Change in Hot Market Score
The Change in Hot Market Score (‘HMS’) from the prior year can be used to identify possible early stage emerging (or falling) markets.
A large positive number (with dark green shading) indicates improving RELATIVE market strength when compared to all other markets in the country. A negative value indicates a weakening in strength RELATIVE to all other U.S. markets.
Unusually large 1-year increases or decreases in small population markets may not be reliable due to small sample size effects; extra due diligence is warranted.
Note: the ‘Law of Small Numbers’ can produce very large ‘percent increase’ stated results if the prior period starting value was very small. While this large stated percent increase is accurate, it can easily be misinterpreted.
