2010 Annual Year End Stats Coming March 2

As usual this time of year, brokers and agents have passed along inquiries regarding the whereabouts of the annual Year End stats and when this data will be available. The Year End aggregate data will be published within Detailed Reports for each County the week of March 2 (Note, this date had to be moved back a week due to unforeseen issues requiring additional processing time). We'll explain the reason for the publication date below (skip to the end to view the revised stats release schedule)...

MRIS has historically pulled the previous year's aggregate stats in the mid-February timeframe in order to allow for any procrastinating agents out there to submit closed transactions from last year, and RBI will be following the same schedule.

This release date is based on the MLS-mandated Feb. 1 deadline for agents to submit any outstanding comparable data for the prior year to the system. Because these one-time annual snapshots offer valuable trending comparisons against prior years, it is critical that we follow the same methodology to prevent users from comparing apples and oranges.

Our methodology includes a rigorous review and cleansing process once the yearly data has been pulled. If, for the sake of expediency, RBI were to change course and generate the prior year's snapshot on say, January 10th, then the validity of any comparisons with years past would be compromised.

On a related matter, while we continue to enhance our data extraction and aggregation processes (within our new DB that has been dubbed "Oranges"...so creative), we are aiming to include quarterly, yearly, and year-to-date increments in our Interactive Charts and reports at some point in Q1.  In any area with relatively low monthly volume, being able to report on the aggregate Median Sold Price for a given quarter or YTD often offers a more statistically relevant view of market performance. Presently the data is only bucketed by month - more than serviceable, but we'd like to give our users more flexibility. Aggregating data at these new time increments may seem straightforward, but the actual work involved in pulling these new increments historically is really quite an undertaking. Betsy (Head Data Geek) and team are working hard to get this done - stay tuned!

To sum up, here's the (revised) schedule related to new data releases:

• February 10th: January 2011 Stats released
• Week of March 1: 2010 Annual Year-End Stat reports available
• By end of Q1: Quarterly/Yearly/YTD increments integrated into online charts

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to post them below or email us directly via the 'Contact Us' form.