How to Read the Lakeville Real Estate Market Like an Agent.

You see the headlines. "Prices are up." "The market is cooling." "It's a buyer's market." The problem is that almost none of those headlines are about your street. In this episode of The Home School Podcast, Tom Sommers and I walk through the numbers agents actually use to read a market, using real Lakeville data pulled straight from the MLS.

The Home School Podcast, Episode 14, with Liz Sandwick and Tom Sommers, Coldwell Banker Realty. See all Home School episodes.

The Lakeville numbers at a glance

Here is the same data we discussed on the episode, shown as a three month trend instead of a single snapshot. That is how agents read it, and it is the most important habit you can borrow from us.

Source: NorthstarMLS via Infosparks. City of Lakeville only, single family and townhouse, traditional sales (excludes short sales and foreclosures). Pulled September 14, 2026. Data deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Days on market: who has the leverage

Days on market measures how long a home sits between going active and going under contract. It is the fastest way to see who has the leverage in a negotiation. When homes sell quickly, buyers have less time to shop and less room to ask for concessions. When homes sit, buyers gain time and bargaining power.

In Lakeville, the median was 26 days in June and July and 28 days in August. A general rule of thumb agents use is that anything under about 30 days still favors sellers. The small move from 26 to 28 is worth watching, but two days in one month is not a trend. If it keeps rising over the next two or three months, that is when it starts to mean something.

One more thing to know: a median describes the middle home, not your home. A well prepared, well priced home in a popular price range can sell much faster than the median. An overpriced home can sit far longer.

List price vs. sale price: are homes priced right?

A list price on its own tells you very little. Anyone can put any number on a house. What tells you something is how close sellers actually get to that number.

Lakeville sellers received a median of 98.9% to 99.4% of their original list price over the last three months. That means two things. Homes are generally being priced close to what the market will pay, and buyers are paying close to asking rather than negotiating big discounts.

Notice we use the original list price. Some reports compare sale price to the final list price after any reductions, which makes the market look stronger than it is. Original list price is the more honest measure, and it is the one we used here.

Months of supply: the single best read on balance

Months of supply answers one question: if no new homes came on the market, how long would it take to sell every home currently for sale at today's pace?

The math is simple. Lakeville had 400 active and coming soon listings and was closing about 119 homes per month. 400 divided by 119 is about 3.4 months.

A common rule of thumb is that under about 4 months favors sellers, 4 to 6 months is closer to balanced, and over 6 months favors buyers. Different sources draw those lines a little differently, which is one more reason to watch the direction of the number over time rather than fixate on a single cutoff.

What a price reduction really signals

A price drop does not automatically mean something is wrong with the house. Most reductions mean one of a few things:

The starting price was ahead of the market. This is the most common reason. The seller priced based on hope, a neighbor's sale from a stronger month, or an online estimate, and buyers disagreed.

The home's condition or presentation did not match the price. Buyers compare everything in the same price range. If a home needs updates or shows poorly next to the competition, the price has to make up the difference.

The market shifted during the listing. Rates move, seasons change, and new competition comes on. A price that was right in week one can be a little high by week five.

For buyers, a reduced home can be an opportunity, but ask your agent why it was reduced and how long it has been listed. For sellers, the lesson is that pricing right on day one almost always beats chasing the market down. Your first few weeks bring your most motivated buyers, and a reduction later often means selling for less than a correct price would have brought at the start.

On a market level, pay attention if you start seeing reductions show up more often across your area. That is frequently one of the earliest signs that leverage is shifting toward buyers, often before days on market or months of supply move much.

Questions to ask before trusting any market stat

National headlines rarely match what is happening in Lakeville, and even local numbers can mislead if you do not know how they were filtered. Before you trust a number you see online or on the news, ask these questions:

What area does it cover?

A statewide or metro number blends very different markets. Lakeville can behave differently than Minneapolis, and even differently than a neighboring suburb.

What type of home is included?

Single family homes, townhomes, and condos often move at very different speeds. Mixing them together can hide what is happening in your segment.

What time period is it?

One month can be noisy. Agents look at a three month trend so one unusual month does not tell the wrong story.

What was left out?

Our numbers only include traditional sales. Short sales and foreclosures follow different rules and timelines, and including them can pull the averages in odd directions.

What this means if you are selling in Lakeville

The current numbers still favor sellers, but they do not reward overpricing. Buyers are paying close to asking because homes are priced close to value. Price it right, prepare it well, and the Lakeville market is still moving homes in about a month. Price it on hope and you risk becoming the listing that needs a reduction.

What this means if you are buying in Lakeville

You are unlikely to find big discounts on well priced homes, so come prepared with your financing in place. Where you may find room to negotiate is on homes that have been listed longer than the Lakeville median or have already had a price change. Your agent can pull that history for you.

The bottom line

No single number tells the whole story. Look at days on market, list to sale price, months of supply, and price reductions together, and look at them over three months for one city and one property type. That is how you read the market the way agents do.

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Equal Housing Opportunity. Market data sourced from NorthstarMLS and deemed reliable but not guaranteed.