A clean starting price needs evidence, not hope or headlines.
If you are deciding what to list at, the real question is whether your starting price will pull in serious offers or quietly shrink your buyer pool. My rule in Andover, MA this month anchor your price to what buyers actually paid recently, then sanity-check it against the pace of sales.
Here is the constraint I plan around in January 2026 supply was 0.81 months for single-family and condo/townhouse/apartment homes in Andover, Massachusetts. In that same month, offers landed about 100.9% of asking, and a typical sale took 18 days. Fast markets punish overreach. Some metrics were not reported for February 2026. What is reported gives me enough to set expectations when buyers are paying about 100.9% of asking in January 2026, the risk is not that you will "leave money on the table" by pricing cleanly, it is that you will miss the first wave of motivated showings by pricing outside what the market will validate. Start by mapping your list price to the most defensible bracket, using January 2026 as your reality check a typical sale price was $650,000 for single-family and condo/townhouse/apartment homes in Andover, Massachusetts. Then set your launch plan to match the pace buyers are rewarding - if the typical sale timeline was 18 days in January 2026, I want photos, disclosures, and showing access ready before you go live so you do not waste your best window. Finally, protect leverage with terms you can stand behind from day one, because when offers are landing around 100.9% of asking in January 2026, messy last-minute changes cost you more than a thoughtful starting price.
