A lot of times when we post the stats there is some confusion about the numbers. I have to admit I don’t always know the answers, but I did get some from the Realtor’s Association of Edmonton this week. Hopefully this clears things up for everyone.
QUESTION:
I am bit confused by the numbers EREB.com is expressing. EREB.com as per July stats says "the unusually high inventory level dropped to 10,501 properties as of July 31, 2008." But when I review the PDF for july 08 in more detail for total listing VS total sales on bottom of page 2 what I see is total no of properties listed to date is 26508 less the total no of properties sold to 11071 which brings the difference to 15437 which should be current inventory for 2008. What I am trying to understand is have 5000 mls listings been withdrawn or just expired and fell off the mls system ?? Anybody have a clarification for me??
ANSWER:
Inventory is the actual count of residential units active (available for purchase) on the MLS at a given point in time. Listings are the number of properties offered. If a listing expires and the property is then relisted (after any period off the market) it counts as another listing but would not increase the inventory. Listings increase through the year. Inventory can vary up or down. Both stats are useful for guaging market activity but in different ways. BTW the total sales figures on page 2 are not the same as total sales numbers on page 1 of the report. That is because page 2 does not include mobile home and other trivial sales categories.
QUESTION:
How does EREB tally up their grand monthly total of SFD sold? Their official figure of 1176 from here http://www.ereb.com/pdf/MonthlyStats.pdf is not the same as the total you get from page 5 of the same document which is 939. (The latter figure is closer to the one on Bob Truman’s website, which is why I did the calculation.)
ANSWER:
The official figure of 1176 residential sales in July includes all sales through the Edmonton MLS which would include sales in rural areas and communities not listed on page 5. The total sales reported on page five are just for the city of Edmonton and the seven communities profiled. Sales in Barrhead, Westlock, Drayton Vallety, Westaskiwin and other communities are not included. The total number of sales reflected on page 5 is meaningless which is why there is no sales total on the Overall number at the bottom. BTW that overall average and median reflects all SFD sales through the MLS and not just those listed on that page.
