How to Write a Monthly Real Estate Market Update Post

A Good Market Update Post Is Three Numbers, One Sentence of Meaning and a Source Line

Pick one area and one month. Share three or four numbers, like median sold price, active listings, days on market and months of supply. Compare them to last month or last year. Say in a sentence or two what that means for buyers and sellers. Then add a source line that names your MLS or association and the date range, and put your brokerage name on it. If your MLS has rules on using its statistics, and most do, follow them to the letter.

That’s the format. Below is how to fill it in every month without it turning into a chore.

Why Market Updates Are Worth Posting

Most of your feed is about specific houses: just listed, under contract, just sold. Those posts show you’re busy. A market update shows you know what’s going on, and it gives people who aren’t buying or selling this month a reason to follow you.

It’s also the one post you can plan a month ahead. New listings come when they come. The monthly numbers come out on a schedule. That makes the market update an anchor for your content calendar, and in our guide to social media for real estate agents it’s one of the core content types we build from.

One more reason: it’s the safe place to talk about prices. When someone wants a number on your Just Sold post, the better answer is “here’s what homes in this area sold for last month,” with properly sourced, aggregate data. That respects your client’s privacy and still answers the question.

Pick Your Numbers (Three or Four, Not Twelve)

Your followers aren’t analysts. A wall of stats gets scrolled past. Choose a few that tell a story, and use the same ones every month so people can follow the trend.

Good choices:

• Median sold price. Median, not average. One big sale won’t skew it.
• Active listings or inventory. How much there is to choose from.
• New listings. How much came on the market this month.
• Closed sales. How many homes actually sold.
• Median days on market. How fast things are moving.
• Months of supply. A rough read on whether it’s a buyer’s or seller’s market.
• Sale-to-list price ratio. How close sellers are getting to their asking price, if your source reports it.

Pick three. Maybe four. Then stick to them.

Define the area. “Houston” is too broad for most agents. A county, a city, a ZIP code or a well-known area your MLS reports on is better. Use an area your source actually reports, so you’re not stitching numbers together.

Define the time period. “September 2026” or “the 12 months ending September 2026.” Always say which.

Define the property type. Single-family only? Including condos and townhomes? Say so if it matters.

Where to Get the Numbers

Use local data for local claims, and use the same source every month.

• Your MLS’s market statistics tool. Most MLSs have one. It’s usually the most local option.
• Your local REALTOR association’s monthly market report. Many associations publish a monthly report with an infographic, often built from MLS data.
• Your state REALTOR association or a university research center. Several states have one that publishes housing reports by metro or county.
• National data, for national context only. NAR’s existing-home sales report is fine for “nationally, here’s what happened,” with attribution. Don’t use it to describe your neighborhood.

Don’t pull numbers from a portal’s estimates, a news headline or another agent’s graphic. You can’t verify them, you probably can’t cite them properly, and your MLS has no reason to cover you for them.

Cite Your Source the Way Your MLS Wants

This is where most market update posts fall short. A graphic that says “Median price: $385K, up 4%!” with no area, no dates and no source isn’t just weak. It may break your MLS rules.

Many MLSs adopt some version of NAR’s model rule on using MLS information in advertising. In short, that model lets participants use MLS statistics as the basis for public advertising, as long as the ad makes clear the time period the numbers cover and carries a notice along the lines of: “Based on information from the [Association or MLS name] for the period [date] through [date].” Some MLSs require that exact wording. Some add a “deemed reliable but not guaranteed” disclaimer, or limit what you can show. Your MLS’s rules are what control, not the model and not this article. Look them up once, write your source line to match, and reuse it every month.

A source line that covers most situations:

Source: [MLS or association name], [area], single-family homes, [start date] through [end date]. Data deemed reliable but not guaranteed. [Your name], [Brokerage name].

Put it in the graphic (small but readable) and in the caption. Captions get cut off and graphics get cropped, so having it in both covers you.

If you practice in Colorado, take extra care with any post that recaps past sales. Talk to your broker about how your firm handles source and disclaimer language on sales-data advertising before your first post, and apply that same source-and-disclaimer habit to every past-sales recap.

Write the Caption in Plain English

The numbers go in the graphic. The caption is where you tell people what they mean. Keep it to what the data shows.

Do:

• Lead with one plain sentence. “Homes in [City] took a little longer to sell in September than in August.”
• Give each side something. “Buyers have more to choose from than last spring. Sellers who price right are still selling in about a month.”
• Invite a conversation. “Want to know what this means for your street? Message me.”

Don’t:

• Predict. “Prices will go up next year” is a promise you can’t keep. “Here’s what changed” is a fact.
• Overstate. “Prices are skyrocketing” over a 2% move is hype, and advertising rules frown on misleading ads.
• Cherry-pick. If you show this month’s median price because it went up, show it next month when it goes down.
• Describe neighborhoods by who lives there. “Great family area” or anything about demographics runs into the Fair Housing Act (42 USC 3604(c)). Describe homes, prices and places, not people. Our Fair Housing on social media guide covers the wording.
• Give advice that belongs in a consultation. “Now is the time to sell” in a public post is a sales line, not a market update. Save the advice for the conversation it starts.

A Monthly Template You Can Reuse

Graphic (one image or a three-slide carousel):

• Slide 1: “[Area] Market Update, [Month Year]”
• Slide 2: three or four numbers, each with a small “vs. last year” arrow
• Slide 3: one sentence of meaning, your headshot, your brokerage name and the source line

Caption:

“[Area] in [Month]: [one-sentence summary].

Median sold price: [number] ([up/down] [percent] from last year) Active listings: [number] Median days on market: [number]

What it means: [one or two sentences, one for buyers and one for sellers].

Curious what this means for your home? Send me a message.

Source: [MLS or association], [area], [property type], [date range]. Data deemed reliable but not guaranteed. [Name], [Brokerage name].”

Add your phone or license number where your state requires it. Georgia and Louisiana, for example, want the firm phone. See the state-by-state rules for the rest.

Formats Beyond the Graphic

The same numbers can carry more than one post a month:

• A 30- to 60-second talking-head video. Hold your phone, say the three numbers and the one sentence of meaning. Burn in captions. Put the source line on screen at the end.
• A Story poll. “Did homes in [City] sell faster or slower in September?” Reveal the answer the next day with a link to the main post.
• A neighborhood spotlight. Pair one number with a local photo and a short note about the area.
• A year-in-review in January. Twelve months of the same three numbers on one chart. This is where sticking with the same stats pays off.

Every version gets the source line and your brokerage name, including video. Alabama, for example, wants the company name at the start of a video.

How Freedom Builds Market Update Posts

Market updates are part of the regular monthly mix in our social media service. A Freedom VA builds the graphic and caption from the numbers you or your association’s report supply, puts your source line and brokerage disclosure on it, and adds it to your monthly calendar. You approve it before it goes out, like every other post. Nothing unapproved is published.

We don’t make predictions or give market advice in your posts. That’s your expertise, and it belongs in the conversations the post starts. Those comments and DMs are yours, too. We don’t reply to them. Pricing is on the service page, and you can see what a month of posting looks like in what a realtor social media manager does each month.

A market update with a source line and a date range looks like it came from someone who knows the market. One without looks like it came from a template. Same effort, very different impression.

Related Articles

• Social Media for Real Estate Agents: The Done-for-You Guide
• Real Estate Social Media Advertising Rules by State
• How Often Should Realtors Post on Social Media?
• Just Sold Posts That Don’t Overshare
• Fair Housing on Social Media: Words, Photos and Targeting to Avoid
• What a Realtor Social Media Manager Does Each Month