Comments on: Houston Real Estate Sales Volume: Off the Charts!

By: RWB

RWB — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:42:26 +0000

I wonder if a chart that measured the delta between same month sales (as a percentage of the earlier sale) would make more sense. So if 2827 houses were sold in Jan 09 and 3250 had been sold in Jan 08, the graph would record that as -13%. This would probably remove (or at least reduce) the seasonality.

(Obviously it wouldn’t be very good propaganda though.)

By: ArlingtonSt

ArlingtonSt — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:25:53 +0000

Saw that HAR got some new charts for the February numbers!

http://www.har.com/mls/dispPressRelease.cfm

Nice work, all.

By: John

John — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:58:58 +0000

Well, this is the profession that redefined “cute,” “cozy,” and “just needs a little TLC!”

In all seriousness, it’s a pretty inexcusable bit of misrepresentation by HAR. You’d hope that an organization of people we’re supposed to trust to help us with the largest purchase of our lives would be more careful to be honest.

By: ArlingtonSt

ArlingtonSt — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:25:03 +0000

That’s great. I love that HAR wanted to quiet down their chart to spare us the noise of small-increment fluctuations, and yet still included the blaring January boxes. Counterproductive to say the least. I guess next we’ll be seeing 24-month moving averages? Or better yet, charts starting with the 80’s bust?
The 3-month avg chart at the bottom makes me want to see a monthly average chart.

By: EMME

EMME — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:41:46 +0000

Good one Ian!

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:31:41 +0000

har har har

By: Brian Thorp

Brian Thorp — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:59:36 +0000

Brilliant observation!