As you might expect, data holds a special place in our heart. And so do others who hold a similar opinion like Nate Sumner, a real estate broker in Marin County of California, just outside of San Francisco.

Nate has created an index that looks at the number of sales (actual and pending) that occured in the past 30 days and divides that number by the number of homes available for sale at that point in time.

In effect, the index looks at whether inventory on a market is drying up or flooding in. A high number means there are more buyers than people willing to sell and vice versa, a low number means there are more sellers than buyers (oversimplifying things).

As you might expect, the fourth quarter in Marin county represented a tipping point where the favored negotiating position went from the seller to the buyer.

Nate does a great job on the cities in Marin and we might extend his great efforts in the coming weeks and start to look at other communities in California. If you’d like us to take a look at yours, just comment on this post.