Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)
National Real Estate Exam glossary · Valuation
Definition
An estimate of a property's probable selling price prepared by a licensee from recent sales of comparable properties to guide a listing or offering price. It is a pricing tool, not an appraisal, and may not be presented to a consumer as one.
Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) in plain English
Before you list a house for sale, you need a smart guess at what it'll actually sell for. A Comparative Market Analysis is how a real-estate agent makes that guess: they look at what similar nearby homes recently sold for and use those as a yardstick. It's like pricing your used bike by checking what the same model sold for online last month. Important catch — a CMA is just a helpful pricing guide, NOT a formal appraisal (a licensed appraiser's official valuation), and an agent isn't allowed to pass it off as one.
Also called: CMA
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