Use Local Market Data for an Edge in the Home Purchase Process

Leverage matters when you’re negotiating on a home purchase, and local housing data can give you that edge, say real estate agents. You can use that data throughout the home purchase process to shape how much you offer, which contingencies you include, and how much you can successfully push back during negotiations.

“Local conditions often eclipse broader market conditions,” says Hannah Jackson, a real estate professional with Coldwell Banker Warburg in New York City.

REALTORS®, who are members of the National Association of REALTORS®, can turn to market data tools such as the REALTORS Property Resource® and the Metro Market Dashboard. These NAR resources provide metro- and neighborhood-level insights into pricing, inventory, affordability, and demand. Agents use this information to show buyers how to prepare to purchase a home by setting a realistic budget and deciding when and how aggressively to make an offer.

The Local Housing Data You Need — and What It Means

The following factors help define your local market, and you can use them to negotiate buying a home:

• Inventory: The number of homes currently for sale in a specific area. Higher inventory typically means more choices for buyers and less urgency (aka buyer negotiating leverage).
• Asking prices: The prices sellers are listing their homes for, often based on multiple factors like the property’s condition, price per square foot, and market conditions. Comparing asking prices to recent sales can reveal whether sellers are pricing aggressively or leaving room to negotiate.
• Sales price: The amount homes are actually selling for, not just what sellers hope to get. This data helps buyers determine fair market value using comparative sold properties.
• Days on the market: The average number of days homes take to sell. Chad Carroll, president of The Carroll Group at Compass in Miami Beach, Fla., says homes selling in less than three months in his market typically point to strong demand, whereas listings lingering beyond three months — particularly past six months — suggest a more buyer-friendly environment.
• Price reductions: A high percentage of listings with price cuts can signal that demand isn’t keeping up with supply.
• Absorption rate: The pace at which available homes are selling. This metric could indicate whether a market tends to be favoring buyers or sellers.

Agents also monitor broader local trends, such as the prevalence of cash buyers, shifts in mortgage rates, and increases in foreclosures or short sales. These factors could subtly reshape competition in a market.

Buyer’s Market or Seller’s Market?

While buyers often hear broad labels used to describe the housing market, agents caution that they can oversimplify reality.

“If you are not actively reviewing the microdata for an area, the mere knowledge that it’s a ‘buyer’s’ or ‘seller’s’ market could do more harm than good in negotiations, pricing, and timing,” Jackson says. “It is so important when determining negotiation power on either side to really understand what the microdata is.”

How Microdata Works

Jackson points to microdata like nearby development plans, building or area turnover, and the seasonality of a specific area. Even financing thresholds and post-closing liquidity rules for co-ops, which dominate the inventory in Jackson’s market, can be important microdata.

Plus, real estate markets can shift dramatically between neighborhoods in the same city. “For property comps, we get as specific as possible, breaking the data down by neighborhood, building, street, bed/bath count, and price point,” Carroll says. “Every segment of the market behaves differently, whether that is single-family homes versus condos or one price tier versus another.”

Listen to the Market and the Data

Local data may reset preconceived expectations, reflecting real market conditions rather than assumptions. Jackson recalls working with sellers whose home initially failed to sell after being priced above what she showed the micromarket data supported. After a year of trying to find an agent to list at their preset price and gaining no traction, the sellers eventually relisted with her at the data-backed price she originally suggested.

“We received multiple offers and closed close to the listed price,” she says. It could have happened a year earlier if the seller had listened to what the data was saying.

Start Online but Don’t Stop There

While most buyers start their home search online, that’s only a starting point. “Online data does not replace boots-on-the-ground knowledge,” Carroll says. “Buyers need an advocate who understands the nuances of a specific submarket, not just the numbers on the screen.”

A local real estate agent adds context — for example, how homes are truly showing, seller motivation, and subtle differences in quality or location that can affect value. Agents also understand details that photos and listings don’t reveal, such as differences in finishes, layouts, or location in a neighborhood. Those factors can significantly affect long-term value.

“We have been in these neighborhoods and inside these homes,” Carroll says. “That level of detail does not show up online in pictures, but it often makes the difference between overpaying and securing the right property at the right price.”

Melissa Dittmann Tracey is an award-winning journalist covering the housing market. You can hear her weekly as the host of Real Estate Today. She is also the creator of the Styled, Staged & Sold blog and a contributing editor for REALTOR® News. Follow her on Instagram @housingmuse.

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