Realtors issue snapshot on local housing market

Globe Staff

The Massachusetts Association of Realtors is debuting a new metric today that aims to track expectations about local housing prices.

On a monthly basis, the association issues reports based on completed home sales in the commonwealth. That data can have a lag time in predicting current market trends. The new Massachusetts Realtor Market Index, or RMI, is designed to provide a real-time snapshot of the housing market by seeking to quantify "the opinions of members who are working with buyers and sellers each day in the Massachusetts real estate market," the association said.

"While we believe that the sales data we issue each month provides the most accurate picture of the state’s housing market, we think that consumers also would like to know the current market perceptions of our Realtor members," association president Kevin Sears said in a statement. "Our monthly Realtor Market Index will complement the hard sales data by tapping into a sample of our 20,000 members across the state to track changes and trends in the market before they become apparent in the monthly sales numbers.

The association's press release added: "In January 2010, the Realtor Market Index was 34.30, which was 98.81 percent higher than the 17.25 score recorded in January 2009. On a month-to-month basis, the January 2010 RMI was up less than one percent from the December 2009 score of 34.15. Measured on a 100-point scale, a score of 50 is the midpoint between a 'strong' (100 points) and a 'weak' (0 points) market condition."