Point Venture

Point Venture's housing market is leaning toward buyers this month, a meaningful move from last month's read. The composite score is -1.45 now, up from -2.75 last month. This is a very small market, though — only 8 homes closed in July — so treat any single month's shift here as directional, not exact.

The steadiest signal comes from the active listings, which is a bigger pool: about 67% of everything currently for sale has had at least one price cut, one of the higher rates in the metro. About 37% of what closed in July sold at or above asking.

With just 8 closings, the sold-price trend and average time-on-market both moved around too much this month to be worth stating directly — a couple of unusual sales can swing those figures hard in a market this small. The active-pool price-cut rate is the more dependable read: there's real buyer leverage here right now.

Two-thirds of active listings have already had a price cut, which is about as clear a signal of buyer leverage as you'll find in the metro — use it. Just know that with so few closings each month, you won't find much in the way of recent comps, so lean on the seller's asking-price history and current competition instead.

With two-thirds of your competition already having cut price at least once, come in realistic from day one. Comps are thin here given how few homes close monthly, so expect buyers to negotiate hard and be ready to justify your number.