You can't track small sub-markets (ZIP codes) as a stand-alone entity and expect usable, back-testable results — it's gibberish. Three rules:
- Use Technical Analysis with reliable sample sizes.
- Use TA with the proper time frame.
- Sub-market results are the END point of a complex analysis, not the starting point. Work down from USA → Region → State → Metro → County → City → ZIP → Tract. On the new platform this is exactly the geography-level flow of the Precision Market Tracker — start at the Metro level and drill down.
We've automated the whole process — anyone who can read a traffic signal (the S.T.A.R. red/yellow/green) can do it.
Why the time frame matters — a stock example: on a 4-hour chart, a stock might look like a strong uptrend (up 50% in under two weeks). Would you buy? Trick question — zoom out to the weekly chart and you'd see it's in the middle of a multi-year crash; it lost another half its value shortly after. The 4-hour chart was the wrong time frame and gave false results.
The same happens in real estate, only much slower — it's far more cyclical and predictable if you use the right time frame. Even if you could get valid results from weekly data (you can't), who would want it? It's "can't see the forest for the trees." Plenty of investors jumped back into markets like Las Vegas way too early — and we all saw what happened.