The Secret Piece Of Real Estate Data: Buyers

If you have ever considered selling your home, you have probably heard the phrase “supply and demand” more times than you can count. The real estate industry is very good at measuring supply, or the listing side of real estate. Go online today and you can see exactly how many homes are for sale in Severna Park, Arnold, Annapolis or anywhere else.

There are sophisticated tools that can tell us how many homes have sold, how much prices have changed, and how inventory compares with previous years. But one critically important piece of the puzzle has always been remarkably difficult to measure: How many buyers (demand side of the equation) are actually looking for a home like yours right now?

I believe this is the “secret” data point in the local real estate business.

The Problem With Looking Backward

Most of the housing statistics we talk about are historical. Last month, homes sold for this much. Last year, the average home was on the market for this many days. Prices have increased or decreased. All of that information is useful. But it doesn’t necessarily answer the question a seller really needs to know: “What is happening right now with buyers for my particular home?”

Buyers Are the Missing Data

There is no public website where I can type in “what is the active demand for four-bedroom waterfront homes in Severna Park between $900,000 and $1.2 million?” and see exactly how many qualified buyers are actively looking today.

That information exists, but it is fragmented and institutional knowledge, constantly changing and largely invisible to the public.

One of the best indicators we have is showing activity: how many prospective buyers are actually touring homes. ShowingTime, which tracks buyer showing appointments, has a modality called Showing Index, which is a leading indicator of current and future real estate demand. Its data is based on showing activity across a large sample of listings.

Academic research has reached a similar conclusion. Researchers studying millions of individual home-showing records found that showing activity can provide a timelier measure of housing demand than relying solely on historical transaction data.

In other words, buyers leave clues before they leave contracts.

What Are the Clues Telling Us Now?

The current market makes this question especially important. The Maryland Association of Realtors reported that in May 2026, home showings increased 4.6% from the previous year and pending sales increased 9.6% even as the market experienced a 16.4% decrease in active inventory.

That’s a fascinating combination. Fewer homes were available, yet buyers were still actively looking.

More recently, national data has shown a more complicated picture. Existing-home sales fell 1.7% in July, while the national median price reached $434,100 — up 2% from a year earlier. Mortgage rates have remained a significant obstacle, with the 30-year fixed rate around 6.69% in early August.

The lesson isn’t that the market is simply “hot” or “cold.” The lesson is that demand is constantly moving.

The Question Every Seller Should Ask

This is where sellers sometimes make a costly assumption. They assume, “There are always buyers for my house, so how much will I get for my home?” The best question that smart sellers ask is, “What is the demand for my home right now?”

Maybe there are 20 buyers looking for a home like yours or maybe there are five. Or maybe there is only one buyer and that one buyer is actively looking today – then timing of your listing could be enormously important.

Timing Is Everything

Selling a home is ultimately a matchmaking exercise. Somewhere out there is a buyer whose needs, finances and preferences may align with that house. The challenge is bringing those two together at the right time — and at an agreeable price and terms for both parties. That is why I believe the most important conversation before putting a home on the market isn’t simply, “What are the comparable sales?” It’s also, “Who is looking for this home right now?”

The answer won’t always be obvious. But if you can understand the activity of buyers in real time, you have something incredibly valuable: a better sense of the market you are entering today.

For sellers, that’s the missing piece. Because when it comes to selling your home, the most important number may be how many buyers are looking for your home.