The four numbers, in one breath

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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: the average sale-to-list ratio for homes that sold in week 1, week 2 … week 13+, with the number of sales behind each row and a Vs asking column that labels each row Above, Near or Below asking from its own number. The page then compares two groups of sold homes: those that sold in the first four weeks and those in the last row (13 weeks or more). The size of that gap is different in every market, and in some markets the weeks in between sit above asking, so read the table for your market before you quote it. The page also works the gap out on a $400,000 home.

Never present the gap as what one seller lost: the two groups are different homes, and the numbers describe a pattern, not what any one sale would have done. Where the table gives no usable comparison, say nothing about percentages.

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

Fill-in-the-blank openers

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.

Links to send a client

Every market page on this site

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.