Methodology

Market Category

Every metro and ZIP Primpted covers receives a single category label each month — Cooling, Balanced, or Hot — so readers can compare markets at a glance without parsing a dozen metrics.

Inputs

The label is a composite of three signals:

Inventory pressure — active listings vs. trailing 12-month average and year-ago level.
Pace — the Pending Ratio and median days-on-market.
Price discipline — share of active listings with a price reduction and movement in median list price.

Labels

Hot — inventory tight, pace fast, price reductions rare.
Balanced — inventory near trend, pace steady, price reductions in a normal range.
Cooling — inventory rising, pace slowing, price reductions elevated.

Why categories, not "buyer's/seller's market"

The "buyer's market / seller's market" framing collapses too many signals into one binary. Primpted's category labels are coarse on purpose — they summarize conditions without overstating precision, and they let readers drill into the underlying metrics on the metro and ZIP pages.