in a while (archived: 2013). “Data drift.” Heh.

If you have questions about the Charlottesville ** real estate market, ask me .

* give or take, depending on the person entering the data.

** “Charlottesville” = Charlottesville, Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna, Nelson, Louisa