BreakThru Realty

BreakThru Realty Market Data Methodology

BreakThru Realty publishes a housing market report for every city and county it serves, from Miami-Dade to Indian River County. This page explains how those reports are calculated: where the data comes from, how often it refreshes, what counts as active or sold, and what the numbers do not cover.

Methodology reviewed by Tyson E. Sam, Founder and Broker of Record, BreakThru Realty (Florida license 3565210).

Where the Data Comes From

Every figure comes from BeachesMLS, the multiple listing service BreakThru Realty belongs to, read through the Spark API. BeachesMLS carries the listings that brokerages across South Florida and the Treasure Coast enter for sale and for rent, and the closing details they report when a property sells or leases. Software calculates the figures from those listing records; nobody types, rounds or adjusts them by hand.

How Often the Reports Refresh

A report's figures are recalculated once they are more than 24 hours old, and each report shows the date they were calculated. Active, new and under-contract counts describe the market on that date. A sale counts once the listing is marked closed in the MLS, so the last few days before a refresh can still fill in afterwards.

Which Properties Are Counted

Sale figures cover residential listings only; land, commercial property and businesses for sale are left out. Single-family homes are listings with the Single Family Residence subtype. Condos and townhomes are the Condominium and Townhouse subtypes. Other residential subtypes, such as villas, count toward whole-market totals but belong to neither segment. Rental figures come from residential lease listings and are reported separately.

Cities, Counties and Neighborhoods

A city report covers listings whose MLS city field names that city. That is the mailing city, which does not always follow municipal boundaries: a home in an unincorporated area can carry a nearby city's name. A county report covers every listing in the county. Neighborhood figures on city pages match the neighborhood's name in the subdivision name or the listing description, and use the last 180 days of sales instead of 90 because neighborhoods have fewer of them.

Active, Under Contract, New and Sold

Active means the listing's status is Active. Under contract counts Pending and Active Under Contract listings. New listings this week are active listings that came on the market in the last seven days. Sold means a Closed status with a closing date inside the window being measured: 90 days for the market table, 30 days for recent sales, and each calendar month for the twelve-month table. Waterfront counts active listings flagged as waterfront, and luxury counts active listings at or above the threshold shown for that city.

Medians, Price per Square Foot and Days on Market

Prices are medians: the middle value once every qualifying listing is sorted, so one very expensive sale moves it far less than it would move an average. The median list price uses the asking prices of active listings; the median sold price uses the closing prices of sales in the window. Price per square foot divides the price by the living area and skips listings under 300 square feet, which are almost always data-entry errors. Days on market is the average of the MLS days-on-market field: how long active listings have been listed, or how long sold homes took to sell. Sale-to-list is the median of each sale's closing price divided by its final asking price. When more than 2,000 listings qualify, the medians are calculated on the first 2,000 and the report says it is sampled; counts are always the full MLS total.

Months of Inventory and Market Balance

Months of inventory divides the number of active listings by the average number of sales per month over the last 90 days. It is how long today's supply would last at the current pace of sales. Under four months is read as a seller's market, four to six months as balanced and over six months as a buyer's market. Those thresholds are a common rule of thumb, not a law of the market, and single-family homes and condos are measured separately because they often sit on different sides of the line.

Year-over-Year Change and the Twelve-Month Trend

The year-over-year change compares the median sold price of the last 90 days with the median of the same 90 days one year earlier. The twelve-month table groups closed residential sales by the calendar month they closed in; the current month is marked partial until it ends. The twelve-month change quoted in a report compares the first month in the table with the latest complete month. Monthly medians move with the mix of homes that happened to close, so several months in the same direction mean more than any single month.

Inventory Over Time

The MLS reports what is for sale today, not what was for sale on a past date. BreakThru Realty therefore records its own daily snapshot of every report: active listings, new listings, homes under contract, recent sales and median asking prices. The inventory-over-time table and chart come from those snapshots, which begin on the day each report went live.

Rental Figures

Rental figures use residential lease listings, split into houses and townhomes on one side and condos and apartments on the other. The median asking rent uses active rentals; the median leased rent uses leases signed in the last 90 days. Rents below $300 or above $100,000 a month are treated as data-entry errors, and rents quoted as a one-time, seasonal, weekly or nightly amount are left out of the medians because they are not monthly rents. Barns, stalls and boat slips listed for lease are left out of the rental counts.

What the Data Does Not Cover

Only sales that went through the MLS are counted. Private sales, most homes sold directly by builders and for-sale-by-owner transfers never reach it, so they are missing from every figure. Listing agents enter the data and mistakes happen; the rules above filter the obvious ones but not every one. Small markets with only a handful of sales can swing sharply from one month to the next. The reports describe a market, not a particular property, and none of the figures is an appraisal.

Who Is Responsible for the Reports

BreakThru Realty produces the reports. Tyson E. Sam, the brokerage's founder and broker of record (Florida license 3565210), reviews this methodology and the written guidance in each report; the figures themselves are calculated automatically and are never edited. To ask about a figure or report an error, email sales@breakthrurealty.com or call (786) 914-1017.

How to Cite a Report

Quote the report by its name, the data source and the date you read it, with a link to the report page. For example: BreakThru Realty, Broward County Housing Market Report, BeachesMLS data, accessed [the date you read it]. The figures change every day, so the date matters.

BreakThru Realty Housing Market Reports

Every report is also organised by topic on BreakThru Realty Research.

BreakThru Realty Miami-Dade County Housing Market Report

BreakThru Realty Broward County Housing Market Report

BreakThru Realty Palm Beach County Housing Market Report

BreakThru Realty Martin County Housing Market Report

BreakThru Realty St. Lucie County Housing Market Report

BreakThru Realty Indian River County Housing Market Report

Frequently Asked Questions

How often are BreakThru Realty's housing market reports updated?
Daily. Each report is recalculated from BeachesMLS once its figures are more than 24 hours old, and the report shows the date of the latest calculation.
What is months of inventory?
Months of inventory is the number of homes for sale divided by the average number of homes sold per month over the last 90 days. Under four months favors sellers, over six favors buyers, and four to six is usually called balanced.
Why can the median price differ from other real estate websites?
Sites measure different things: asking prices or closing prices, 30, 90 or 365 days, a city's mailing area or its municipal boundary, and all residential property or only single-family homes. BreakThru Realty reports single-family homes and condos separately, uses closing prices for sold figures and states each window next to the number.
Are the figures in a market report an appraisal?
No. A market report describes a whole city or county. The value of one home depends on its own size, condition, location and the recent sales most like it, which is what a comparative market analysis or an appraisal measures.

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