The National Association of REALTORS released its Existing Home Sales report for March 2008. An "existing home" is one that is not considered new construction. A sub-headline in the report showed that the median sales price of all homes sold in March increased by 2.5 percent to $200,700.
But don't assume that the housing market is improving because of a statistic like that because in the field of Statistics, median is just the "middle" in a group of numbers.
With respect to the Existing Home Sales, the median sales price is the price point at which half of all homes sold went for more, and half went for less.
If more homes sell in high-priced San Jose, CA than in low-priced Youngstown, OH, for example, the median will be skewed to the high-side. The reverse is true, too.
Median sales price make for good headlines, but it does nothing to talk about the local market and that's where real estate is bought and sold.
(Image courtesy: New York Times)
