A method and apparatus for evaluating the strength of a specified real estate market. The market is fust identified, and then relevant information is gathered, including total number of sales S C closed within a period of time, total number of sales S P currently pending, and total number of active sales listings L currently pending. An index I is then calculated, wherein I = (S C + S P)/L. The index I is then used to evaluate the strength of the specified real estate market.