Trying to find out if your local market is improving? Here are some helpful tips. First, make sure to observe the job scene in your area. If more jobs start springing up, there will be a greater demand for homes. However, if there seems to be a job drought, or drop, then a turn around is not likely.

Check out the home inventory for your area. This can be provided by any local Realtor. What is the monthly inventory for homes, how long are said homes normally on the market, and what is the total amount of homes for sale? According to David Stiff, a chief economist with Fiserv Lending Solutions, the average or healthy inventory for a normal market is 6 months worth of homes, with about a 90 day duration on the market. Itś alright if your market is not exactly at those figures as places vary; what is more important is to note if your market is approaching the figures achieved prior to the housing slump. Also, to better determine the the sales data, don´t compare month by month, but rather year by year. What was the figure last June and this June?

Another key bit of info to check out is whether or not the ratio of home-price declines is slowing. The National Association of Realtors has a great link, http://www.realtor.org/research/research/metroprice , that displays the quarterly price data for 150 top metro areas. You can also ask a local Realtor for monthly stats, some can even provide those for homes in certain price ranges or zip codes. Patrick Newport, an economist that works with an economic forecast firm-Global Insight, says that "You need at least three months of smaller price drops to be confident the market is really shifting, since housing numbers are really volatile and are affected a lot by the weather,". For anyone looking to buy a home, waiting 3 months is great advice to find that bargain deal. Now for any sellers, it is best to wait longer then that. If prices start to level, they might stay at a low level for a good amount of time and it would be awhile before they rise again.