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Explaining the market to clients

Every number our market pages, PDF reports, Facebook carousels and emails show — how it's computed, the cut-offs we use, what to say, and what not to say. Same words, every surface.

Start here

The four numbers, in one breath

Median priceHalf of the year's sales closed above this price, half below — steadier than an average, which one big sale can swing.
Sale-to-listThe sale price as a share of the final asking price. 100% is full ask; above 100% means homes are selling over asking.
Avg days on marketThe average number of days a home was listed before it sold this year. Fewer days means a faster market.
Months of supplyHow long today's listings would take to sell at the recent pace of sales. Under 5 months favours sellers; 7 or more favours buyers.

These are the exact definitions on the last slide of every monthly carousel and at the bottom of every market email — so a client who has seen the post has already heard them once.

Supply

Months of supply — the verdict behind "buyer's" or "seller's"

Formula: homes for sale right now ÷ average homes sold per month over the last 12 months. Cut-offs: under 5 months = seller's market, 5–7 = balanced, 7 or more = buyer's market. The gauge on every market page uses these three zones and nothing else.

Say it like this
"There are 63 homes for sale in Gander and the market has been absorbing about 16 a month, so that's roughly four months of supply. Under five is a seller's market — tight supply, firm prices."

Two honest exceptions

  • Small markets (under 15 sales year-to-date). We withhold the verdict. Two listings coming or going swings the number, so Gambo, Eastport or Fogo Island get a "Small market" tag instead of a buyer's/seller's call. Tell the client: "Too few sales for a trend call — your home stands on its own comparables."
  • St. John's neighbourhoods. Active-listing counts are only reliable city-wide, so Downtown, East End, West End, North End, Galway, Kenmount and South St. John's show no months-of-supply at all. Use the St. John's Metro read for balance; the neighbourhood's own price, days on market and sale-to-list stand.
Demand vs. fresh supply

Sales-to-new-listings ratio

Homes sold in a month as a share of homes newly listed that month — CREA's standard balance measure. Under 40% favours buyers, over 60% favours sellers. Our pages show the rolling three-month figure (a single month swings on a handful of sales), with the latest month underneath. When it disagrees with months of supply, that is a real signal: standing inventory and current flow are telling different stories — say so rather than pick one.

Price

Median vs. average — and why we lead with the median

The median is the middle sale: half sold for more, half for less. One $900,000 sale in a community that trades 15 homes a year drags the average up sharply and leaves the median almost untouched. Our cards and emails headline the median; the pages show both. In a small market, trust the median.

Why the card says 120 and the website says 122

The Facebook card, the PDF and every email use the complete-month window (January 1 to the end of the last month the board has finished reporting — "2026 Snapshot · Jan–Aug"). The live website page also counts the partial current month and labels it ("January 1 – September 6"). Both are right; the label tells you which. If a client asks, that is the whole answer.

Days on market on every surface is the average (list date to sale) — the same number on the card, the PDF, the page and the email.

Resale only — new construction is counted separately

Every headline number (cards, PDF, pages, emails, year-over-year) is a resale. A sale counts as new construction when the home sold within a year of being built, or was listed as new, under construction or to be built. New builds appear on their own in each market page's What's Selling section and in the PDF, with their count, share, median and days on market. Say it plainly: "Our resale median is $X; new builds are running about $Y, and they're about Z% of the sales here this year." Where the new-build share is high (Paradise, CBS, parts of Gander) that split is the whole story for a buyer choosing between the two.

The seller conversation

Days on market and what it costs — the pricing-strategy story

Every market page (Pricing & Trends → Pricing Strategy) and every PDF report carries a week-by-week table: sale-to-list ratio for homes that sold in week 1, week 2 … week 13+. The pattern repeats across our markets: homes priced right sell in the first few weeks at or near full ask; the ones still unsold after six weeks close well below their last asking price. The page does the math on a $400,000 home so you don't have to.

Say it like this
"Homes here that sell in the first few weeks get about 100% of asking. Past six weeks it slips to about 92% — on a $400,000 home that's roughly $33,000 left on the table. Overpricing doesn't delay the sale, it reduces what you walk away with."

Pull this month's live numbers for your areas from This month's talking points — regenerated the morning the monthly report posts.

Scripts

Fill-in-the-blank openers

To a seller
"[Community] is a [seller's / buyer's / balanced] market right now — [N] homes for sale, about [X] months of supply. The median sale this year is [$], and homes are taking about [D] days to sell. The ones that sell fastest are priced to that number from day one; I'd rather price you there than chase the market down."
To a buyer
"[Community] is a [seller's / buyer's / balanced] market right now. Well-priced homes are going in about [D] days at [S]% of asking, so on the right one we'll need to move. Anything that's been sitting past six weeks is where we have room to negotiate."
Small market
"[Community] only trades a handful of homes a year, so I read the numbers as direction, not precision — the median this year is [$] and homes are taking about [D] days. Your home will be priced off its own comparables, which I'll pull for you."
House rules

What not to say

  • No individual sold prices in public or on social. A specific home's sale price is VOW-gated (CREA Rule 5(k)) — it lives behind the sign-in on our sold pages. Aggregates (median, average, sale-to-list) are fine anywhere.
  • No forecasts, no guarantees. "Prices are up 3% year to date" is a fact; "prices will keep rising" is not ours to say.
  • Don't call a small market hot or cold. Under 15 sales a year: direction, not precision.
  • Cite the source every time: "Source: NLAR MLS® · data through [date]" — the exact line on every card, page and PDF. Recent months keep filling in as sold notices are processed, so say "reported so far" for the latest month.
  • Team-branded, not agent-branded, on market posts. A market statistic is a brokerage post; your listings and sold posts carry your name.
Where everything lives

Links to send a client

This month's talking points Market statistics (main page) Glossary — months of supply Glossary — sales-to-new-listings Glossary — median vs. average CMA Builder Our Facebook page

Every market page on this site

Appleton & GlenwoodEastport PeninsulaFogo Island & Change IslandsGamboGanderGander LoopGlovertownLewisporteNotre Dame BayTwillingate

Each market page has a free downloadable PDF report (name + email form at the bottom) — the same report the monthly newsletter sends. Point a client there rather than forwarding a PDF, and they'll get the updated one every month.