HousingTracker.net is now Department Of Numbers

Posted Friday, February 18 2011

I've moved a project I started back in 2005 over to DoN. HousingTracker.net was and is my attempt to get a real-time look at home asking price and inventory trends by inspecting online residential real estate listings in a consistent manner. I started the site because there was no way to get a timely look at pricing and inventory data in the midst of what turned out to be a huge bubble. I remember looking at asking prices in San Diego and LA and seeing 3%+ month-over-month changes for months on end. Wild times!

These days you don't see much crazy price appreciation. The current theme is flat to down pricing and growing inventories. Prior to 2005 there was low inventory because the demand was so high. In 2009-2010 there was (relatively) lower inventory for exactly the opposite reason; the demand was low (maybe even lower than we first thought). We're now witnessing the slow but widely anticipated emergence of the so-called shadow inventory. HousingTracker can give you a timely peak at that trend for the 54 cities I'm currently tracking. Take a look.

Update: I added back the full price history table for each metropolitan area. I very quickly heard from a number of you that the data was missed. Thanks for that feedback!