Home-by-home price data doesn't (yet) exist as a sub-market break-out. For a few very large metros we've explored getting more detailed information via Freedom of Information Act filings — an expensive, slow process, but worth a try.
HousingAlerts tracks actual home-price movements across 410 U.S. metro markets (Metropolitan Statistical Areas as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau — a core city plus the counties economically and socially connected to it), and drills down to 3,100+ counties and 27,000+ ZIP codes.
HousingAlerts is the only system that uses actual and repeat home transactions to track home-value changes — the only way to get both:
- Extreme accuracy, and
- Coverage across so many distinct geographic areas.
The only way to get truly accurate home-price data is to track specific purchase and sale transactions for the same home. Even with a database of tens of millions of actual properties, a large enough quarterly "sample size" requires a sizeable geographic area — breaking it down too small hurts accuracy. Other methods (Realtors' "Median Home Price" changes, the Commerce Department's "Constant Quality" reports) simply aren't accurate enough for Technical Analysis; without extreme database accuracy, the results are junk.
HousingAlerts is the first and most important step in the entire investing process. Long before focusing on individual neighborhoods, you must first identify which phase of the market cycle your overall market is in — then, and only then, decide which techniques and objectives fit at the neighborhood level. The most significant driver of real estate wealth is capturing automatic appreciation, so first ask: Should I buy, sell, or hold? Where and when should I invest? What's my hold period and which strategies fit it?
For Local Market Masters (single-market investors), a few simple market-timing indicators can mean the difference between success and failure. For Total Market Masters (maximizing wealth while reducing risk and effort), the key is a bird's-eye view — focusing on hot, emerging markets and avoiding dead or flat ones. Drilling too deeply into neighborhood data too early is a worm's-eye view that loses sight of the forest.