The purpose of the statistics is to show averages and trends in the Saratoga real estate market. I make every effort to insure the accuracy in both the collection and presentation of this information, but I cannot guarantee its accuracy. Please consult with a Realtor or other trusted adviser before making any real estate decisions.
The statistics are for single family homes, unless otherwise stated. The reason is simply because that's the topic most people are interested in.
Unless otherwise stated, new construction is omitted.
Unless otherwise stated, all statistics used on this website come from Paragon, the Capital Region Multiple Listing Service (the "MLS"). As discussed below, this does not cover every last single family resale transaction, but it probably covers between 95% and 98%, which is more than adequate for the purpose of showing averages and trends.
These statistics do not include homes which are sold For Sale By Owner ("FSBO"). According to the most recent NAR survey, arms-length FSBO transactions accounted for only 7% of all sales, and have historically accounted for approximately 2% of all sales.
You will find that most blog postings use data ending from several days in the past (in the case of Weekly Updates) to several weeks in the past (in the case of Quarterly and Yearly reports). The reason for this is that not all Realtors are punctual when it comes to updating information in the MLS.
By way of example, if one were to search for closed transactions from Monday through the following Friday on Friday evening at 7 P.M., the number would be different than if you performed the same search the following Monday, since some Realtors who closed transactions on Thursday or Friday wouldn't get around to inputting that information into the MLS until over the weekend. Therefore, I wait a for a period of time to give Realtors time to update the MLS.
A few transactions still may not find their way into the data used on this site. This should of no concern, since the purpose of the data are to show averages and trends. For that purpose, there are ample data. If for some reason you need to know the precise number of transactions during a given period, you could check the public records, but even then it is possible that someone could forget to record a deed.