Frequently Asked Questions

The following is a list of some of the more commonly asked questions people ask us. If you have a question that is not included below, send us your request either through email or through our information request forms.

Statistics and Charts

Q. What do the labels at the top of the Cities and Zones charts mean?

A. The labels are explained as follows:

• "PSF List" refers to the past four weeks average per square foot listing price. For example, if the average listing price is $600,000 and the average square footage for houses being listed is 2,000 square feet, the average per square foot listing price would be $300 PSF ($600,000/2,000).



• "PSF Sell" refers to the past four weeks average per square foot selling price. For example, if the average selling price is $700,000 and the average square footage for houses recently sold is 2,000 square feet, the average per square foot selling price would be $350 PSF ($700,000/2,000).



• "Squ Feet" refers to the average square feet of homes either listed or sold within the past four weeks.



• "Days to Sell" refers to the average number of days is has taken to sell those homes sold within the past four weeks.



• "12 Mo. Chg" refers to the percentage change (increase or decrease) in the per square foot selling price ("PSF Sell"). The percentage change is calculated with a smoothing function in order to screen out the sometimes volatile changes in pricing on a week-to-week or month-to-month basis.



• "Rank" refers to how the community has performed relative to all other communities in the North Los Angeles County and Conejo Valley areas. The 12-month percentage changes are calculated for each city and then sorted from lowest to highest. A value of 1 is the top performing community. The higher the number, the lower the relative price performance.

Q. What is the purpose of the Ranking tables?

A. The purpose of the Ranking tables is to show overall trends in community, community 'class', zone or area relative price performance, or what we like to refer to as 'money flow'.

Q. Why do the ranking values sometimes have wide swings over short periods of time?

A. At times, there may be sudden changes in ranking values for a community (e.g. one week the ranking number is 34; the next week, the ranking value is 3). These sudden shifts may or may not be significant. This could be due to one of several reasons such as:

• Short term (1 - 3 month) shifts in a community's relative desirability.



• Intermediate (4 - 12 month) shifts in money flow that impact a group or "class" of communities



• Long term (one or more years) changes in a community's political, social or economic conditions that impact a community's relative desirability.



• A limited number of properties having been sold at unusually high price per square foot values within a given time window



• One or more data errors (which we would appreciate your notifying us so that we may double check the data and correct any errors).

Q. What is your meaning of the terms 'Community Class' and 'Asset Class'?

A. The term 'community class' is used to describe communities that have one or more common characteristics. Examples could include:

• Geographic grouping by either present zones or directional groupings (north, south, east, west).



• Ranking by an independent body or institution of community services, e.g. State level school system rankings



• Socio/economic data such as average household income or number of members per household

The term 'Asset class' is used to describe a group of properties that satisfy a specific search criteria. Examples could include:

• Properties advertised through the MLS as "probate" properties or "motivated seller" properties, etc.



• Properties that our programs identify as relatively attractive listing price properties

The term 'Asset class' is used to describe a group of properties that satisfy a specific search criteria. Examples could include:

• Properties advertised through the MLS as "probate" properties or "motivated seller" properties, etc.



• Properties that our programs identify as relatively attractive listing price properties

Note that 'Asset Class' groupings are completely independent from geographic groupings. For example, our "motivated seller" charts are the result of grouping all properties advertised with any one of a specific series of key words such as "motivated seller", "transfer", "moving", "packing", "leaving the", etc.

See charts faq for more specific information on our charting and stats methodology.