A single data point — the current median price — tells you where a market is. Twelve months of history tells you where it's going. Trend direction, momentum, and seasonal patterns all emerge from a time series that a single snapshot hides.

Fetching City-Level Price History

GET /price-history?city=Austin&state=TX&property_type=all [ {"month": "2024-03", "median_sale_price": 489000, "sales_count": 412}, {"month": "2024-04", "median_sale_price": 505000, "sales_count": 538}, ... {"month": "2025-02", "median_sale_price": 471000, "sales_count": 389} ]

Identifying Trend Reversals

Calculate a 3-month moving average of median sale prices. When the 3-month MA crosses above the 6-month MA, the market is likely recovering from a trough — historically a strong buy signal. The reverse (3M crossing below 6M) signals an emerging softening.

Accounting for Seasonality

Real estate has strong seasonal patterns: prices peak in May–July and trough in November–January in most US markets. Always compare month against the same month in the prior year (YoY), not against the previous month (MoM), to remove seasonal noise from trend analysis.

Reading Sales Volume Alongside Price

Price alone can be misleading. If median prices rise but sales count falls sharply, the price increase may reflect a composition effect (only premium homes selling) rather than genuine market strengthening. Strong, broad-based appreciation shows both price and volume rising together.