B+A Greater Boston

happy to see the difficulty that well-qualified buyers are having securing financing. There needs to be a workable balance and right now we're not there yet." About the Data Sets The tracking of signed purchase and sales agreements (also called "pending sales") provides reliable information about where the real estate market is heading in coming months. A pending sale or a sale "under agreement" is when the buyer and seller agree on the terms of the sale of a home and have signed purchase and sale agreements , but have yet to close and be recorded as such. MAR is the only organization that compiles this statewide information from multiple listing services each month. Monthly pending (or under agreement) data and closed sales data comes from the three Realtor-affiliated multiple listing services in Massachusetts. They are the Berkshire County Multiple L i s t i ng S er v ic e ; C ap e Co d & I s l a nd s A s s o c i a t i o n o f R E A LT O R S Mu l t ip l e Listing Service, Inc.; and MLS Property Infor mation Net work , Inc. The data is compiled by 10K Research and Marketing, Inc. and updated each month. As a result, previous data may change after the reports have been run. The Realtor Index Methodology The M a ssac hu set t s R ea ltor M a rket Con f idenc e I nde x ( R MC I ) a nd P r ic e Confidence Index (R PCI) are based on monthly responses from a random sampling of Massachusetts Association of Realtors member s on t he state of t he housi ng market. More specifically, the survey asks members two basic questions pertaining to the real estate business in their market area in Massachusetts. > How would you describe the current housing market? > What are your expectations of home prices over the next year? In addition to these standard questions, the survey each month includes one wild- card question that changes each month and is based on an industr y hot topic. The RMCI is calculated in the following way. Respondents indicate whether condi- tions are, or are expected to be, "strong" (100 points), "moderate" (50 points) or " wea k " (0 points). The resu lts are t he average score for each question. A score of 50 is the threshold between a "strong" and a "wea k " condition . Similarly, the question about home prices over the next year (Realtor Price Confidence Index) is calculated using five categories: " R ise 0-5%" (75 points), "Rise 5%+" (100 points), " L e v e l " ( 5 0 p o i n t s) , " Fa l l 0 - 5 % " ( 2 5 points) and "Fall >5%" (0 points). n ADVERTISERS' INDEX A&K .............................................................38 ABX .............................................................50 Ackles Steel & Iron Co. Inc. ..........................37 Arbel Services ..............................................51 Audio Innovations, LLC ................................41 Best Tile ................................Inside Back Cover B&M Fence, LLC ..........................................36 California Closets .......................................... 3 Concord Lumber Corporation ......................45 Construction Specialties Unlimited Inc. ..........7 D. A. Somaio Inc. .........................................43 Diane Anton Architectural Photography ...... 54 Dream Flooring ............................................52 Duckham Architecture & Interiors ................48 European Closets by Design ...........................6 Greenstamp Insulation .................................35 Home Listing Photography ...........................52 Horner Millwork ............................................5 Jim Wagner Excavation ................................42 New England Glass ......................................44 NSC Restrooms ............................................47 Ocean State Forms .......................................49 Pella Windows .................. Outside Back Cover Safety Signal ................................................46 Simonton Windows .............Inside Front Cover Toto .............................................................53 T&T Mechanical ........................................... 39 Verne Porter ................................................40

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