Do you have a problem with reading simple English . . . . In this post I said exactly nothing of my own opinion. I simply brought facts from the MLS to the table. Exactly how has ocrenter proved anything wrong in terms of what the actual numbers of listed homes for sale on the MLS this year versus last year are???? It may be a challenge for you but re-read the original post in this thread. I only bring the facts. The facts speak for themselves. As Rich’s motto says . . . “In God we trust. Everyone else bring data.” I’m just bringing you the data.
Here ya go coop . . . just in case you missed the first day of Econ 101. There is this little phenomena called Supply and Demand which affects the price of a given commodity, in this case housing. Well the best available hard data on the Supply side of the equation comes from . . . the MLS. Now of course this is only half the equation. Unfortunately there is no hard repository of data indicating exactly how many buyers their are out in the market actively looking to purchase (uh . . . that would be the “Demand”) one of the homes in the “Supply.” All you have is anecdotal evidence in the form of realtors who post here and comment on the current level of traffic and interest. Median Price, Case-Shiller, etc. are all somewhat stale data in that the arms length purchase agreement event of a buyer agreeing to a price with a given seller represented in those numbers is stale by at least 2-3 months. The MLS data is current however. Thus while being only half the equation it is important data.
I know that for most restating the obvious (Econ 101 – Supply/Demand etc) in this way is not necessary. But in your case coop I’ll gladly try to educate you a bit.