Here’s how the breakdown works: There are 103 cities or neighborhoods in Pierce County grouped into 17 larger geographic areas – the 17 for which I’m given MLS statistics. Which means that Spanaway and Anderson Island each get one of the 17 entries in the list but the Key Peninsula and Fox Island are part of the Gig Harbor numbers. These are how the numbers are provided by the MLS. I am unable to get a more detailed report.

The boundaries for each MLS area have been decided and are occasionally revised by real estate brokers for marketing purposes, according to MLS spokeswoman Cheri Brennan. They tend to not follow city limits and are a blending of the boundaries established long ago when the Northwest MLS combined with the MLS operated by the Tacoma-Pierce County Association of Realtors until 1997.

So that everyone knows where their area falls within the Pierce County MLS areas, here’s a look at the 17 I profile every month and the additional parts of the county that are grouped with each, plus the approximate boundaries for the four Tacoma categories.

17 Multiple Listing Service areas

Anderson Island

Bonney Lake/Lake Tapps: Also includes Buckley, Wilkeson, Carbonado, Orting, part of Sumner

Browns Point: Northeast Tacoma

DuPont: Also Steilacoom, Ketron Island, part of Lakewood, Tillicum

Eatonville: Also Greenwater, Clear Lake, Ashford, Elbe, Alder, Tanwax Lake, Kapowsin, part of Graham

Fife: Also Milton, Edgewood, Sumner

Gig Harbor: Also Purdy, Rosedale, Key Pensinula, Fox Island, Artondale

Lakewood

Parkland

Puyallup: Also Frederickson, part of Graham

Roy: Also McKenna, Harts Lake

Spanaway

Tacoma, Central: Sixth Avenue to Highway 16 and Center Street and much of downtown

Tacoma, North: Everything north of Sixth Avenue until about Pearl, then everything north of Highway 16

Tacoma, South: Highway 16 and I-5 to South 96th Street and along I-5 to around South 84th Street, South Orchard Street to Park Avenue and part of Highway 7

Tacoma, Southeast: I-5 to South 84th Street along McKinley Avenue to East 72nd Street, Park Avenue

University Place/Fircrest: Part of Tacoma