Item 8.01. Other Events.
On July 21, 2022, the National Association of REALTORS® ("NAR") published on its
website monthly average (mean) sales price ("ASP") data for U.S. existing homes
for the period of January 2020 through April 2022 and annual ASP data for 2020
and 2021 that revises ASP data previously published by NAR for such periods (the
"NAR revision"). The NAR revision reflects significant increases in its ASP data
from those previously reported.
The NAR revision includes a disclaimer that: "The average price table is NAR's
best estimate. Unlike the median home price, the average home price is
influenced by outliers. Due to rapid price gains in recent years and more sales
at the very high end, there is less reliability associated with the average
price. There is a break in the average price between 2019 and 2020, and
therefore should not be compared. A newer methodology was applied in 2020 to
better account for outliers of high-priced homes."
The previously reported financial results and key business driver information of
Anywhere Real Estate Inc. (the "Company" or "we", "us" or "our") and Anywhere
Real Estate Group LLC are unchanged by the NAR revision.
In light of the NAR revision and its accompanying disclaimer regarding the
reduced reliability of its ASP data, we intend to discontinue use of NAR's ASP
data as a means of measuring our performance against the broader U.S.
residential real estate market in any particular reporting period or as a means
of calculating existing homesale transaction volume for the U.S. residential
real estate industry (historically, NAR's average sales price multiplied by
NAR's existing homesale transaction units) and our market share.
Investors are cautioned not to rely on NAR's previously reported historical ASP
data for the NAR revision period or on NAR ASP data for periods prior to January
2020. Additionally, investors are cautioned not to rely on calculations derived
from that data, including existing homesale transaction volume for the U.S.
residential real estate industry and estimates of our market share or on our
prior comparisons of performance against reported NAR data. We cannot provide
any assurances that these revisions by NAR will be the only or final revisions
to NAR's historical ASP or other data.
We have included publicly reported NAR data, including ASP for the periods
included in the NAR revision and for periods prior to January 2020, in our
public disclosures for a variety of purposes, including those noted above. These
public disclosures have been included in our Form 10-Ks, Form 10-Qs, Form 8-Ks,
proxy statements, earnings releases and presentations, and other materials
created by us, such as quarterly fact sheets and our 2022 Investor Day
presentation, including, for example, the "Current Business and Industry Trends"
section of "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and
Results of Operations" in our Form 10-Ks and Form 10-Qs and the "Housing Market
and Market Share" section of Item 1 - Business of our Form 10-Ks. Cautionary
language with respect to reliance on NAR and other industry data has been
included under "Current Business and Industry Trends" in our Form 10-Qs as well
as the section of our Form 10-Ks captioned "Market and Industry Data and
Forecasts."
While we intend to discontinue use of NAR ASP data and data derived therefrom on
a go-forward basis, for purposes of transparency we are providing the following
information derived from the NAR revision data to provide additional context of
the scope of the revision - but caution investors to refer to NAR's disclaimer
with respect to the reliability of such information:
•The NAR revision reports an approximately 48% increase in ASP from January 2020
to April 2022, compared to its previously reported approximately 31% increase
during that period.
•The NAR revision reports ASP for fiscal year 2020 as $395,600 as compared to
its previously reported ASP of $331,900 for the same period -- representing an
approximately 19% increase over the previously reported NAR data and implying an
increase in estimated 2020 existing homesale transaction volume for the U.S.
residential real estate industry to approximately $2.231 trillion using NAR's
revised ASP data as compared to approximately $1.872 trillion under NAR's
previous ASP data.
•The NAR revision reports ASP for fiscal year 2021 as $462,400 as compared to
its previously reported ASP of $368,500 for the same period -- representing an
approximately 25% increase over the previously reported NAR data and implying an
increase in estimated 2021 existing homesale transaction volume for the U.S.
residential real estate industry to approximately $2.830 trillion using NAR's
revised ASP data as compared to approximately $2.255 trillion under NAR's
previous ASP data.
We have historically measured our market share of existing homesale transaction
volume for the U.S. residential real estate industry by the ratio of (a)
homesale transaction volume (sides times average price) in which we and our
franchisees participate to (b) NAR's existing homesale transaction volume
(regardless of whether an agent or broker was involved in the
transaction)-calculated by doubling the number of existing homesale transactions
reported by NAR to account for both the buy and sell sides
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of a transaction multiplied by average sales price as reported by NAR. As
measured in a comparison to the volume of all existing homesale transactions in
the U.S. as reported by NAR (regardless of whether an agent or broker was
involved in the transaction), we estimate that, based on the significantly
increased size of market volume calculated using the revised ASP data included
in the NAR revision, our market share in 2021 was approximately 13.0% and in
2020 was approximately 12.8% rather than our prior estimates (based on NAR's
previous data) of approximately 16.4% for 2021 and 15.3% for 2020, as previously
reported in our Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. This
change has no impact on our previously reported financial results or key
business driver information.
While we are providing this update for transparency, we note again our intention
to discontinue use of NAR ASP data and calculations and comparisons derived from
such data in light of NAR's disclaimer regarding the reduced reliability
associated with its ASP data and caution investors that we cannot provide
assurances with respect to this data. As we have previously cautioned, NAR
historical data is subject to periodic review and revision and these revisions
have been material in the past, and could be material in the future.
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