Sales are up - really!

There's been some concern voiced by members that CBR is reporting higher levels of sales than last year but the market feels slower. This may be due to the high inventory (23 percent more than last year). Or it may simply be that members are checking statistics in particular areas or pulling numbers differently. Therefore, here is detailed information for February and background on how the statistics are pulled.

MLS Activity Report Comparison - February 2005 v. 2006 (Residential)

The chart referenced above is a comparison of MLS Activity Reports from February of 2006 and February 2005 and shows a 3.5 percent increase in sales over last year. The Activity report is pulled twice - on the first Monday of each month and on the second Tuesday. The second report becomes static and will never change. This is necessary as the status of listings changes on a daily basis which is why we cannot pull a report today that shows how many properties were active or in contract in February 2005.

The statistics reported to the media (found on page 58) shows a 10 percent increase over last year. These statistics are pulled between the 15th and 20th of each month. We do this because the second Tuesday of each month (when the Activity report is pulled/kept) can sometimes occur very early in the month. The later we pull the statistics, the more reflective they are of the previous month's activity. To demonstrate, following are numbers pulled for February 2006 on various dates throughout the month.

	Active	Sold
03/13/06	NA	1,552
03/17/06	15,429	1,579
03/23/06	15,590	1,598
03/26/06	15,703	1,602

The increases noted above are actually less significant than the past few years when sold data was known to increase anywhere from 3-14 percent between the 10th and 20th of the month. This could be due in part to the MLS fine warnings that have been issued prompting members to report changes in listing status in a more timely fashion.

SOLD NON MLS data is not included. The SOLD NON MLS status was added to the MLS system in September 2005. These numbers are not included in the statistics provided to the media or in the Activity Reports provided here. FYI - there were only 24 properties with this status in February 2006.

Both the Activity report and data provided to the media are for RESIDENTIAL (single family, condo and fee simple) only. In February, there were 198 condos, 13 fee simple and 1368 single family homes sold for a total of 1,579.

Although MLS areas have been revised to better reflect the areas served, no new territory has been added to our MLS jurisdiction. Although this chart is only for the month of February, you can see which MLS areas experienced increases and decreases. We hope this helps to clarify our reporting methods and where our market is experiencing growth.