Housing data one big puzzle, broker says

With the glut of housing data and statistics available, it’s difficult to know which figures give the most accurate representation of home sales and prices. In Manhattan, the disparity between national housing figures, such as average home price and sales, and city numbers can be particularly noticeable. Rather than one national market, there are, in reality, many mini-markets to evaluate, according to broker Douglas Heddings, president of the Manhattan-based Heddings Property Group at Charles Rutenberg Realty. Heddings told Fox Business News that it’s unwise for both homebuyers and mortgage lenders to rely on monthly national data to determine housing trends. The data “can be incredibly confusing to the buying and selling public,” Heddings said. “The lenders looking at all of the [markets] exactly the same is a negative but it is, in fact, the case.”