<center>http://scaredycatguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Capture.png</center> <br/>Here we are 10 years later and housing prices in many areas have recovered from the 2008 crash.  Some are ahead of that and some are behind so it makes sense to gauge the state of your local market to know where it stands.
<h2>How to Gauge the Housing Market in Your Area</h2>
There are a couple items I like to use in order to gauge a local market.  Call it a mix of data points and reports.
<h4>Reports for Ideas, Data for Decisions</h4>
Reporting from news outlets is a resource for us.  They do some of the legwork and report trends that we can then verify through a little data research ourselves to formulate decisions.

For instance, <a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://www.staugustine.com/news/20180921/record-number-of-floridians-are-forced-to-rent-in-tight-costly-housing-market" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this article from the St. Augustine Record</a> discusses the price squeeze going on in Florida, which is keeping people priced out of home ownership.

According to the article, 64.1 percent of Florida households owned homes in 2017, slightly above the current national average but down from the state’s 66.3 percent average of the past 34 years

It also cites that before the housing collapse 72.4 percent of Florida households were homeowners, a record set in 2007.

As a real estate investor whose portfolio is mainly in Florida the info in this article is relevant to me and has me pondering where we are in the price cycle and if I want to make any changes.
<h5>Quick Data Dive</h5>
You do not need to be a tech geek to find data.  For my pricing inquiry I can do a couple things.  Take a broad look at current median prices relative to the past on a site like <a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://www.city-data.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">City-Data</a> or dig a little further and look at my county's property appraiser site.

On the appraiser site I can not only look at sales price data for the area, but even within my specific communities and developments to see where prices are currently relative to sales during the housing boom peak in 2007.

After doing this, I do see most of my properties have surpassed the 2007 peak.  This made me wonder if I should consider selling something to lock in gains, especially considering I wanted to free-up capital to invest in opportunities out of state.

Considering households are already being priced out of the market and interest rates have been creeping up of late there could be the possibility of slowing demand at even higher price points.  The last thing to do now is confirm actual sales price numbers.

Seeing prices have surpassed the 2007 levels makes me feel my area is fully priced, a great time to book some profits being I have other areas offering better value to invest in.  So that is what I did, selling one of my properties on August 23rd.
<h5>Conclusion</h5>
Real Estate research does not have to be rocket science.  Grab a little bit of data to formulate a decision and then keep it moving.
<h6>Learn even more real estate investing tips in my book:</h6>
<a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://scaredycatguide.com/book-store/"><strong>ScaredyCatGuide</strong> <strong>to Investing in Rental Properties</strong></a>

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