Higher means stronger conditions for sellers
The Pulse scores each market on its own numbers, measured against fixed benchmarks for what a seller-favoured, balanced or buyer-favoured market looks like. Other markets never move a market's score. It is a reading of current conditions, not a price forecast.
- 80–100
- Strong Seller Advantage
- 60–79
- Seller Leaning
- 40–59
- Balanced
- 30–39
- Buyer Leaning
- 0–29
- Strong Buyer Advantage
A base from buyer demand, adjusted by three checks
The score starts from pending demand, then moves up or down depending on how the rest of the market is behaving.
- The base: pending demand
- The number of homes under contract divided by active listings, averaged over the last 90 days. This counts every under-contract status a local market uses, not only "pending". A ratio of 30% starts the base at 30. The ratio can exceed 100% when there are more homes under contract than active listings.
- Market pace
- How long sold homes took to sell. Around 60 days leaves the score unchanged; faster sales add points and slower sales take them away.
- Months of supply
- How long the homes for sale would last at the recent pace of sales. Around four and a half months leaves the score unchanged; tighter supply adds points and a deeper supply takes them away.
- Sale price vs. asking price
- How close homes sell to their asking price. Selling near full price adds points; bigger discounts take them away.
Each of the three checks can move the score by a limited amount, so buyer demand always sets the starting point. If a check isn't available for a market, it simply doesn't adjust the score.
Published scores range from 0 to 100. A current or 90-day average pending ratio above 100% receives a score of 100, regardless of the other checks. Markets without enough data remain unscored; they do not receive the minimum score.
Why demand comes first
Homes go under contract weeks before they close, so pending activity is the most direct read on what buyers are doing right now.
- Why a 90-day average
- A single week can swing on a holiday or a batch of new listings. Averaging the last 90 days keeps the score steady and reflects the market people are actually living through. Markets with less history use the readings we have so far.
- Why the three checks
- Demand alone can mislead. A market with very few homes for sale, quick sales and full-price offers is tighter than its contract count suggests, and the reverse is true too. The checks correct for that without overriding what buyers are doing.
When we don't publish a number
- A market needs at least 15 homes available and pending activity on record to be scored at all.
- With fewer than 10 recent sales we leave out the sale-price check and mark the market "Limited recent closing data".
Pulse today, trend over time
Corrected weekly history starts in October 2026. Until a full 90-day window has accumulated, the average uses only the corrected readings available.
The Market Pulse describes what a market feels like right now. It is not yet a measure of change over time. We store a new reading every week, so once there is enough history, each market page will also show which direction it has been moving. Until then we won't claim a market has shifted.