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- There are many sources of home price data. But do you know where the data that goes into these measures ultimately comes from?
- While NAR derives its median price measure from sales reported by Realtors® through MLS transactions, and others like FHFA or Freddie Mac use mortgage information, several home price measures—Case-Shiller, Clear Capital, CoreLogic, and LPS—ultimately derive the bulk of their estimates from public records . Given that the bulk of the underlying data is the same, you might expect this to lead to the same result, but it does not.
- Why not? Geographic coverage is part of the explanation; in the search for public records, companies may not cover all of the same localities depending on agreements. However, proprietary methods in which different assumptions regarding weighting (i.e. how important is this sale’s price change versus the next?) and classification of data (i.e. Is this transaction a sale? Is it a distressed or normal sale?) may be a bigger factor.
- Because the methods (and additional data where it is used) are proprietary, it’s difficult to determine the true causes of the differences in home price measures.
- So how do you answer the question of what’s going on with national home prices? It helps to know the range of possible answers by reading summary reports like NAR’s monthly home price monitor. And given the complexity, a straightforward measure—such as NAR’s median sales price which is the median of all MLS sales transactions reported to NAR—may be a good one to use.
Notice: The information on this page may not be current. The archive is a collection of content previously published on one or more NAR web properties. Archive pages are not updated and may no longer be accurate. Users must independently verify the accuracy and currency of the information found here. The National Association of REALTORS® disclaims all liability for any loss or injury resulting from the use of the information or data found on this page.