Q:  When you follow Market Watch on your Matrix home page, you may notice that once you log in, the number of new listings, back on market listings, price changes, etc. doesn’t necessarily go up and down through the day.  Does that mean there are no changes to the listing inventory?

A:  The short answer:  No.  Changes are occurring all the time as members add listings, cancel listings, sell homes or change a listing’s status in other ways. You can see those changes when you look at the detail in the lists of listing changes. You just won’t see a change in the total  showing in the Market Watch widget.

There’s a long explanation of why the Market Watch numbers don’t change, and it has to do with the default 24-hour time period and how the totals on the widget don’t refresh. The more important issue, though, is: are you missing new listings and listing changes because you have been watching the totals on your home page all day?

The best way to make sure you know about all changes to listings is to click on the link to see the hotsheet layout of changes and see what’s new – that way you won’t miss anything.

In this fast-paced market, you need the most up-to-date information available, so be sure to go to the lists of changes to find the most recent changes.